In rural Uganda, there is only one doctor for every 22,000 people and many people cannot access health care. The Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB) is working to improve rural healthcare by running a network of non-profit hospitals and training facilities across the country.
We have supported UPMB’s work by setting up seven medical libraries, providing brand new books and training staff in how to run their new libraries.
2,031 medical students benefit. Find out more
Professionals and teachers can now access to up-to-date medical information and the impact has been immediate.
“The donations have benefitted us as teachers as we are getting updated information which we are passing on to our students. In turn, the patients in our hospitals are benefiting from the latest practices and good quality of care from us.”
– Amos Aine, instructor, Bwindi School of Nursing and Midwifery
The medical books we send improve the care that individual healthcare providers can offer and contribute directly to the education of the next generation of healthcare professionals.
In Sierra Leone, the Nixon Memorial Hospital trains over 75% of nurses for Sierra Leone’s Eastern region, yet it had so few books and teaching materials that it was threatened with closure because it did not offer sufficient resources for trainee nurses.
Today, the hospital remains open thanks in part to the 1,000 brand new medical books we provided in 2017. These books are providing up-to-date information that trainee nurses require to earn their qualifications.
The textbook support from Book Aid International was a reprieve for the nursing school, and without doubt, the hospital itself. All 260 students training to be nurses will no doubt benefit from them! Read the hospital's story
Malawian midwife Fikanayo has used books we provided at every stage of her education, from primary school right through to the books she uses today while studying for her PhD in community healthcare. Books are crucial to allowing her to care for some of the country’s most vulnerable women and to her current research on public health and diabetes. She hopes to provide better information on self-care for diabetic patients.
If the books were not here it would have been very hard. The books elaborate and make it easier. The internet might tell you something but books are better. They give you more information. Read Fikanayo's story