N.L. medical teams filling a 'desperate' need for women's health care in Uganda

Thousands of kilometres from their Newfoundland and Labrador clinics, a medical team spent a week delivering essential care to women and children in Uganda at the beginning of May. 

It was Team Broken Earth's first time in the country, but according to its chief operating officer, it won't be their last. 

"The need is desperate," Michelle Murphy said. "And I'm really looking forward to returning and doing more. We just really touched the surface in a week."

Team Broken Earth was founded in Newfoundland and Labrador as a medical response to a 2010 earthquake that killed nearly a quarter of a million people in Haiti.

Since then, teams from across Canada have been travelling to other countries to provide medical relief where it's not readily available. 

This time, they had help from a group of doctors with Clinic 215, a downtown St. John's clinic focusing on women's reproductive health.

An immense need

Dr. Kelly Monaghan — the owner of Clinic 215 — described the recent medical trip as a "profound experience" and says her team came back home feeling grateful.

"I think we saw an immense need and we had started to do what we could to fill a little bit of that void," she said.

Initially, the 10-member crew thought they would focus on intrauterine device insertions, working with Save the Young Mothers Uganda, an organization focused on teen mothers and women's health. 

But after seeing the medical needs of the community, the plan grew to encompass more than just contraception, says Monaghan. They provided maternity care, sepsis treatment, miscarriage management, hemorrhage management, vaginal repairs, and sexually transmitted infections and pelvic inflammatory disease treatment.

Murphy says women in many parts of Uganda face medical inequities, like a lack of access to contraception, limited prenatal care, and a deeply rooted stigma surrounding reproductive health. 

"Women's health has been pretty low on the agenda globally," said Monaghan, who's long been an activist for women's rights and health care.

"But in places like Uganda, you really see the frank catastrophes that come with the situation where women's lives are devalued or dehumanized." 

"We're under no illusions that that little trip has changed the life course of the women in Uganda. But if you do strengthen one woman, as I've realized at Clinic 215… that has a profound impact on their family and the trajectory of their lives and communities."

Murphy, who's been with Team Broken Earth since 2013, says the organization started as a response to a single crisis, but has grown into "a movement powered by compassion." 

"This really brought me back to our grassroots," she said. "It was an eye opening week for sure. We learned lots from them as well." 

Murphy said when they travel, it's not just about providing short-term care. It's about education. 

"Working alongside of them, we did a lot of teaching," she said. 

"Which I think, you know, that's the sustainable model in any place you go. You want to teach them so that when we are away, they can still sustain their own communities." 

She says the communities they visit are grateful for the help.

"They have very little. And they want to give you something of their very little to thank you," she said. 

The Newfoundland and Labrador chapter of Team Broken Earth, as well as Monaghan, will be in Guatemala in the fall.

Both Monaghan and Murphy say they plan to return to Uganda next year. 

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