New Hope for Scoliosis in Uganda

"My name is Antalya Nanji and currently, my sister Alyna Nanji is treating children in Uganda who suffer from scoliosis. My sister herself has scoliosis and it affects her a lot. Here is a description of her work and what she's doing right now. We would really appreciate it if we could show this to the people at OIS so that they could fund her project. Right now, she wants to collect enough money to fund this treatment so that more people can be treated."

Alyna Nanji is currently an undergrad at the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, studying her way to medical school.

Earlier this year (2022), she completed a Global Health internship with the Kigezi Healthcare Foundation in Western Uganda. Whilst there, working on Foundation initiatives, she initiated a project to investigate the prevalence of scoliosis and treatment in Western Uganda. Amongst other things, her research indicated that there are no screening programs for adolescents that address spinal health within Uganda. 

Her project and research results were very well received by the Foundation and she was given the 'go-ahead' to further her research scope and implement immediately feasible solutions. She headed a specialized team and trained the members of the team on scoliosis and the required screening processes. Several schools in the area were then visited to create awareness and implement screening solutions together with the school supervisory and other medical staff. All the students were screened based on the techniques developed during the project.

This pilot phase was deemed to be a resounding success as hundreds of marginalized high school students in the town of Kabale, Western Uganda was screened and 27 students were identified as requiring treatment.

To move to the subsequent steps of treating these 27 young students and screening many more, on the way to expand the program throughout the country, many resources are required. With that in mind, Alyna has created a Go Fund Me page at https://gofund.me/f677691b

We hope that you will support this cause and effort in helping the adolescents of Uganda move on to a healthier path in life. Any amount that you can donate is greatly appreciated as it goes to the greater good.