One other challenge that the people of Zambulkura and its surrounding communities such as Sumanitinga, Tintariga, Boritinga, Jarigitinga, Tichirigitaba among others are facing is the lack of access to quality health care services. The nearest health facility to Zambulkura is located in Nalerigu about 20km away, whilst that of Sumanitinga is about 35km to Nalerigu. During sickness community members have to walk or carry the sick persons on improvised stretcher on foot to Nalerigu hospital. Sometimes on arrival at the hospital they are not able to access care the same day due to too many patients from other communities. They will be asked to go and return the next day to continue in their effort to access the much needed care. Finding places to spend the night in Nalerigu and to continue the next day becomes a huge problem and disincentive in taken an early decision to go to hospital when they are sick. This sometimes leads to complications, permanent deformities or even deaths especially in children, pregnant women and the aged.
Since 2017, Rescue and Restore Hope has been organizing health screenings in malaria, and eye screenings and provisions of eye glasses to the people of Zambulkura and surrounding communities of which about 8000 people has benefited over the period. In order to find a permanent solution we have an ambitious plan to build a 40 –bed capacity health facility in Zambulkura to serve these deprived communities. Due to lack of funding to carry out the project we decided to carry it out in phases.
PHASE 1: “TWO ROOM HEALTH FACILITY PROJECT”
In this phase, 2 rooms with 2 toilets and 1 bath room each for male and female wards are to be built to start with. With the kind support of Eva Lydeking and some donations from Denmark we started the construction of the Two Room Health Project and within one week we are at roofing level. Roofing of the2rooms will be done by next week .
PHASE 2:
In this phase we seek to furnish the two rooms and construct health staff residence, acquire all the necessary legal registration including Health Facilities Regulatory Authority (HEFRA) certificate to begin operation by 2022 depending on the availability of funds.