St John Association of Uganda
Who we are
St John was established in Uganda in 1930 with a mission of preventing and relieving sickness and injury and to act to enhance the health of all people of all creeds. Today, it has fifteen divisions and thousands of both uniformed and non-uniformed volunteer members through out the country. Its operations have spread to the Central, Eastern, Midwestern and part of the Southern region of Uganda.
Management:
St John Ambulance Uganda is managed and run by the following constituent organs;
(i) General assembly - Constitutes all members of St John Ambulance Uganda and is the administrative and policy making body of the organisation
(ii) Trustees - Constitutes five members appointed by the general assembly and in whom all properties of St John Ambulance Uganda are vested.
(iii) The Council - Composed of 30 people elected and approved by the General Assembly and other members nominated by the executive committee and approved by the General Assembly.
(iv) The Technical Committees - Composed of members selected by the council to perform a specific function on behalf of St John Ambulance Uganda.
The day to day activities of St John Uganda are coordinated by a secretariat headed by the National Executive Secretary with other support staff and volunteers who on behalf of the council implement the council resolutions.
St John Uganda activities depend on mainly donations. So donations from well wishers are welcome.
Membership:
St John Ambulance has a membership of over 1000 volunteer members composed of Adults (above 16 years), Cadets (10 to 16 years) and Badgers (6 to 10 years).
Membership of St John Ambulance Uganda is open to any person with the spirit of “In the service of humanity”
Membership is not limited to age, sex, race, occupation and religion. Come join us and serve humanity…
Uganda at a glance
The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa, bordered on the east by Kenya, the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, within which it shares borders with Kenya and Tanzania.
Uganda became an independent nation in 1962 and has since been involved in several internal and regional conflicts. The northern part of the country is currently being affected by the conflict between government forces and the Lord’s Resistance Army. The current president, Yoweri Museveni has been in power since 1986.
Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, and sizeable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. The country has largely untapped reserves of both crude oil and natural gas. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80% of the work force, with coffee accounting for the bulk of export revenues.
The population was estimated to be 30,262,610 in 2007. Uganda is home to many different ethnic groups, none of whom form a majority of the population. Around forty different languages are regularly and currently in use in the country. English became the official language of Uganda after independence.
Uganda was ranked 154 out of 177 in 2007 United Nations Human Development Index.
What we do
First Aid and Ambulance Services: This service is executed using a standby ambulance that operates 24hrs run by a well trained team of Emergency Medical Technicians responding to different incidents and emergencies in which people are either injured or ill. Most notable are the road traffic accidents which are common phenomena in Uganda today.
Public duties: We also offer our services during public gatherings organized by the Government. Many local communities count on St John Ambulance volunteers to take care of any emergency that may occur.
First aid Training: St John Ambulance offers Uganda’s most comprehensive state-of-the-art training programmes for businesses, individuals and communities. We train in various fields including
- First aid to different levels
- Home based care
- Basic and primary health care
- Disaster preparedness and management
Behind this, is an enthusiastic and energetic team of fully trained instructors.
Home Based Care: There is great need for caregivers to offer this service to the needy especially those afflicted by the AIDS pandemic. St John Uganda has trained staff and volunteer members as instructors of home based care who in turn train community members as caregivers to minister these services to the needy of society. We have targeted HIV and AIDS infected people care homes, bedside service providers, hospital nurses, elderly homes, babies’ homes, community care givers and individual members of society.
Disaster Preparedness/Prevention programmes: Since disasters are not predictable and can be so destructive to health, St John Uganda conducts and organizes lectures which involve mock demonstrations on disaster preparedness and prevention so as to reduce the magnitude of occurrence and destruction in case disasters occur.
Basic and primary healthy care: This is done in both rural and urban areas through the support of our volunteer members. This service entails the following programmes; Immunization, Malaria control, HIV and AIDS, Hygiene, Drug abuse, Nutrition, Environmental conservation, Behavioural change campaigns among many others.
Road safety: We sensitize the public on proper road use and above all we conduct training to the road users on road safety tips and first aid on the road in case of accident emergency. We are currently aiming to train all taxi drivers through their governing bodies.
If they can save a life, why not you? Come join us
Links
We work with the Ministry of Health; local government bodies and agencies; Ministry of Gender; Disaster Preparedness Ministry and other Organizations like the Uganda Red Cross and others to deliver services to Ugandans in case of an emergency.
Some of the future prospects:
Through continued support from St John stakeholders and well wishers both local and international, we intend to:
- Penetrate the Northern part of the country (the war affected region) where our services are most needed currently:
- Diversify the primary health care project activities to mobilize voluntary public blood donations so as to cater for the needy in hospitals:
- Open up Voluntary Counselling & Testing (VCT) centres all over the country where St John activities are prevalent:
- Acquire more ambulances to respond to different emergencies that may occur and train an increased number of Emergency Medical Technicians:
- Build more capacity in the organisation i.e. human resource capacity to run and manage the developed programmes:
- Organize and mobilize more members to train in first aid and other fields and join St John Uganda “in the service of humanity”.