Dr. Bugembe Isaac
Dr. Isaac is a medical doctor, a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist, and is also the Municipal Health Officer of Nansana Municipality in Wakiso District. He has special training both in clinical work and management studies. He worked as a doctor for 10 years at Kisubi Hospital Heart Centre, Victoria Medical Services. His passion is helping the community through his work at Nakaseke Hospital and Bwindi Community Hospital.
Dr Iaaac is a family man with two children. He comes from a family with three brothers, one of whom is Mpiima Moses, a FAAYO Founding Member. Dr Isaac’s passion to volunteer as a FAAYO Board Member stems from his experience with his brother’s journey through care for a serious heart condition – from getting a proper diagnosis, accessing qualified health professionals, having surgery abroad, and finally, recovery and a return to a normal life. He was greatly impacted by the financial and emotional burdens that his family experienced when their loved one experienced severe heart disease.
Dr. Isaac believes that by being a FAAYO Board Member and by drawing from his past experiences, he can make a positive impact by helping to change communities’ perceptions about heart diseases. His vision is to see FAAYO reaching out to the community and increasing awareness and knowledge about heart diseases that will encourage the community members to seek medical attention from health professionals rather than relying on traditional curative measures.
Professor Nanna Schneidermann
Nanna is an associate professor in anthropology at Aarhus University Denmark. She has carried out research in Uganda since 2003 with a focus on youth and popular music, and the role of music in social transformation. In addition, she does research on motherhood and maternal health in South Africa and the Faroe Islands, a minority nation within the Danish kingdom.
Nanna first learned about rheumatic heart disease when a Ugandan friend from the music community was diagnosed with the illness. Following his struggle to access a correct diagnosis, treatment and surgery was an eyeopener on the global inequalities regarding access to healthcare. In this case, the story had a happy ending thanks to a global network of artists and supporters who enabled surgery abroad, but for so many others a simple misdiagnosis and lack of access to healthcare is a death sentence when it comes to rheumatic heart disease. For this reason, Nanna is happy to support the work of FAAYO as a Board Member, with the hope that their advocacy and support with time can be extended to a nationwide programme. This will save lives and improve the life quality of heart disease patients in Uganda.
Kalule Frank
Frank is a multi-talented man! He works as catering officer at Uganda National Meteorological Authority and lectures part-time at both Nkumba University School of Sciences and Kyambogo University in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality. He hold a diploma hotel management from Makerere University Business School, a bachelor’s degree in management from Nkumba University, and a master’s degree in Tourism and Hospitality from Nkumba University. He is currently pursuing his PhD from Nkumba University. His dream is to become a doctor.
Frank grew up in Kitala Entebbe Wakiso District as the only son in a family of six sisters who were supported by their widowed mother who worked as a tailor. Frank still lives in Kitala Entebbe with his wife and two young daughters. He still maintains the tailoring skills he learned from his mother with all the other busy endeavours of his life.
Frank is also a rheumatic heart disease patient. He has faced many health challenges that led him to his diagnosis at Uganda Heart Institute at Mulago Hospital in 1996. He is currently on a waiting list for surgery to replace a damaged heart valve. It is because of his personal experience as a heart disease patient and his advocacy work with the RHD Patient Support Group that he was sought out as a FAAYO Board Member.
Frank’s passion is to help grow the FAAYO Community Heart Health Initiative to help heart disease patients like himself in rural Uganda. He wishes to raise awareness about the causes, recognition and treatment of heart disease in the local communities.
Kaliisa Jude
Jude is a clinical officer for the Ministry of Health. He is married and has three young children, two girls and one boy. Kaliisa is from Kikuube Village in the Bunyoro subregion and currently lives in Hoima City with his family. He is deployed at Hoima Regional Referral Hospital where he works as a surveillance officer. He earned his diploma in Clinical Medicine and Community Health from the Fort Portal School of Clinical Officers.
Jude has completed special training in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), vaccine preventable diseases, surveillance, comprehensive HIV Care, and sexual and gender-based violence management. He is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery at Makerere University in Kampala.
Through his work, Kaliisa has been involved in several surveys on NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes, and has developed a great interest in the prevention of these diseases. He states that 33% of total deaths in Uganda are due to NCDs. He also notes that 15% of men and 3% of women still use tobacco products which predisposes them to NCDs.
