I’m in my fourth year as Chairman of the Board and part of the Texas Outsiders, a group passionate about helping others. What I’m most proud of is that 14 of our members have gone on OneWorld Health outreach trips and served. Once you go on a trip and see the ongoing care they are providing, you cannot walk away the same. In these communities are people – just like you and me – but some of them have greater needs than anyone you can imagine in the United States. Just because they happen to be born in another country, why shouldn’t we care? We are all connected.

When you are there, you are struck by the level of need. There are so many children who have had accidents and don’t have access to adequate care. Oftentimes, children in Uganda have minor accidents, but because they go untreated, develop into serious issues. An 8-year-old boy was climbing avocado trees, and he slipped on the way down. For 14 months, he developed a horrendous bone infection and fractured his tibia from walking on it. Thankfully, after getting the treatment he needed at MKMC his wounds have now healed, and he is doing well. When I first met him, he wouldn’t look me in the eye because he had suffered so much. By the end of my time there, he was laughing and playing with the staff because we had earned his trust by addressing his healthcare needs.

I am an ER doctor at MUSC and recently had the privilege of serving in Uganda at the Masindi Kitara Medical Center. One patient during my time there really stood out to me. A man came in with a gastric perforation—basically a hole in his stomach. This is a really serious situation. The team there identified the issue quickly and was able to perform emergent surgery, which ultimately saved his life. If the man had waited or tried to drive somewhere farther, he probably wouldn’t have made it. This is exactly why the OneWorld Health sustainable, permanent facilities are so transformative.

Our team created the Ugandan Wheelchair Project and has been working to raise funds for wheelchairs in Uganda for many years now. In 2019, we raised $30,000 to purchase 60 wheelchairs and had them shipped to Uganda—and then the world shut down with the pandemic. We were finally able to go in April 2022, and it was the best trip I’ve been on so far. In one week, we delivered 40 wheelchairs, 10 pair of crutches, and 5 walkers and trained two staff members on how to assemble the chairs. And these devices are truly lifesaving. You may not realize that people are having to crawl through the dirt or be carried by family members because they don’t have access to wheelchairs. We can really make an impact for these people and their entire families.

At Making Home Here, our platform is all about serving and loving generously, and when we heard about OneWorld Health, we were instantly moved by the mission. We chose to fundraise for a Central Diagnostic Center in Nicaragua because of the impact it would have on the whole country by providing all medical needs under one roof. Last summer, we had the opportunity to see this new project and take our family to Nicaragua for a week of service and outreach. On the trip, our kids were so excited about helping and really gave it their all, and our oldest recently told us that his favorite part of the trip was the service days. This experience made such an impact on our family that we are already planning to fundraise for another facility and attend another service trip with OneWorld Health this summer.