UNC Project-Uganda: UNC Project Uganda Partners with the GE Foundation

About UNC Project-Uganda

In 2004, a group of UNC physicians established the Amal Murarka International Pediatric Health Foundation in memory of their colleague, Dr. Amal Murarka, who died unexpectedly in 2003. The foundation sent a medical team to Kampala to establish the country's first pediatric intensive care unit at Mulago Hospital, Makerere University, where Dr. Murarka had previously conducted research. Subsequent work in 2007 and 2008 focused on pediatric cardiac surgery. The foundation not only built a cardiac ICU, but also performed a total of 21 life-saving pediatric cardiac surgeries.

In 2008 the foundation partnered with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases to establish UNC Project-Uganda.

Mission

The UNC Project-Uganda was established to support sustainable delivery of compassionate and competent health care to infants, children, and adolescents in Uganda; to improve the medical knowledge of the Ugandan health care workforce through in-country training and a physician exchange program; and to provide advanced medical equipment, medications, and services necessary for the delivery of compassionate and competent pediatric care in Uganda.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

UNC Project Uganda Partners with the GE Foundation

UNC Project Uganda announces an important partnership with the GE Foundation to continue to advance the clinical and educational goals of the program. Funding will allow the team to organize a 5th mission in late Winter 2011 to continue to provide corrective surgery to children with congenital heart disease and to train the Ugandan healthcare team to perform these operations independently. In addition, the first steps in creating a regionalized healthcare delivery system are being established. These initial efforts revolve around providing joint educational programs between UNC, Mulago Hospital, and Mbarara Regional Hospital.