Ugandan Nurse Makes a Difference

My name is Komugisha Boniconsilla. I am 27 years old. I have one brother and three sisters.  In 1993, my family was forcefully evicted from the Mpokya forest reserve by the Ugandan government, and we were sent to the Kibaale district of Western Uganda. My family was relocated to an uncultivated area of land in the bush, and in order to survive, I had to withdraw from school and help my family work on the new land. Unfortunately, my father became ill with an easy to contract malaria fever, and because we did not know where to go to receive treatment, he died shortly after we reached the new area. This was a very terrible experience for my family; losing the head of the family at a time when we needed him most.

My mother wanted to send me back to school to learn Catechism, but we did not have enough money for the school fees. A priest of the local parish knew of our family and offered me a scholarship to attend the Catholic school. I returned to school in 1997, and I was so grateful to have found someone to pay my school fees, allowing me to study and learn. Above all, I continued to love and thank God for the blessings He had given me thus far.

After my examinations, I decided to pursue a nursing career. Many pregnant women in Western Uganda die while in labor, simply because there was no access to medication. I empathize with people who die from such preventable causes, so I decided to train as a comprehensive nurse (as well as a midwife) to learn how to save lives of the disadvantaged.

In 2009, I completed my nursing courses and started working at the St. Ambrose Center, at which I directed a mothers’ voucher program designed to help mothers access care during pregnancy, labor, and after child birth. Before the program, the Center would admit about 25 mothers into the maternity ward per month. With this program, we were able to treat between 80 and 100 mothers in one month, allowing us to save many lives. Women gave testimonies of how fortunate they were for this program, because giving birth was increasingly dangerous in their villages due to the scarcity of maternity care available.

Despite the number of achievements brought about through the voucher program, we have also experienced a lot of challenges. We experienced a lack of space at the maternity ward, a lack of medical equipment, and a lack of personnel.

I am a happy nurse/midwife, and very satisfied with my job. I am delighted to be a part of the goal of providing safe motherhood and healthy babies. I support Every Mother Counts, and I want to be a part of the movement to combat maternal mortality.