This surveillance work has been intensely focused, and Kaliisa feels he has not had enough time for community health education, outreach, and awareness raising. Therefore, he accepted our invitation to serve on FAAYO’s Board so that he will have opportunities to engage with communities and share his knowledge and experience more fully.
Additionally, Kaliisa has also developed a special interest in the speciality of cardiology. He feels that being part of FAAYO will increase his knowledge and help him become part of a network of patients and professionals in the care and treatment of heart disease. Kaliisa is passionate to see a significant decrease in cardiac conditions and improvements in the timely diagnosis of these conditions among Ugandans living in under-served areas.
Atim Susan
Susan is the Senior Finance/Administrator Coordinator in Grants Management at the Uganda-Case Western Reserve University Research Collaboration in Kampala where she has worked for 13 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Makerere University and completed additional training at the Management and Accountancy Training College in Kampala. She is a member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Susan is from Gulu in Northern Uganda. She has three children. Her youngest child, a daughter, was diagnosed with a serious heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot when she was just 2-weeks old. Her daughter had a long and complicated journey to health that involved travelling abroad to the UK for open- heart surgery. Now at 8 years old, her daughter is thriving and doing well.
Susan was greatly impacted by the generous support she received from a British children’s heart charity organization called Chain of Hope. Now she says is ready to pay it forward. “I feel it’s such an honor to be part of FAAYO because I will be giving back to society since I was once given the chance.” FAAYO is grateful for the addition of her accounting and finance skills to the Board. Susan envisions the growth of FAAYO to provide more services and coverage to the different parts of the country.
Kirungi Caroline
Caroline is a teacher and education officer at St Andrea Kaahwas College in Hoima where she has worked for 24 years. Her passion for community wellbeing is evident, where in her village, Bujumbura East, she manages a savings club for a small group of disadvantaged women.
Caroline is also the mother of three children, two boys and a girl, named Ahikiriza Redeemer, who is her last born. Caroline’s passion to volunteer as a FAAYO Board Member stems from Ahikiriza Redeemer’s heart problems. Ahikiriza had a long and complicated healthcare journey to her heart surgery. At four months, her parents noticed that her growth was stunted, and that she would often collapse when she would get excited or heard a sudden sharp noise. She was always a weak child with fast heart beats. She visited several different health centres, but they were not able to accurately diagnose the problem; their diagnosis was always malaria. Finally, a heart scan was done, and they were referred to Uganda Heart Institute for follow up of a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. At the age of two years Redeemer had corrective surgery at Uganda Heart Institute Mulago with the support of Gift of Life International. She is now 11 years old and doing well.
During her journey with Redeemer’s condition, Caroline faced a lot of challenges. The community had different perceptions about heart disease, there was a knowledge gap about heart disease and a lack of access to specialised cardiac medical personnel. She was always referred to different health centres and private clinics, but Redeemer never received a proper diagnosis. Because of the myths and misconceptions in the community about heart disease, her community always discouraged them from seeking medical services, claiming that heart patients don’t get healed and that they were wasting their time and resources on their child since they believed “no one can touch the heart”.
Caroline believes that by being a FAAYO Board Member and by drawing from her past experiences, she can make a positive impact by helping to change communities’ perceptions about heart diseases. Her vision is to see FAAYO reaching out to the community and changing their perceptions about heart diseases and encouraging the community to seek medical attention from health professionals rather than relying on traditional curative measures.
Kitooleko Samalie
Samalie works as nurse at Uganda Heart Institute in Kampala. She has vast experience and skills in critical care nursing, research, and palliative care. She is often called on to train other nurses. Samalie is also a patron of the RHD patient support group based at the Mulago Hospital.
Samalie is well known for her patient advocacy for which she was awarded the Heroine of Health in 2017 at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. She is richly experienced with her focus in cardiac intensive care, research and rheumatic heart disease management.
“As a healthcare professional at Uganda’s only tertiary heart institute, I have observed an increasing number of RHD cases over the years, the majority of these requiring surgical interventions which is barely affordable. It’s on this ground that I chose to be a board member of FAAYO Community Heart Health Initiative to offer technical support to the founders so as to attain their goals.”