Fact Sheet

Ourganda is a nondenominational, faith-based organization
serving the medical, social and spiritual needs of people who reside
in the Bundibugyo District of western Uganda. The population of the
district is approximately 350,000 people. Ourganda serves everyone
regardless of gender, tribe or religion.

 

In the United States: Ourganda Ministries; incorporated in 2017 as a 501(c)(3) not-for- profit corporation (FEIN: 82-1917107)
In Uganda: Our-ganda Health Outreach; recognized as an NGO by the Ugandan government in 2018


Mission
: To transform misery zones into flourishing zones.
Vision: To disrupt and replace the destructive triple cycle of premature death, ultra-poverty and family violence.


Mailing
Address: Ourganda; PO Box 874205; Vancouver, WA 98687
Office: 1400 NE 136th Ave; Suite 201; Vancouver, WA 98684


Website
: ourganda.org
Facebook: facebook.com/ourgandanonprofit


Board of Directors
: Seven volunteer members including a retired hospital administrator, registered nurse, chaplain, family practice physician (advisor), pastor, businessman, and logistics manager.


Contact
: Ron Gladden, Founder and Director; 360-624-7271; rongladden@gmail.com


Ugandan Employees
:
• Ten paid staff who operate two mobile medical clinics. Each team consists of two medical clinical officers, midwife, nurse, and driver.
• Ourganda also employs a full-time micro-business leader, a full-time domestic violence prevention leader and a part-time accountant.


Context
: The Bundibugyo District consists of 350,000 people in 600 villages, many of whom are disconnected from virtually all amenities. While life expectancy averages 58 years countrywide, that number is estimated to be 20 years shorter in the villages Ourganda has adopted. Few have ever seen a doctor or visited a clinic. Most have no access to clean water or soap. If a woman arrives at the local hospital in labor, she may be turned away unless she arrives with her own birthing kit. Polygamy is legal; men literally buy their wives so they think they own them. Everyone struggles to survive.


Ourganda Model
:
The Ourganda care team serves the people in distressed villages by providing health education, medical services, the building blocks for good health (water, shoes, soap, hygiene kits, birthing kits, mosquito nets, etc.), micro-business training, domestic violence protection & prevention, and spiritual encouragement. We focus our efforts on eight villages with a combined population of 10,000. Without the service of our mobile care teams, the people in these villages have no access to clean water, medical education and treatment, and no supplies for hygiene or birthing.
• Our U.S. team provides the structure & resources, and removes barriers.
• Our Ugandan medical teams take medical care to the villages. They educate, treat and respond to emergencies, and raise up wellness clubs. Our micro-business team releases peoples’ entrepreneurial potential and enables them to care for themselves and their families. Our domestic violence team protects women, collaborates with
authorities to hold offenders accountable, and changes offenders’ behavior.
• Our teams in the U.S. and Uganda constantly pursue opportunities and implement innovative strategies to help more and more villagers experience human flourishing.


Accomplishments
: Since our launch in January 2018, Ourganda has been able to:
• Hire a professional medical staff and support team to operate two mobile medical clinics serving thousands of people in eight villages.
• Establish wellness clubs in each village with nearly 4,000 fully-engaged members.
• Witness the dramatic improvement of hundreds of people who are beginning to live more healthfully.
• Sponsor life-saving surgeries for over forty villagers.
• Provide rainwater collection systems in two villages and a $24,000 gravity-flow system in another village that provides water for over 4,000 people.
• Provide water purification systems for 8,000 people (327 units).
• Donate hundreds of hygiene kits to young women, over a thousand birthing kits to pregnant moms, and nearly a thousand health kits to kids.
• Hire a full-time micro-business leader to train and equip people to lift themselves out of poverty.
• Hire a full-time domestic violence leader to protect women, engage authorities, and bring about change in offenders’ behavior.
• Conduct an 8-day medical camp led by two physicians and ten medical students from the
U.S. and U.K. along with our local medical care team (2018).
• Conduct an 8-day medical camp led by three physicians, a nurse, a physical therapist, and eight medical students from the U.S. and U.K. along with our local medical care team (2019).
• Conduct an 8-day medical camp led by a physician, physical therapist, and eight medical students from the U.S. along with our local medical care team (2022).
• Implement a comprehensive, cloud-based data-collection system to track each patient’s treatments and health.
• Distribute 150 solar-powered audio Bibles in the Runyoro-Rutoro dialect for distribution (in partnership with InTouch Ministries).
• Provide shoes for 750 children and adults.
• Administer an ongoing distribution program of vitamins for 1,700 children and multivitamin supplements for 375 pregnant moms (in partnership with Vitamin Angels).
• Launch the following micro-business clusters that employ almost 100 people: goat rearing, carpentry, tailoring, bee keeping, brick making.
• Purchase 3.17 acres and construct a beautiful Community Center campus.


Next Steps & Long Term Goals
:
• Continue to expand our sustainable, scalable micro-business movement in the Bundibugyo District.
• Make more villages safe for women and children by expanding our domestic violence prevention initiative.
• Bring clean water to the next village that suffers without water.
• Begin constructing permanent homes in our villages by January 2024 to replace the mud & sticks homes that are destroyed whenever a storm blows through.
• Transform at least 12 misery zones into flourishing zones by the end of 2029.

Updated February 8, 2023