I was blown away by the model used by the healthcare workers in Kabale. Working in partnership with both medical and traditional healers, CFHI (and KIHEFO) fights the cycle of poverty, ignorance, and disease.
I made lifelong friends and learned so much. The staff were so helpful, answering our questions even after a difficult procedure or a long day. I always felt welcomed and like I was part of something bigger than myself. My only complaint was that the trip was too short, and that was my own fault. :) I hope to return soon.

Incredible experience! The end of our orientation day consisted of experiencing a baby being born at the Women and Children Clinic. What a way to finish up orientation day. The midwives were excellent and explained the stages of the birthing process to us throughout and took time afterwards to discuss with us. The actual hands-on experience gained while at KIHEFO was priceless. I recommend CFHI intensives to any students. Learned so much in the two weeks.

My time in Kabale, Uganda was spent with the Kigezi Healthcare Foundation KIHEFO specifically in the general clinic. I am a medical student and found the clinical component of my program to be very educational. There was also a cultural component as staff made sure to share their traditions, heritage and history. Time was spent in the surrounding villages providing health care and educational seminars as well.

The program provides ample time for tourist activities like safari and sight seeing. Overall the program was very structured and planned out to provide a safe and comfortable experience. This is especially beneficial for those who are traveling abroad for the first time.

CFHI provides a nice organized introduction into big issues in health care in Uganda and East Africa. If you have any interest in HIV/AIDs, tropical medicine, maternal child health issues, food insecurity and undernutrition, you will learn from this program. Even better, you learn almost exclusively from Ugandans while there. Their vision for health and progress in their country is awe-inspiring and the CFHI program is a wonderful opportunity for students to both participate and contribute as they work on meeting their goals. Healthcare in Africa is extremely complicated, but the doctors and medical workers I learned from in Uganda have cultivated an ability to step back and see the big picture. They helped me to see how interconnected all of the pieces of healthcare are. One patient in particular drove this home for me--we treated a young malnourished child with HIV on an outreach day in a village, then brought her back to town to treat her malnourishment with refeeding and engaged her and her mother in a program to teach them to improve their farming practices and access to food near their home. I was so impressed with the capability of a clinic with minimal resources overall to tackle these gigantic problems in such a holistic way. I hop that after seeing such great examples of program planning and implementation that I will be able to take some of that forward into developing my own clinical practice in the future.