Barlison Dental Clinic, Maya

26th & 27th February

This morning John, from Link, came to collect me to take me to his project, the Mary Ann clinic and Barlison Dental Clinic in Maya. The clinic is located in a rural location 15 minutes down a dirt track of the main Kampala to Rwanda highway. John's vision is to provide medical and dental care for the local community, as well as establish a centre of excellence as plans for new housing in the area come to completion. He is hoping that eventually the clinic will provide paid services to a more middle class population, allowing him to be able offer subsidised care to the rural communities. Uganda is a country of contrasts with large affluent houses mingling side by side with what can best be described as the shacks which provide accommodation for the less well off, who survive on subsistence farming.

Part of John's projects is to help provide sustainable energy sources for these communities, and the clinic is powered by solar panels for electricity, bio gas to produce methane from the clinics two cows and water harvested from the roof. It works well, to a point, unfortunately dental equipment requires more electricity than he is currently able to provide form his inverter, and so this either needs to be uprated, or supplemented with a small generator to allow for more than extractions.

The bricks for the clinic, and the new maternity block he is currently building, have all been made by volunteers from the soil dug for the foundations and water tanks. The soil is compressed into bricks  in a hand press and then dried in the sun. They are not fired in a kiln, a common practice seen along the roadsides of all Ugandan roads. John's bricks also interlock, so there is no need for cement.

Currently all he has is a dental clinic, fitted with a Dentaid chair. He has a self contained portable dental unit supplying suction, scaler and drill, as well as an amalgam mixer and light curing unit. Unfortunately without more power he is mainly limited to extractions and simple fillings. John is not a dentist, so he employs a dentist from the teaching hospital on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. We saw three patients on each of the two days I was the, so I fear he has a long way to go to reach his dream, especially with the typical African lack of urgency. If it happens it will be a great resource, I wish him luck.