Historical Background 

St Elizabeth Health Centre Kijjukizo is located in Kijjukizo Parish Masaka diocese-Uganda. It is a faith based private not for profit health center owned by Masaka Diocese under the supervision of diocesan health coordinator. The Centre serves a catchment population of about 14,969 people coming from Lyantonde district and surrounding areas.

The idea to build this health facility was conceived by Rev. Fr. Aloysious Ngobya and later implemented by Rev. Fr. Kajubi in 1992 as dispensary/maternity home. The community was involved to contribute and support the work of construction. As years went by, Mrs. Issel Sett from German funded construction towards its extension. She continued to support its extension and other related projects

St. Elizabeth hosted World of the Sick in Masaka Diocese on 11^th Feb 2020

Every year the Catholic Church celebrates the world of the sick, to pray for the sick, the care takers of the sick and to pray for all health workers. This day is celebrated on 11^th February every year. For the year 2020The world day of the sick 2020 was hosted by Kijjukizo Parish together with Masaka Diocesan Health Office as chosen by the Bishop. This day previously in 2019 was hosted by Nkoni Parish and it was from then that Kijjukizo was announced as the next host. The theme was taken from the gospel of St. Mathew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

The preparation

Following the opportunity granted, the parish executive committee of Kijjukizo selected an organizing committee for the function. This was supposed to comprise of some executive members and other influential members of the community irrespective of the religion or political attachments.  A committee of 15 members was selected and tasked to coordinate and mobilize resources so as to have as a successful WORLD DAY OF THE SICK come 11/02/2020.

In October the organizing committee started meetings to help in resource mobilization. The committee got an idea of having pre-day activities a s a way of mobilizing and sensitizing the community about the day. Various activities were chosen with special focus on those which are health and spiritual related. Among these included; a marathon, general cleaning of Lyantonde Town, Blood Donation and an evening Holy Mass. These activities were to take place on the eve of the day i.e. 10/02/2020. The activities for the next day were to include; a free medical camp, Holy Mass led by the Bishop of Masaka Diocese visiting the construction site and distributing basic supplies to the identified needy sick people. All these activities were held successfully with support from the Diocesan Health Office and a select Advance team.

Activities of 10/02/2020:

All activities occurred as planned though the turn up was low mostly due to the time allocated. The marathon started with aerobics at 7:00AM and was attended by 210 people including school children and adults. All these people were in their vests designed with wordings commemorating the event and bearing the theme of the day. After the run for health participants gathered at Kijjukizo Parish were refreshed with mineral water, briefed on the sites for the general cleaning exercise, were given cleaning supplies and later were flagged off for the activity.

The general cleaning exercise was carried out successfully because the community had been sensitized quite well about the benefits of living in a clean environment some of them were seen involving actively. During the general cleaning some items to be distributed to the sick were solicited as well. The blood donation exercise occurred in 2 places and 60 units of blood were donated.  Speeches by the invited guests were held at Lyantonde Town Council grounds with the main speaker being the Vicar General who represented the Bishop. An evening Mass started at 5:30PM and marked the end of day’s activities.

Activities of 11/02/2020:

These commenced with the arrival of health workers who first had breakfast before heading for their duties at the camp site. Approximately 120 health workers including students and staff participated in the medical camp which started at 9:00AM. The Holy Mass started at 10:00AM with the choir from St.Gonzaga SSS-Kijjukizo. During the medical camp a total number of 735 patients were attended to with 33 below 5 years and 702 above 5 years. The mass was attended by approximately 500 people. Over 50 needy patients received supplies to help them in their day to day life and other remaining supplies were distributed even after 11/02/2020.