Friends know no boundaries – sometimes great friendships are born across oceans, languages, and cultures. At Reach Out Mbuya, some of our greatest friends come from within our global Christian community, those who share our values of love, empathy and service. On Wednesday, 22nd March 2017, ROM hosted one of these friends: Yukako Matsuura from Tokyo, Japan.
Matsuura came to Uganda representing the Japanese Overseas Christian Medical Cooperative Service (JOCS), a Japanese NGO that gives scholarships to promising medical students in the developing world and collaborates on projects in Asia and Africa to strengthen health systems and medical service delivery.
Since 2005, Reach Out Mbuya has benefited from four scholarships from JOCS to pay for the medical degrees of four current or former staff. The current supported student is Hajjarah Nanteza, who works at the ROM Kinawataka site and is also a mother of three.
Check out this blog to read more details and stories from the visit and learn about JOCS’ involvement with ROM.