Karen Orlando Brings Physiotherapy to Uganda

Travelling abroad to provide healthcare to those in need is a great experience for medical professionals, and Lifemark’s own Karen Orlando took this very journey earlier this year. Karen took part in a two-week volunteer healthcare mission with Bridge to Health, founded in Toronto and operating in underserved rural communities in Uganda. The organization is comprised of medical and dental professionals who provide care, improve healthcare delivery systems, train local healthcare workers, and provide medical education to the residents of these communities.

Karen was part of a group of 30, stationed in Kabale, Uganda. Each morning they would head out to a local village; underdeveloped places with no electricity, no running water, and barely any healthcare infrastructure. Her team set-up workspaces in the schoolyards, preparing to work with locals who came from miles around to see them.

With the children gathered around, Karen and her team would start the day by talking to them about the importance of physical activity and stretching, before getting them to participate in active sing-songs like ‘hokey-pokey’ and Raffi’s classic ‘Brush your Teeth’. While the dentists would give the children fluoride treatment and dental hygiene education, the medical team would have an educational session with the local healthcare workers. All the while, the triage team of nurses were sorting the diverse needs of villagers and directing them accordingly.

The therapy team consisted of two chiropractors and two physiotherapists, providing musculoskeletal therapy for only the second year in the history of this mission. While therapy consisted of fairly basic work, the rudimentary working environment made everything challenging. The team treated everything from typical mechanical lower back pain to unaddressed chronic issues, abnormal gait patterns, and pelvic problems resulting from an average of eight pregnancies per female in the region. Treating these cases in an abnormal setting with basic supplies was quite the challenge – Karen once made a knee brace out of two plastic water bottles!

The teamwork and collaboration of the mission group has truly stuck with Karen. Becoming such a tight-knit team, united in their efforts to help these remote Ugandan villagers, improving their well-being through intuitive problem solving, has been inspirational. Lifemark was happy to facilitate this opportunity for Karen, who describes the experience as “life changing”. Learn more about Bridge to Health here, and consider joining Karen as a member of this fantastic healthcare mission!