JINJA, UGANDA

Salma's Care for Rural Elderly

Motto: Healthy Living for the Elderly

Help Us Today

Introduction

My name is Salma Hassan. I am a registered Adult Nurse working as a General Practice Nurse. My background is Accident and Emergency.

I also have experience in general nursing (Elderly care, Sexual Health, and travel health). My passion is looking after the elderly, diabetes prevention and health promotion.

My Vision

Throughout my travels in rural Africa, particularly Uganda, I am confronted with the elderly living conditions and their quality of life. A large population does not receive basic services like yearly blood tests, or even access to day-to-day basic needs.

I often imagine how the quality of life of elderly people in Africa would change for the better if they had the same services offered to the elderly living in the UK and other developed countries.

Africans tend to take care of their elderly; however, there is a large population of elderly adults who don’t have access to basic care. They tend to be forgotten, with priority given to children and young adults, ignoring the fact that we are all going to be old one day. Caring for the elderly is not only a responsibility that falls on each one of us, but it is also a blessing.

As a nurse, I am blessed to have gained a lot of knowledge in health care and I feel it is my duty to do my absolute best in areas I can give back, starting with elderly care in rural Uganda, a country that has now become my second home. It is my prayer and hope that one day I would be able to extend this service gradually all over rural Africa.

Our Impact Stories

Mafabi

Mafabi's Story

Mafabi was living together with his elderly mother. He decided to move to Kampala to look for a job to support his family...

Namuli Zaliya

Namuli Zaliya's Story

Namuli Zaliya, 94 years old woman says lived a miserable life during her marriage after realizing that she was barren...

What We Do

Food and Nutrition

We provide essential food supplies and nutritional support to ensure the elderly maintain a healthy diet, which is crucial for their overall well-being.

Health and Wellness

  • Basic health checks (blood pressure, blood sugar)
  • Wound care and management
  • Medication reminders and support
  • Health education on hygiene and sanitation

Social and Emotional Support

We offer companionship and social interaction to combat loneliness and isolation, which are common issues among the elderly in rural areas.

Our Team

Salma K. Hassan

Salma K. Hassan

SCFRE CEO & Founder

Salma’s passion is caring for all those less fortunate to get basic health care needs especially the elderly. Salma loves quiet life and spending time with loved ones.

Hafsa Hassan Kombo

Hafsa Hassan Kombo

Project Coordinator

Mariam

Mariam

Operations Manager

Our Volunteers

Bashir Nkutu

Bashir Nkutu

Volunteer

Mr. Bashir enjoys football and helping the needy.

Our Supporters

We are incredibly grateful for the support from our community. Every donation makes a difference in the lives of the elderly we serve. A special thank you to the following individuals and organizations:

Suzie (West Way Pharmacy)

Thank you for the dressings!

Donation of dressings

Ian (Chichele road surgery)

Thank you for the couches!

Donation of couches

Arleen (USA)

Thank you for the boxes of clothes and Zimmer frame.

Donation of clothes and a Zimmer frame

View Our Gallery

How You Can Help

We welcome all donations, including equipment (incontinence pads, clothing, shoes, zimmer frames, dressings) and monetary contributions to help with transport for visits and buying food for the elderly.

Mafabi's Story

Mafabi Before Mafabi After
Mafabi Image 1
Sensitive - Tap to reveal
Mafabi Treatment

Mafabi was living together with his elderly mother. He decided to move to Kampala to look for a job to support his family. He was lucky and got a job as a porter at a construction site and started to take care of his family as his mother had separated with the father because of domestic violence. He had worked for 3 years and he accidentally fell from the 3rd floor of the building and he injured his back and the legs and he was hospitalized for one month and discharged. He was on walking sticks for more than 3 months and could not support himself or his family. After recovering a bit, he went back to work.

The situation was not the same as before, he was weak but the boss sympathized with him and gave him what they thought could be a lighter task; he transferred him from being a porter to join the cooking team at the site. Mafabi says he worked for 6 months and started feeling dizzy and one day, as he was preparing porridge, became unconscious and fell down and was rushed to Mulago referral hospital, only to wake up and realized that his hand and a part of thigh had got burnt. He was hospitalized for 6 months but he had not recovered because of limited finances. He was informed that his left hand needed amputation as it was rotting. Upon hearing the news Mafabi was uncomfortable and run away from the hospital because he believed that his hand could heal and work again. He came back to the village but he had no assistance. His mother was elderly and could not help, the treatment was not enough and the hand continued to rot and smell badly. He was isolated, humiliated because of the bad smell. He said that society misjudged him alleging that his wounds were because of him being bewitched. As a result, he became depressed and turned to drinking alcohol.

Mafabi had lost hope of healing until the day when Salma’s Care for Rural Elderly identified him as shown in photos and dressed his left hand. After a few dressings, his hand started to heal as shown on the photos and eventually his wounds healed completely.

Although he is glad that his left hand healed, he still struggles because he is dependent on his right hand only as his left hand is still weak. He lacks basic needs and cannot support himself and family.

Namuli Zaliya's Story

Namuli Zaliya 1 Namuli Zaliya 2 Namuli Zaliya 3 Namuli Zaliya 4

Namuli Zaliya, 94 years old woman says lived a miserable life during her marriage after realizing that she was barren. She got married twice.

Being of Muslim faith, Namuli says she was so proud being a moslem and she enjoyed her teenager times so much as she was one of the best performers (dancer in Islamic culture) always representing their Mosque during competitions. She loves giving stories about dancing competitions, Namuli wears an overwhelming smile and remembers everything about her child, teenage and adult life.

Namuli finally settled in the land that her mother bought for her because here in African if you do not bear children in marriage, a woman is not entitled to her husband’s share so, the mother knew it and planned for her. She used that land to grow crops for both home use and sold some for survival, she used to rear some cows too. As she grew older, she weakened and could not continue to use the land as she could before. She could no longer grow crops and rear animals and since she did not have anyone near to support her financially, she resorted to selling off small portions of her land to survive. All the land was almost sold out and she was selling it cheaply because she thought that welcoming them on her land, they would be helpful to her in the time of need which is not as she thought. She says she only has one neighbor who checks on her occasionally. She’s currently struggling to meet her basic needs of daily living as she lives alone, has swollen bilateral lower legs. She lives alone, with her cat.

SCFRE team tries to visit Namuli once a week. We help her with her daily activities of living and just sit with her giving her company. We recently put solar for her so that she could have power at night. We recently discovered that she has no proper toilet facilities and are trying to collect funds to build her a toilet.