The Saga of Vincent

How did that happen? How did a boy who was born and raised in Sarakihombya become a medical clinical officer on a team that saves and extends lives in Sarakihombya?

Scene 2: Vincent is 7 years old, the youngest of eight children. He does not own a book, a bowl, or a ball. Five days a week, he walks 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) to and from school with no lunch and no water to drink. In the evening, he helps with some chores before going to sleep on a dirt-floor bed covered with discarded rags.

Scene 3:  Vincent’s brother is hired as a policeman and pays for Vincent to finish primary and then secondary school. To use Vincent’s words, “life falls apart” when his brother dies and his mother can no longer pay his school fees. Back in his village, he plants cocoa and vanilla in an effort to help his family survive.

Scene 4: It’s 2004 now. Vincent’s mom roasts some unfortunate fish over orange flames. Mom and the kids assemble into an irregular circle to share the meal. Flame-broiled fish is a treat. But something goes wrong. A fish bone lodges in Vincent’s throat. He chokes and gasps but can’t get it out. His mom frantically thrusts her fingers down his throat. Vincent gags. He can barely breathe. His eyes water, his throat tries to scream, and he wonders if he will survive.

Scene 5: Maybe a doctor can help him! There is no road to his village so several men carry him for hours to a primitive hospital. No one can help him. In urgent desperation, Vincent prays, “Dear God, if you save my life, I will work, save my money, go to school, and become a doctor. Then I will go back to my village and save people’s lives.” Three days later, the bone dislodged without human hands. “It was God,” Vincent declares.

Scene 6: The passion behind the prayer never faded. Many years rolled by, but in 2016, phase one of Vincent’s prayer came true. He graduated from Fort Portal School of Clinical Officers as a licensed medical clinical officer (just a step away from a doctor). No jobs exist that allow him to travel into forgotten villages and use his medical training to save lives, but he continues to believe that God will allow him to live out the rest of the prayer he had prayed so many years before.

Scene 7: God did. In January 2018, Ourganda was launched. We commissioned a mobile medical clinic staffed by a professional care team to take education, treatment, and love into forgotten villages. We didn’t know Vincent’s story, but someone recommended him as a man of integrity, knowledge, and skill who would unselfishly serve people in need. We interviewed him one January afternoon and immediately offered him employment as one of our first employees.

Current Scene: Every day now, Vincent lives out his dream. Not only is he a medical clinical officer, but he gets to serve people who cannot get to a clinic or a hospital. He does the very work he prayed that God would save his life to do. Every Wednesday, he and his team drive on a new (primitive) road into the very village where he grew up, the village of Sarakihombya, in an all-wheel-drive van stocked with medications and supplies. They erect a three-room tent, offer spiritual encouragement, teach health classes, then spend the rest of the day delivering life-saving medical care wrapped in kindness.

We are proud of our team. We are thankful that God heard Vincent’s prayer from that lonely hospital bed. We are delighted that God is using Ourganda to answer the prayers of many others. And we’re pretty sure that somewhere in those villages is the next Vincent or the next Doreen — a young man or woman who will be inspired to eventually pass along the blessing they have received.

This is what Ourganda is all about: Answering prayers, saving lives, delivering hope, and creating a better future for the people we love in the Bundibugyo District.