Everyone is welcome at Siloam Medical Center in Kampala, Uganda. Brightly painted murals inside and out depict doctors with patients, parents with children, and technicians at work, welcoming patients for medical consultations, lab work, labor and maternal care, and emergency care. Ninety percent of Siloam’s patients are refugees, primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — as is Dr. Moïse Kibukila, who operates the clinic.
Dr. Moïse and his wife, along with their four children, fled to Uganda for their safety in 2017, escaping the continued conflict and unrest in the DRC. His work as a doctor added further complications. “If I was treating soldiers, the other side would say that I am collaborating with the soldiers,” he recalls. “If I treat others who are considered rebels, soldiers say that I am siding with the rebels. A doctor can’t deny treatment to anyone — whoever you are, I have the obligation to treat you. That brings you into conflict between the two parties.”
Soon after settling in Uganda, other refugees learned of his profession and began asking him to open a health clinic in their community. “I had some money. I started small,” he recalls of his earliest two-bed facility. But the costs for medical equipment and treatment are high. “By the time I started, I was also failing. That is how I ran to UGAFODE to ask for help.”
Dr. Moïse Kibukila“My wish is that this clinic continues to help more people because there is a need and potential to help the community living here.”
UGAFODE Microfinance Limited (MDI) is a Ugandan microfinance institution, providing responsible and inclusive financial products to the country’s most vulnerable and underserved communities. Accion supports UGAFODE through our investments and advisory services, working with their team to help improve their financial products to reach more underserved customers, including women entrepreneurs and refugee communities.
UGAFODE has participated in the MFI Index, created by the firm 60 Decibels to give the microfinance industry greater visibility into customer outcomes. In the most recent index, UGAFODE scored in the top 20th percentile both regionally and globally for business impact. 95 percent of clients reported increased income, and 55 percent of customers reported their income ‘very much’ increased thanks to financial services provided by UGAFODE.
Nehemiah Chiribagula, a UGAFODE employee and a fellow Congolese refugee, shares Dr. Moïse’s commitment to serving his community. “I was working as a volunteer in my community, the refugee community in Uganda,” he says. “When UGAFODE started a project for financial inclusion for refugees, they had to partner with the community. Since I was a mobilizer of the community, I found interest in working with them to support my community, especially regarding the language barrier. So that’s where I started my journey with UGAFODE.” Now he helps refugee customers, like Dr. Moïse, get access to financial services that enable them to start businesses and rebuild their lives.
With a small business loan, Dr. Moïse expanded Siloam by adding additional beds. “We started here with two hospitalization beds. We then got help from UGAFODE, and we expanded to six beds, and now we have ten beds. Which means we are still growing,” he says. This increased capacity will allow him to provide better maternal care and give him the ability to hospitalize patients. “They have helped us to get money in a timely manner,” says Dr. Moïse. “That money has helped us to pay either rent, or to buy machines that we need. I am happy about UGAFODE because they have given us money, and we have also paid it back very well. When they gave us three million shillings [$820], we bought a machine and stocked up on medicine.”
He also hopes to teach community classes about protection from malaria and typhoid and distribute mosquito nets and other preventative measures to his neighbors. “To help the community, we first need to educate them,” he says.
UGAFODE’s support is particularly important to a business like Dr. Moïse’s, with high upfront costs and enormous benefit to their communities. Access to healthcare improves people’s quality of life, allowing them to live healthy and productive lives. But healthcare can be difficult for refugees to access due to cost, geography, or language barriers. By providing high-quality, affordable medical services, Dr. Moïse can fill that gap. Crucially, he sees patients regardless of their ability to pay. “Patients come because we take care of them first,” he says. “We receive people, we treat them, and later, if they have money, they pay. If they fail to pay, we just consider it as support to the community.”
With the support of UGAFODE, Dr. Moïse and Siloam Medical Center are having a ripple effect, improving health throughout his community. Although the future is uncertain, he hopes the clinic will live on, saying, “My family can be resettled, but my wish is that this clinic continues to help more people because there is a need and potential to help the community living here.”
