Many patients, including the ones we treat, come from all over the country to CoRSU to receive the care they need. Upper limb prostheses in Uganda are still rare and CoRSU tries to fill the gap by also working with different organizations. As Christine Tusiime, the head of the rehabilitation at CoRSU, said: “We want to work with different organizations because what works for one patient, does not necessarily work for another, e.g. Maria gets a prosthesis that works for her, but it does not for Kaja.” Today we measured a patient and will provide him with his first prothesis ever, after he took a 7h trip to us from Lira in the North of Uganda. He not only lost his left arm during a car crash, where multiple people were injured, he also suffered burns and broken extremities. Being a husband and also a father of two children, his life was completely turned around after the accident. To quote his father: “He cries a lot, it’s a challenge”. He was not able to work as an mechanic any longer and could not longer drive his beloved motorcycle.
We will pay for the first 5 patients, so we can help them to start a new life stage with their brand-new prosthesis. But dealing with money in Uganda is different from Germany. The people here use mostly cash and „mobile money“, which you can exchange via phone number. Nearly everyone has a mobile phone and that is why it gives them access to the digital finance system, even if they do not own a bank account.