Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague

After the successful Child Sponsorship Program, the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague is introducing the opportunity to sponsor a bed in the hospital it operates in Uganda. Even just CZK 300 will fund one bed in the pediatric ward for one week, so getting involved is not expensive.
The Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague operates one of the best hospitals in East Africa in the Buikwe region of Uganda. The St. Charles Lwanga Buikwe Hospital has examined, treated and operated on nearly 200,000 patients from this impoverished region of Africa since opening in 2007. The most common complaints are malaria, tuberculosis, and a number of other illnesses, including HIV/AIDS. The lives of patients, especially children, are also often put at risk from common illnesses that are easy to treat with medicines and medical care.

The hospital is almost fully reliant on support from donors in the Czech Republic, who have been keeping it in operation for over six years. The hospital director is Lukáš Laube, but the rest of the staff (nearly 100 people) are local. Besides improving the level of health care, the hospital also serves as an instruction center for health care professionals and physicians in the area.

“Czechs are helping save lives in Uganda. We want to encourage them to help even more, so we are offering the opportunity to ‘sponsor’ a hospital bed. The hospital can use any amount people can give, but we decided to calculate the exact costs per week, month and year for individual beds in the hospital’s various wards. Contributors will receive a certificate for their donation. We are also planning on bringing more stories out of the hospital, so that Czech people can see how their donations are at work in Uganda and how local people live and benefit in specific cases,” comments Jaroslav Němec, Director of the Caritas of the Archdiocese of Prague, on the new project. “I am sure that since the Child Sponsorship Program was so well received in the Czech Republic, where they could help specific children from Uganda to get an education, they will be very interested in providing health care and a chance at survival.”

How does sponsoring work?

There is no limit on donations, but for the sake of orientation we calculated the specific amounts corresponding to the cost of operating particular types of beds in the hospital for a particular amount of time. The funds we collect in this manner will be used to cover medicines for patients and staff salaries. These items compose about 60% of the hospital’s total costs and are dependent on support from the Czech Republic.

You can make a donation to the donation account 749011/0100, with variable symbols 208 05 - 208 09 depending on the type of bed you choose.