Poland in Kenya

Thanks to the implementation of the said Small Grant, St Francis Hospital in Buluba could renovate and equip training rooms, residential and dining buildings for trainees, as well as an office building belonging to the administration of the Wanda Błeńska Tuberculosis and Leprosy Training and Rehabilitation Center. That improved the training and accommodation conditions for the several hundred participants in the training courses on leprosy and tuberculosis treatment in Buluba annually, which in turn increased the prestige and efficiency of the facility. The place is still being visited by doctors interested in the treatment of leprosy from all over the world, as well as by tourists from Poland wishing to see the place where the Polish doctor lived and worked. As part of the project, a library was set up in Buluba, where the administration of the center displayed materials on diagnosis and treatment of leprosy developed years ago by dr Błeńska. On the walls one can see photographs of leprosy patients taken by dr Błeńska, who is such a way documented the progress in the treatment of the disease.

St Francis Hospital of Buluba currently employs approx. 200 employees. It was opened in 1934 by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa as a center for the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy. Located out of town, directly on the shores of Lake Victoria, it was a place of isolation and care for patients affected by leprosy, a tropical infectious disease, during its peak in East Africa. Since the 1950s, at the initiative and with the support of dr Błeńska, the activities of the newly established health center were expanded to include training of physicians, medical students, nurses, and medical assistants in the then modern methods of working with leprosy patients. Although, due to the high demand for a multi-specialty health center in the region, the leprosy hospital was converted into a general hospital in 2003 and expanded to include, among others, the following facilities: gynaecological and obstetrics department, rehabilitation and stomatology clinics, to this day Buluba is one of the only three centres in Uganda for the treatment of leprosy patients. Patients with relapses or those who have not been helped in other centres come to Buluba. Wanda Błeńska Tuberculosis and Leprosy Training and Rehabilitation Center, named ater the famous Pole, continues to receive students and physicians from the region (Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan) and other parts of the world (especially Germany and the United States), whom are trained in the treatment of leprosy and other tropical diseases.

Attaché Iwona Lula paid a monitoring visit to St. Francis Hospital in Buluba December 21, 2020.