Building a Health Center in Uganda

By Renee Batti, Almanac News Editor 

Publication source: https://tinyurl.com/pu4bqd5

In the era of big-buck philanthropy in which six-figure donations get you a seat at the table and eight figures will mean your name's on the building, a $1,300 check almost doesn't seem worth mentioning. Unless the money was raised, a few coins at a time, by third-graders over a two-week period. 

Such is the case with third-graders at Laurel School, who saved their allowances, worked around the house, and staffed lemonade stands to contribute to a $20,000 fund for the construction of a health center in Uganda. 

Leading the effort was former Laurel School and Menlo-Atherton High School student Helen Seely, who through the nonprofit Mama Hope spent four months this year in Budondo, Uganda, to help residents there realize their dream of establishing a health center in the community. 

The appeal to third-graders at the K-3 school in Atherton was a natural: Helen's mother, Priscilla Seely, teaches one of the six third-grade classes there. All six classes participated, which adds up to about 120 students, the elder Ms. Seely said. 

Helen Seely visited the campus recently, equipped with a PowerPoint program to show the students "the progress you helped make — the impact that you had ... and the lives that you helped change" in the tiny African village. 

Others were inspired to support the $20,000 fundraising effort after hearing about the third-graders' contribution "because people were so inspired by your dedication," she told them during the morning assembly at the school. 

Ms. Seely earned a college degree in African languages and literature several years ago, but when she turned 25, she "had a serious quarter-life crisis," she said in an email. Rather than putting her degree to good use and immersing herself in the "cultures, perspectives and languages that I had fallen so deeply in love with," she had felt compelled to "get a real job." 

But dissatisfaction caught up with her, and she quit the job, found Mama Hope, a San Francisco-based organization that supports African communities, and won a Global Advocate Fellowship, eventually traveling to Budondo to help residents create the health center, she said. 

Called the Suubi Health Center — "suubi" means "hope" in the Lusoga language — it had been the dream for more than 30 years of Bernard Mukisa, a Budondo native who had "seen too many women die during childbirth, too many children suffer with malnutrition," Ms. Seely said. "He has been a dedicated social activist using theater, performing arts and education to improve his community while gaining the respect and trust of his village. 

"Mama Hope discovered his leadership and passion, and decided to invest in his dream. They saw that Mukisa was the man who was going to transform his community." 

Ms. Seely lived with him and his family in Budondo, extending her three-month stay there for another month before coming back to Menlo Park in late May. 

At the Laurel assembly, she told the children about what it was like to work with the Budondo residents who constructed the health center in a village with no electricity or running water, where bricks had to be hand-made from sand collected in a nearby lake, and a water tank had to be built to collect rain water to supply the health center. She talked about how the community launched an effort to grow passion fruit to sell as a way to support the health center, creating a revenue stream to pay for medical supplies, drugs and salaries. 

Helen's mother involved her students in a math project to determine the capacity of the water storage tank being built by the villagers. "We happened to be working on concepts of volume in our math lessons at the time," she said in an email. Helen sent the class the dimensions of the pit, "and we got out our calculators to compute the cubic volume." 

The project was exciting for the students, she said, because they felt involved, and it allowed her "to show them how math is so useful and important in daily life." 

Helen Seely, now 26, said she intends to return to Budondo. "I've never been involved in a project that has had more impact or meaning than with the Suubi Health Center," she said. 

"Because I believe in their vision, I have committed to raising an additional $5,000 on top of my $20,000 goal. I have seen the direct impact of the funds raised, and will do everything I can to support their efforts." 

Go to stayclassy.org/suubicenter to learn more about the project or to donate.

Leaving is Easy

It is just a concrete floor and a metallic window frame, a bed and two wooden benches. A room. Fabric and jewelry and mosquito netting shades and lights four walls. A breeze that sighs. That's it. Nothing more. So put away what will fit, leave the structure behind. Here, let me help you. 

Just pack. Sit down and sort through what you collected. Your new suitcase is there, laying open, empty. Don't forget that ring she gave or the gold to remember, the pages of the diary torn out and restarted and thrown down in frustration, or the ones read and reread for appreciation. The basket holding an apology, the bracelet, the book. These are only things. All you need to do is pack them away. 

