Sarah’s Story

The impact of the maternal health services at Bwindi Community Hospital is profound. One notable success story among many is that of a twenty-four-year-old mother named Sarah, who benefited from the improved maternal healthcare services at Bwindi Community Hospital.

My name is David Brubaker. I am a family doctor from rural Western New York state in the United States. I am in Uganda for this academic year on a Fulbright Grant, teaching Anatomy and Physiology to future nurses and clinical officers at the Uganda Nursing School – Bwindi. I first heard about Bwindi Community Hospital and its associated training programs from Dr. Scott Kellermann, the hospital’s founder, who visited my hometown and told me about their origins and the excellent work they are doing in an underserved part of the world…

Non-profits working in developing countries have long used creative financing to help enable sustainably economic means by which to address poverty. The Kellermann Foundation is no different, however, the challenge of helping the Batwa people adopt creative ways of sustaining themselves is a long-term project in which small victories are always celebrated. One such success has been a microloan program that started this summer with a conversation among Batwa settlement elders in a community called Kitariro.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been known as one of the regions with leading infectious disease outbreaks. Most outbreaks have come from these countries, especially Uganda and her neighbors in the Central African regions such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

To discover and prevent future epidemics and pandemics, Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH) is working to integrate the One Health approach which aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals, and ecosystems into its diseases surveillance strategies.

With partners such as the Epicenter for Emerging Infectious Diseases and Intelligence (EpiCenter) and others, BCH has embarked on both animal and human population disease surveillance.

Empowering women such as Patience through educational opportunity in places like Uganda makes a real-world impact on their lives. The Kellermann Foundation partners with the Batwa Development Program (BDP) to prioritize providing an education to Batwa children at least through primary grade levels if not further. We have seen firsthand how much educational opportunity become life changing for young women like Patience, and we continue to invest in resources directed towards their transformation to a more sustainable and successful life.

Today, Sunday, September 29th, 2024, marks the 20th Anniversary of the formation of the Kellermann Foundation. Recognizing the faithful and sacrificial work of Dr. Scott and Carol Kellermann, Dick Panzica, Don Fultz and Robert Michelin gathered around Dick’s kitchen table with Scott to form a 501 (c)(3) foundation to oversee and guide the work of the Bwindi Community Health Center (BCHC) as it was named at the time.

There’s an old adage that says, “It’s not what we have in life, but who we have in our life that matters”— a truth on full display at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Kellermann Foundation in Nevada City, California, on August 8th. Over 250 longtime friends and supporters who know and love Dr. Scott and Carol Kellermann gathered to recognize this milestone and the Kellermann’s sacrificial and pioneering work in Uganda.

Turner Doggett likes to get his feet wet – literally. This budding young geologist was part of a mission team that spent two weeks in southwestern Uganda this summer around several Batwa settlements which ring the perimeter of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Turner traipsed up and down elevations, tested, and hiked through streams and mud, and over hill and dale, setting his sights on the water needs of the people around him. His main job was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the current need for water across four Batwa communities and make recommendations to improve it.

Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH) welcomed aboard Dr. Charlotte Aguti Ongom as its new Executive Director in May. Dr. Aguti is a medical doctor with a well-versed background in public health with experience in monitoring and evaluating large health care organizations.

Bwindi Community Hospital is a 155-bed facility providing approximately 40,000 inpatient and outpatient consultations annually including maternal health, neonatal and pediatrics, surgeries, HIV treatment, community health, dental and vision, diagnostics, laboratory, mental health, chronic care, emergency and ambulance service, and health insurance. The next generation of healthcare professionals train on-site at Uganda Nursing School Bwindi and Uganda College of Health Sciences Bwindi.

Batwa Development Program - Agricultural Initiatives

Batwa families are cultivating their own crops and growing healthy food for their households mentored by a full-time Batwa Development Program Agricultural Officer. The overarching goal is to eliminate food shortages by helping the Batwa help themselves through sustainable farming initiatives.

Executive Director Laura Corley recently shared, “Our legacy comes from within us and lives beyond us.” As we celebrate the twentieth anniversaries of Bwindi Community Hospital in 2023 and the Kellermann Foundation in 2024, we are amazed at the vast legacy which has grown in the people served by Dr. Scott and Carol Kellermann, the foundation’s staff, board, and partners, and volunteers around the globe.

It isn’t often that you get to see someone’s vision become a reality. We count ourselves blessed to be able to do so twice while visiting Uganda with the Kellermann Foundation. We first traveled to Uganda in 2002 with “Mama Diane” (Stanton) and team. On that trip, we participated in a medical clinic under a ficus tree led by Dr. Scott and Carol Kellermann. What an amazing adventure…

The Kellermann Foundation’s long-term endeavor is to help the Batwa people and their neighboring communities in Uganda with solutions which come from within the local community including discipleship, home-to-home pastoral visits, adult literacy and other locally-led initiatives.

When I think of the people who define Bwindi Community Hospital, I immediately think of Aunt Peace. If you have been to Bwindi, she is someone who you would most certainly remember. As a woman in a position of leadership, she has pointed people to Jesus and has done it in a consistent yet humble way. She may not be a doctor, but I am certain she has saved many live here in Bwindi.

The first Batwa homes were banana-leaf huts, followed by mud-stick, and then mud-brick homes which require tree cutting and burning. In 2019, the latest advancement arrived—interlocking bricks made on site by the Batwa with a man-powered machine, soil, and a prescribed amount of cement.

Education is not free for Ugandan students. School fees are far beyond the means of most families, most of whom live on less than $1 a day.

The Batwa Development Program is a comprehensive program to help Batwa families through educational initiatives.

In January, staff, donors, clergy, and Dr. Scott Kellermann were on hand to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Bwindi Community Hospital’s Dental Vision Clinic. Construction is now underway to build a 17,000-square-foot facility in partnership with the Kellermann Foundation.