My Nonprofit Reviews

When I worked with IMA as a volunteer in the Soroti, Uganda clinic, I was able to see firsthand how the organization’s work is positively transforming lives. The clinic sees hundreds of patients each day for free. It provides quality care for pregnant mothers, children who are sick with diseases like malaria or typhoid, women who want family planning services, and people who need HIV counseling and testing. Most importantly, it provides a safe and clean medical facility for women to deliver their babies with a trained midwife. Each day they are saving lives of women and children who would have no other way to access treatment. I talked with so many of the patients in the clinic, mostly women who subsistence farmed to feed their large families. Their lives were very difficult and they continued to tell me that IMA’s free medical care was saving their children’s’ lives.

Each day, I was impressed by the passionate Ugandan staff and the knowledge and professionalism they used when treating the poorest of the poor in their own community. IMA provides funds for many of the midwives and nurses’ training and it also brings in volunteer doctors and midwives from the US to complement and further that training. The result of IMA’s work is truly inspiring. The Ugandan staff is providing quality care and continues to expand the programs and the reach of the clinic because they understand the community’s needs and know how to accomplish big projects. One example I saw was the expansion of the family planning program, driven by two midwives with great ideas and passion, who used a creative skit to teach local villages about the subject. They understood the best way to teach their community, and with IMA’s support, they created a project and implemented it.

Not only is IMA providing quality care to a community in need, they are doing so in a way that empowers local citizens and educates the entire community. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to work with IMA as a medical student and I believe my experience will make me a more compassionate and aware physician. It has opened my perspective of the world and given me a shining example of how an organization that carefully designs and implements its projects with a grassroots focus can have a profound impact.

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