On Friday, Medical Teams International’s (MTI) Uganda Country Director Felix Omodi spoke at the organization’s regional headquarters in Redmond about the ongoing relief work in his homeland and his personal experiences in dealing with warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
Omodi, who grew up and spent his life working in northeast Uganda, receives help and support from volunteers and donors throughout Washington who have contributed to MTI.
The nonprofit organization recently announced a new project to help fight Nodding Disease, an illness with an undefined cause that has affected more than 3,000 children in northern Uganda to date. Omodi said he believes that diseases — especially malaria — is the most important issue in Uganda right now, not stopping Kony. Omodi will travel to Portland, Ore. this week before heading back to Uganda to continue relief work in his native country.
The brutal insurgency led by Kony and decades of civil war in Uganda destroyed the country’s basic infrastructure and health services and has left millions without access to critically needed care. Omodi has had firsthand experience of the struggles faced everyday by the Ugandan people — including being abducted by the LRA and held captive for nine months.
Since 2004, MTI has provided health care services, community health education and immunizations to nearly 500,000 displaced people in various camps, settlements and clinics in the northern districts of Uganda. MTI has sent more than 45 volunteer medical teams to Uganda to address immediate needs and to mobilize longterm health initiatives.
Omodi joined MTI as its Uganda country director in 2004. At that time, more than 1.5 million people had been forced to flee from their homes and live in temporary camps to avoid a brutal conflict involving Kony and the LRA. Omodi initially led an effort to provide health care services, community health education and immunizations to nearly 500,000 people. MTI volunteer teams joined local Uganda health workers in a mobile health clinic effort that cared for thousands of people each week.
With the return of peace to many parts of northern Uganda, Omodi has led efforts to rebuild community health systems and to address key causes of diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS and preventable childhood illnesses. He also supervises a staff of 300 people who provide medical services to more than 80,000 refugees living at the Nakivale refugee camp in southern Uganda and continues to direct efforts to provide mobile health care in areas or northern Uganda where the situation is too unstable for people to return to their homes.
