Connecting Humans, Animals, and Ecosystems
Connecting Humans, Animals, and Ecosystems
When Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was formed in 1991, the Batwa people were evicted from their forest home; they became "conservation refugees," and today most live in abject poverty around the park edges. U.S. missionary doctor Scott Kellermann arrived in Uganda in 2000 to survey the indigenous Batwa pygmies and found his calling. What started with Kellermann treating patients under a tree eventually became the Bwindi Community Hospital, which he says now boasts one of the most mature, comprehensive health outreach programs in sub-Saharan Africa—one that addresses the region's poverty, health, and conservation ailments in a holistic way. "If you really want to help gorillas, if you believe there's human–wildlife conflict, then what you do is improve people's quality of life," Kellermann says.
Originally just for the small Batwa population, the hospital now reaches more than 100,000 people per year in a 190-square-kilometer area. Scott and his wife Carol founded the Batwa Development Program (BDP) in 2008 to help the Batwa raise funds to support themselves. They do so by weaving baskets from local materials and teaching tourists—and their own children—their traditional ways with a cultural ecotourism program called the Batwa Experience. In February 2014 the Dalai Lama honored Scott and Carol with the Unsung Heroes of Compassion award.
From the start, Kellermann understood that a hospital alone would not solve poverty and its associated health ills. He says, "It is commonly believed that hospitals improve the health of a population. This is not true. Hospitals typically treat only the sick; health care is improved only through preventive programs. Clean water, sanitation, food security, and access to health education improves health and reduces poverty."
The Batwa have always treated their illnesses with medicinal herbs, hunted wild game, and harvested honey to survive. But when the park was first established, those activities became illegal; people lost a means of sustenance, and today, accessing forest products is prohibited without a permit.
It takes time to change a culture; however, healthy people are less likely to access the forest for medicinal herbs or to poach wild animals for food, Kellermann says. If the Batwa received adequate health care and education—mosquito bed nets to prevent malaria, and information about the importance of hygiene and sanitation, for example—perhaps the reduced incidence of illness would mean less foraging for medicinal herbs. If they got adequate protein, perhaps they would not need to poach wildlife. Various organizations are continuing to address these issues.
Both the BDP and the hospital engage in weekly outreach to communities far and wide, not only collecting data on infectious diseases, births, and deaths, but also teaching people in their homes about health, hygiene, sanitation, and even conservation. "Educate the kids, particularly girls," he says. "Girls attending school tend to have smaller family sizes, less HIV, less spousal abuse, and be more likely to advocate for their rights."
In March 2014 the hospital sent four volunteers, including three Batwa women, to Tanzania to learn how to make fuel-efficient cook stoves that produce less smoke. "People do not know that pollution from firewood and open flames is hazardous. It is a silent killer," explains Birungi Mutahunga, the hospital's executive director. "[The volunteers] will be training the community to be able to make the stoves themselves and … that will minimize the need for people to go to the forest to get firewood, which brings people in contact with gorillas."
The hospital's outreach program also teaches locals how to make "tippy taps," converting water jugs and sticks into foot-operated hand-washing stations. Among nearby schools, the hospital increased the percentage of latrines with hand-washing facilities from 12% to 91% in just 12 months, and they also installed tippy taps in many homes. During the same period, there was a 50% decline in people admitted to the hospital for diarrheal diseases, says Mutahunga.
(Enlarge Image)
The Batwa are “conservation refugees,” evicted from their traditional home with the 1991 establishment of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Today the Batwa Experience ecotourism program enables the Batwa to pass their traditions along to younger generations and visitors, with the proceeds returning to Batwa communities. © Wendee Nicole
A Hospital Using a One Health Approach
When Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was formed in 1991, the Batwa people were evicted from their forest home; they became "conservation refugees," and today most live in abject poverty around the park edges. U.S. missionary doctor Scott Kellermann arrived in Uganda in 2000 to survey the indigenous Batwa pygmies and found his calling. What started with Kellermann treating patients under a tree eventually became the Bwindi Community Hospital, which he says now boasts one of the most mature, comprehensive health outreach programs in sub-Saharan Africa—one that addresses the region's poverty, health, and conservation ailments in a holistic way. "If you really want to help gorillas, if you believe there's human–wildlife conflict, then what you do is improve people's quality of life," Kellermann says.
Originally just for the small Batwa population, the hospital now reaches more than 100,000 people per year in a 190-square-kilometer area. Scott and his wife Carol founded the Batwa Development Program (BDP) in 2008 to help the Batwa raise funds to support themselves. They do so by weaving baskets from local materials and teaching tourists—and their own children—their traditional ways with a cultural ecotourism program called the Batwa Experience. In February 2014 the Dalai Lama honored Scott and Carol with the Unsung Heroes of Compassion award.
From the start, Kellermann understood that a hospital alone would not solve poverty and its associated health ills. He says, "It is commonly believed that hospitals improve the health of a population. This is not true. Hospitals typically treat only the sick; health care is improved only through preventive programs. Clean water, sanitation, food security, and access to health education improves health and reduces poverty."
The Batwa have always treated their illnesses with medicinal herbs, hunted wild game, and harvested honey to survive. But when the park was first established, those activities became illegal; people lost a means of sustenance, and today, accessing forest products is prohibited without a permit.
It takes time to change a culture; however, healthy people are less likely to access the forest for medicinal herbs or to poach wild animals for food, Kellermann says. If the Batwa received adequate health care and education—mosquito bed nets to prevent malaria, and information about the importance of hygiene and sanitation, for example—perhaps the reduced incidence of illness would mean less foraging for medicinal herbs. If they got adequate protein, perhaps they would not need to poach wildlife. Various organizations are continuing to address these issues.
Both the BDP and the hospital engage in weekly outreach to communities far and wide, not only collecting data on infectious diseases, births, and deaths, but also teaching people in their homes about health, hygiene, sanitation, and even conservation. "Educate the kids, particularly girls," he says. "Girls attending school tend to have smaller family sizes, less HIV, less spousal abuse, and be more likely to advocate for their rights."
In March 2014 the hospital sent four volunteers, including three Batwa women, to Tanzania to learn how to make fuel-efficient cook stoves that produce less smoke. "People do not know that pollution from firewood and open flames is hazardous. It is a silent killer," explains Birungi Mutahunga, the hospital's executive director. "[The volunteers] will be training the community to be able to make the stoves themselves and … that will minimize the need for people to go to the forest to get firewood, which brings people in contact with gorillas."
The hospital's outreach program also teaches locals how to make "tippy taps," converting water jugs and sticks into foot-operated hand-washing stations. Among nearby schools, the hospital increased the percentage of latrines with hand-washing facilities from 12% to 91% in just 12 months, and they also installed tippy taps in many homes. During the same period, there was a 50% decline in people admitted to the hospital for diarrheal diseases, says Mutahunga.
(Enlarge Image)
The Batwa are “conservation refugees,” evicted from their traditional home with the 1991 establishment of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Today the Batwa Experience ecotourism program enables the Batwa to pass their traditions along to younger generations and visitors, with the proceeds returning to Batwa communities. © Wendee Nicole
