The work of a Connecticut College student and a $10,000 grant from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program will establish a permanent medical records system in war-torn Kabermaido, Uganda.
Brigid O’Gorman, a biology major and an aspiring doctor, first visited the region last year while taking part in a medical mission with the Asayo’s Wish Foundation, which runs an orphanage and a medical clinic in Uganda.
The Projects for Peace grant will allow her to buy the equipment needed to build an electronic, solar-powered medical database for people in the region.
With the grant and an additional $3,000 from the Connecticut College’s internship program, she will spend eight weeks in Kabermaido this summer as she works to implement the system.
"I’m not a wiz at the computer, but I figured I could get a system and teach myself how to input the data before I go," she said.
She was inspired to create the project after seeing that most medical records in the region were kept in small blue notebooks, like the ones used by many students for essays or tests.
O’Gorman said many Ugandans didn’t even have those makeshift records, and many orphans often had no idea how old they were.
The new photo ID cards, with their picture, name and medical ID number, will also serve as proof of identification.
"What Brigid is doing is awesome," Sarah Asayo, founder of the Asayo’s Wish Foundation, said. "This database is something that will help the community get better medical care."
O’Gorman says working with the children at the orphanage has already had an impact on her future profession.
"I’ve always wanted to go to medical school, and now I think maybe I’ll become a pediatrician," she said.
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