A patient is carried into the boat ambulance, Boat ambulance at Bwama Health Center III on Lake Bunyonyi.

A call for a medical emergency. It would take hours for a canoe to reach the patient, but since this speed boat ambulance was acquired, the medics access the patients in minutes.

Melon Ninsiima fell ill in the morning and like for many other pregnant women on the Islands, accessing a hospital is difficult and expensive.

“i had failed to get transport but when i called them , the midwife here at Bwama, they arranged means to come and pick me” explains an expectant mother.

From the farthest island, a patient needs at least two hours on a 15-horsepower engine boat to arrive at the health facility.