This June, I spent two weeks in rural Uganda as part of my
graduate studies in public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I
traveled with eight other students and faculty to work in a private health
clinic called Engeye (
www.engeye.org).
During our time there, we conducted interviews and focus groups in the
surrounding villages, surveying people about their access to health care and
challenges they face in staying healthy. It was a wonderful opportunity and I
learned so much about the Ugandan health care system and the particular
challenges and strengths of a very rural and very poor country.
You may wonder how, or if, this project relates to my work
at the Lincoln Park Community Shelter. There are more commonalities than you would
think! Traveling to a developing country has only reinforced my belief that
health and housing are inextricably related. You simply cannot have one without
the other. Stable, decent housing is essential to maintaining good health; our
Community Clients, who often live on the streets, have the hardest time
maintaining a connection to regular health care and taking care of their own
basic health and hygiene needs. Similarly, good health is essential to
maintaining housing; one of our current Guests became homeless because the mold
in her dilapidated apartment was making her too sick to stay.
Similarly, in rural Uganda, housing and health are closely
related. One of the biggest health problems plaguing the patients of Engeye
Clinic is persistent malaria, especially affecting children. Although no
vaccine is yet available, one effective preventative measure is to sleep under
a bed-net, in a house with screened windows, to prevent mosquito bites. Another
persistent problem is gastro-intestinal bacteria and parasites that cause
disease – a result of lack of clean water and insufficient sewer systems. In
the communities where I was working, the quality of housing was very much
affecting people’s health! Similarly, if you are consistently cycling between
wellness and health, it is difficult to work the fields and earn money to
improve your housing.
Another similarity is the innovation of using mobile
technology to reach those who need services the most. In rural Uganda – where over
a 1/3 of the population owns cellular phones, and most have access to one
(despite having no electricity or running water) – volunteer community health
workers are using cell phones to send SMS messages to the government Ministry
of Health on a weekly basis – recording the number of births, deaths, and other
statistics and allowing real-time data for the first time. Here in Chicago,
technology is becoming increasingly important as cell phones and internet
become more widely available, even for those who are homeless. Libraries offer
free internet access, and the U.S. government has a program to provide free
basic cell phones to those who qualify. Enrollment for housing wait lists is
increasingly virtual, and most people even find LPCS through the Internet these
days. Online applications and resume postings have long been the standard for
job searching, and new smartphone technology is even tracking open positions to
connect job seekers more quickly (check out
www.kauzu.com).
In this way, mobile technology is becoming a sort of equalizer, empowering
those in poverty to access information and resources that would otherwise be
unavailable to them.
As Uganda – like many developing countries – urbanizes (more
and more people are moving into cities to seek work), housing quality will
become even more essential as density increases faster than the infrastructure
can handle. Already, I saw many people sleeping outside on the streets of
Kampala, including children. Regardless of where in the world this scene
occurs, it is unacceptable. My recent work in Uganda and my daily work at LPCS
have a common goal: a world where everyone has a roof over their head and a
basic guarantee of safety in order to fulfill their potential.
By: Erin Ryan, Executive Director
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At the source of the Nile River, Jinja, Uganda
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