Let's make the bed. The mattress that held your body's impression; every time you lay down you sank a bit lower, got a bit closer, settled in a bit deeper. Sheets were scrambled and layered without their corners tucked in; remember how you liked getting tangled with their cooler side? But now it's time. Let's make the bed. 

All you need to do is sweep the floor. It's the one that forever imprinted dust on the soles of your always dirty feet, held hesitation and courage, bared the weight of impossible choices and endless questions and unbridled discovery. A slate to lay the ebbs and flows that swelled from shaking toes to bouncy curls. It knew that weight, felt those impressions, breathed in cracked earth. All we need to do is sweep it blank. 

Just draw the curtain and close out the light.  The one that embraced in the mornings and scorched in the afternoons and invited comfort in the evenings. Because it felt everything. Saw every inch of you. Held you closer when you decided to slip away and let you go when you found that your feet could run. The smiles it touched, lips it graced. Just shut out the light. 

Please just close the door. It was only the wood that kept you shut away but led you closer, melodies and words and tears and awakening. Forget what happened there in between the frames. The entrance into things that were new; what got shattered and thrown and put together whole in astounding ways. The handle that creaked and turned towards you revealing smiles and chai and family and life. All you have to do is close it. 

Walk away now. Please, just go. Say your final words and give your final love because it's all finished.  Maybe a deep embrace if you feel like your heart might stay behind to beat stubbornly among the banana leaves, your passion to burn with the three-stone stove, your spirit to dance with the songs at night, your laugh to play with lessons under the stars. Don't fall apart when you look at them, the eyes saying a brave goodbye. How could you have known that your soul would give too much? Or that it would be so perfect? Stand up tall. A reassuring smile. Wrap indifference around you. A momentary spell to forget the agony of it all slipping into past. You can do it. Please, one foot then the next.  Yes. That's it. Walk away. 

See?

Leaving is easy.

This Is YOUR Impact

My dearest friends and family, my heart pours out to you

Your donations helped change a community. Your support helped change my life. After four months in Uganda working on the Suubi Health Center, I have finally returned to California. Budondo has taught me so much about love and dreams and perseverance, about patience and respect and laughter. Suubi filled me with a purpose and meaning that I had never felt before. Leaving was impossible and my heart continues to ache. The only solace I find in saying goodbye is the certainty of saying hello again--the promise of the future.

Take a look at what we have accomplished together. I am so proud of our efforts and I am so excited for the work to come. We will never stop pursuing our dream (yes, it is our dream now) or joining hands with the people who make all this possible. To continue your relationship with the Suubi Health Center, visit our donation page: www.stayclassy.org/suubicenter. I have pledged to raise an additional $5,000 because of how deeply I have fallen in love with Suubi's vision. I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you.

This is your impact:

The Suubi Health Center's complete transformation: 

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Passion fruits, hardwood trees and green peppers are planted and growing strong as part of our sustainability initiative

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Suubi's water supply system will be collecting and filtering rain water this season

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We have broken ground for the first ever Theater Hall. This community center will provide a platform for health workers' conferences, women's empowerment forums, public health seminars while generating sustainable income for Suubi

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The Suubi Women have been fitted for uniforms and are ready to assist our health professionals in the clinic and out in the village

We welcomed the newest advocate, Latifah Kiribedda, to Budondo. I am so happy to pass the torch on to such a brilliant young women, the first Ugandan Global Ad​vocate, who has vast experience in public health. She will help Suubi surpass all expectations. So proud of you!

​​But most importantly, you believed in the dream of thousands of people. You invested in their future and you changed their lives forever

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This is patient work and the Suubi Health Center's license is still being processed. Keep checking in for the center's long awaited grand opening announcement coming soon! I will also continue to share stories, pictures insights and impact from the past four months of my life in Uganda plus Latifah's upcoming progress.

​As always, we are endlessly grateful. Tweyanziza ino.

Love and thanks from Helen Seely and the Suubi​ Community