Third- and fourth-year Nursing Program students and second-year Social Service Worker Program students are travelling to Uganda to volunteer at Sunrise Centre as part of their studies. To improve care at the centre, they are fundraising to purchase a portable ultrasound machine and train staff.
Students from Selkirk College will be travelling with fourth-year students in the Social Work Program at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology.
This equipment is being purchased from Imaging the World and will go a long way to support the roughly 1,000 mothers who access prenatal care from the centre each year.
Sunrise Centre is a not-for-profit grassroots organization that provides health care, education and outreach services to members of the surrounding rural community. It has ties to the Kootenays—one of its founding board members now residing in Salmo and brought the connection to Selkirk College. Sunrise Centre's Grace Family Clinic offers affordable health care to local community members, which includes prenatal, delivery and postnatal care; family planning; immunizations; laboratory services, including HIV testing; patient counsel; low-cost pharmaceutical services; and child health checkups. The centre is a staple of the community through its provision of compassionate and affordable health services that save lives and improve the health of the community.
Over the past two years, students—including fourth-year students in the Nursing Program at College of the Rockies—have engaged in a variety of fundraising initiatives and have almost reached their goal: only $3,000 of the $17,000 is needed to make this essential equipment a reality.
Help them reach their goal!