US Doctors For Africa has partnered with Outreach To Africa (OTA), a Ugandan charity ministering to the needs of children orphaned and/or disadvantaged by HIV/AIDS. OTA provides primary health care as well as educational, social, spiritual and economic services to children in need. US Doctors For Africa has committed to sending medical professionals to provide care and treatment to the people in Uganda served by OTA.

Uganda has already experienced dramatic success in the decline of the HIV infection rate. Currently, about 4.1 percent of the population is living with HIV<1>, down from over 30 percent in the early 1990's<2>. The success is promising, but there is more work to do. Currently, there are over 940,000 children who have been orphaned by AIDS in Uganda.<3> The task of raising these children has fallen on the financially burdened, often aged, relatives, who are unable to meet additional obligations. The lack of access to proper medical care contributes to the pre-mature death of HIV positive adults and, consequently, the growing number of children orphaned by the AIDS virus.

UUS Doctors for Africa will send a medical team to provide care, assess needs, develop programs and build capacity for OTA projects. Additionally, USDFA volunteers will educate and train OTA medical staff. USDFA is currently focused on the following OTA projects:

• MEDICAL CENTER, RWEBISENGO VILLAGE - Bundibugyo District, Western Uganda, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo. The district has a population of 300,000, with 30,000 living in Rwebisengo village. Ethnic warfare between the Lendu and Hema tribes has recently swelled its refugee population. OTA is establishing a medical center with in and out patient facilities, an operating theatre and a laboratory.

• DIAGNOSTIC CENTER, FORT PORTAL - Kabarole District. Fort Portal has a population of 300,000; Kabarole District has a population of 995,000. Local doctors in Fort Portal have made an urgent request for a diagnostic center. In response, OTA is providing the first full body X-ray and Ultra Sound machines to these districts. This center will serve approximately 3 million people from the surrounding districts.

• MEDICAL CLINIC, NATEETE - suburb of Kampala. Nateete is a poor, congested slum with a population of 140,000 and no medical clinic. OTA has already established an elementary school for 120 orphans. The clinic proposed for Nateete will serve the community, the school for orphans and students in the surrounding area.

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<1>Avert.org, "AIDS and HIV Statistics for sub-Saharan Africa" taken from UNAIDS "'Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic, July 2004"
<2>Ibid
<3>Ibid