Plastic ID cards will help maintain medical records for people in Uganda
A Connecticut College student will use a $10,000 grant to maintain a permanent, solar-powered medical records and identification system in war-torn Kabermaido, Uganda.
Brigid O’Gorman, a biology major and aspiring doctor, first visited the region last year while on a medical mission at an orphanage.
She found that people in the area kept all their medical records in small blue notebooks, like the kind used for school essays.
She said others had no records at all, and many children didn’t even know their age.
"We had to estimate their ages and take their height and weight, and then we gave them their own blue books. And I kept thinking, ‘These kids are going to lose these!’" she said.
The grant, through the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program, will allow O’Gorman to purchase computers, ID printers, medical records software, and a set of solar panels to permanently power the system.
The new plastic ID cards, with the patient’s picture, name, and ID number, will also serve as proof of identification.
InvisibleChildren.com says the ongoing war in Uganda, which has lasted for more than 20 years, has been called "the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today."
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