St Raphael health foundation is a nongovernmental organization established in 2019 and duly registered with the national bureau of NGOs in 2019 located in Mpigi district Kitojjo Buyaaya Village. St. Raphael Health Foundation turns problems into opportunities by training men who are visually impaired to conduct prostate cancer examinations. As a result, men with prostate cancer are more likely to receive treatment in time for full recovery, and men who are blind gain employment and social standing.
Uganda is a developing country with a population of approximately 45 million people. More than 85 percent live without access to good health facilities. This situation has led to significant loss of life. Good health care is needed in Uganda, but health services are very expensive and few people can afford them. In Uganda, the incidence of prostate cancer is increasing at a rate of 5.2 percent annually and every over 1,177 men die of prostate cancer
Organizaion Profile
Our founder grew up in a family where the uncle was visually impaired. The community looked at him as a misfit and a cursed person in the society. Having witnessed and observed all such negativity he was motivated to come up with a solution to break the stereotype that the society has towards the blind people and leverage their disability into a strength. Its not only the uncle who is blind but Uganda has more than 2.3 million people who are blind. Socially, people who are blind are looked on as misfits, nonproductive people, and dependents. They are discriminated in the society. More than 99.5 percent of them are not employed even though many have received rehabilitation and some are university graduates. These individuals have a genius sense of touch that would enable them to detect prostate cancer early once they have received medical training of rectal palpation since the anatomical location of the prostate is in close proximity to the rectum.
There is a rampant increase of prostate cancer rates and deaths in Uganda. The awareness of this disease is very low and many men do not know about prostate cancer. With that background, we are working with others to create prostate cancer awareness campaigns across Uganda and train blind Ugandan men to become certified rectal examiners for early prostate cancer detection. Our rectal examiners would then be deployed into health centers, clinics and hospitals across the country to offer affordable prostate cancer detection, using their disability as the competitive advantage to save lives of other men from prostate cancer.
Organization Capacity
St. Raphael health foundation is a social enterprise that unfolds a theory of change around disability rights which aims at reducing prostate cancer deaths while increasing on the employability of the visually impaired men in Uganda by training them as certified rectal examiners to early detect prostate cancer among men. The examiners carry out early prostate cancer detection and prevention using their genius and their heightened and well-trained sense of touch. The program turns their blindness into an opportunity to create employment while saving the lives of other men from prostate cancer deaths. When prostate cancer is detected early through rectal examinations, it can easily be cured by treatment methods available in Uganda.
The approach is undertaken through recruiting and training visually impaired men and blind to transforming their disability into ability. The organization has carried out sensitization programs about the causes, risks, effects and treatment methods of prostate cancer cases among men once early detected. This is done through the Prostate Cancer Free Uganda Campaign that is conducted across the country, also through holding workshops, conferences, community outreaches, dialogues, online, radios and television talks.
St. Raphael health foundation is a social business that has won both international and national awards and recognized internationally as a rights based program that offer inclusion of visually impaired and saves lives of men from prostate cancer deaths. The organization has won the Global Change makers Fellowship 2024 and many others.
Vision: We reduce on the prostate cancer deaths and increase on the employability of visually impaired men.
Mission: We recruit and medically train visually impaired men to become certified rectal examiners that carry out early prostate cancer detection and prevention using their genius, heightened and well-trained sense of touch through rectal palpation
Strategic Objectives:
- Reduce prostate cancer deaths in Uganda.
- To create employment opportunities for visually impaired men.
- To promote Disability-Digital rights Inclusion of visually impaired men.
- To disseminate online information about inclusive employment opportunities
- To provide improved health care services through the systematic application of well-trained sense of touch of visually impaired men.
- To carry out early detection and prevention of prostate cancer by well-trained visually impaired men and also raise awareness physically and online about the causes and risks of prostate cancer among men.
- To ensure that prostate cancer patients and men maximumly benefit from the superior natural abilities of well-trained visually impaired men and enjoy the pleasant private human examination which is of quality, confidential and affordable.
- To boost the self-esteem, confidence and positive attitude of the visually impaired in order to promote independence, self-sustenance and full participation in society.
