Jackie Lallier
Wyoming Reporter

Why would a young man from a small Minnesota community take a trip to the third world country of Uganda in Africa? Jeff Eiffler tells us why:

Jeff was born and raised in Wyoming Township, graduated from Chisago Lakes Senior High School and is presently a pre-med student at St. Johnís University.

This past June the Abbey sponsored a trip to Uganda and chose three students from St. Johnís and three from St. Benedict with the goal to witness the role of the church in action and how the AIDS epidemic is being handled.

For part of his trip, Jeff lived with a Ugandan family for two weeks out in the countryside in a district known as Masaka.

For a week Jeff worked in an AIDS clinic through TASO (The AIDS Support Organization). During this time he accompanied doctors on their rounds as they scrutinized symptoms and faced the challenges presented by the various patients.

Then a week was spent working with Kitovu Mobile AIDS Home Care that was essentially an AIDS counseling clinic where the people too sick to travel were able to be reached.

Many nurses were available during this service and prescriptions were filled. Jeff was called upon to help in this regard by using his expertise in this field. Both TASO and the mobile unit are NGOs (non-governmental organizations).

The doctors Jeff worked with were educated in Uganda but their medical school is different from the US. Their pre-med is the first two years of medical school and the last two years is the actual medical schooling.

The AIDS epidemic in Uganda is down from 15 percent in 2005 to 8 percent in 2006.

Jeff feels sure AIDS has something to do with the low life expectancy of 45 years, as well as malaria and other diseases.

He said there are many, many AIDS orphans. He visited three orphanages just for AIDS children while there that were established and operated by international and NGO groups.

It is Jeffís understanding that children are allowed to attend school for three years with no expense. If they want to continue, then they must come up with the money which is about $600 a year.

A big concern of the orphans that he kept hearing again and again was how they were going to be able to pay the ìschool fees.î

The Government

President Yoweri Musevevi has been in power since 1986 and recently had Parliament amend the constitution to abolish presidential term

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limits.

This might seem to be a manipulation of the system to allow him to stay in power but it also appears he is trying to focus on getting more international investment in the country as well as strengthening relations with the West.

Jeff did hear people complain the president is not doing enough to solve social problems but that pride is also an issue with the government being too proud to want to accept help.

The Lordís Resistance Army is run by a man named Joseph Kony who has kept up rebellion in the northern part of the country for the last 20 years and has been in hiding in Sudan and Congo.

To bolster the number of soldiers in his ìarmy,î he raids towns and kidnaps the children to make soldiers of them.

Because of this, the government moved many people out of their villages and placed them in temporary camps where living conditions are supposedly horrible.

This has led to lots of disease and most of the new AIDS infections take place in these camps.

Jeff and his co-workers were not allowed to go to any of these camps as it is too dangerous.

The last Jeff heard was that the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Kony and it is hoped this rebel army will be gone by the end of this year.

The 9/11 attack on the US alarmed the Uganda government in that they immediately ìclamped downî on potential terrorist elements. The leaders feel this necessary precaution has kept radical extremists in check.

Growth and development

Jeff said much of the agriculture is sustenance farming but there are getting to be more and more exports, especially of fruit and flowers to the US and Europe.

There is lots of fishing since the country borders Lake Victoria. Some of the beaches on Lake Victoria are very beautiful and the national parks were like ìstepping into a National Geographic film.î

Jeff also said with some work on transportation infrastructure and a little marketing, the natural resources of Uganda will make them lots of money - and they know it.

Personally, Jeff heard from people on how their lives have been changed because of counseling, food and medical care.

During his visit, he talked to students who told him how US involvement has changed their lives. He feels the most important impact is how simple nutrition, medicine and education has made such headway in the lives of the people.

By providing teaching aids, then giving the Ugandans the ability to continue caring for themselves, they will have the power to thrive without outside aid.

He said it was very gratifying to personally see the results of the monetary effort going directly to the people. He also observed the country has become very energy conscious and was especially impressed with the very good cell phone system.

Jeff found Uganda to be a beautiful country full of good people and while it has some difficult problems, there is tremendous potential for attaining high goals.

He quoted Winston Churchill referring to Uganda as ìThe Pearl of Africa.î

For more information about Jeffís trip or to help through donations, Jeff can be reached through e-mail at JEiffler@aol.com.

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