Bwindi Community Hospital is located near the Buhoma sector of the park. A few years ago, tourism was not embraced, especially in the rural areas of Uganda, yet these were the very attractive places with beautiful features. Perhaps this was because several Ugandans had not positively perceived tourism and the benefits it comes with. Maybe that was before Uganda embraced sustainable tourism, a form of tourism that ensures that both the tour operators and the hosting communities benefit from tourism.
Back then, several tourists faced resistance and rejection from the local communities. However, with the goals of sustainable tourism, a number of facilities have been constructed in the hosting communities, and several Ugandans are employed in the tourism industry, something that has highly motivated the local community members.
Being one of the popular tourism destinations in Africa, hosting communities around national parks have been highly developed, and truthfully, these are fruits of tourism. Before listing all the developments, let’s start with Bwindi Community Hospital.
Bwindi Community Hospital is a Church of Uganda initiative under the Diocese of Kinkizi. Founded in 2003 by Scott and Carol Kellermann, as a small clinic under a tree reaching out to the Batwa pygmies who were displaced from the Bwindi Impenetrable forest when it was made a national park in 1991.
In the urge to protect the mountain gorillas, Uganda’s most selling tourism product, the Batwa people were resettled outside the forest. Since then, they have lived in absolute poverty, lacking food and health care. The hospital initially aimed to provide health care to just the miserable Batwa, but not much later it had to treat all people living in the area, serving three sub-counties of Kayonza, Mpungu, and Kanyantorogo in Kanungu district.
A clinic that started under a tree, it has grown into a 112-bed hospital providing health services to over 100,000 people. Bwindi Community Hospital employs doctors, nurses, midwives, and other health workers as well as support staff. Seventy percent of the staff are local community members, and only 30% are from other parts of Uganda.
The community hospital is considered one of the best hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The sustainable programs have steadfastly improved health care services in southwestern Uganda.
Beyond a reasonable doubt, all this has been a result of tourism in southwestern Uganda. Tracing back to the roots of the community hospital, when it was still under the tree, if it weren’t for tourism displacing the Batwa from the impenetrable forest, no one would easily think about them. That was a moment when the bad turned into something good.
The increased number of volunteers at this hospital has mainly resulted from tourism. Countless tourists on gorilla trekking safaris to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park have opted to stay behind or even come back just for a volunteering safari at the community hospital.
A portion of the 20% disbursement from the gorilla trekking fees to the local community has also been put toward the construction and development of Bwindi Community Hospital. This has been like a catalyst that has accelerated the whole process.
It is still through tourism that Bwindi Community Hospital has gained all the popularity it has now. If it were located in a non-tourism destination, perhaps it would not have become as popular as it is now. A portion of the applause still goes to gorilla tourism in Uganda.
Note that the community hospital is located just one kilometer away from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home to over 700 mountain gorillas, which is three-quarters of the total number of mountain gorillas remaining on Earth. Gorilla trekking in Uganda is only done in Bwindi and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, both located in southwestern Uganda in the Virunga ranges shared by the three African countries of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
