Written by Dr. Gregory Bartha

I met young Mkessa Moses while I was visiting a village secondary school. The school’s founder had recently died, and the school was having problems raising enough money to pay the teachers and provide supplies to the students. Mkessa was short and had a prominent swelling in his upper back – humpback deformity.

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Written by Dr. Gregory Bartha

Uganda is going through a rough time. The rains have failed; coronavirus has attacked the country severely; and a complete lockdown has been imposed by the government. People are isolated in their homes, don’t have enough to eat, and just try to survive until the end of July when the lockdown will hopefully end. The lockdown has been successful in slowing the spread of disease, but people are facing the prospect of worsening poverty and food shortage for an indrfinite period

The northeastern part of the country has been most severely affected. That is the home of the Karamajong, a tribe of pastoral people living on arid land in a very primitive state. They rely on cattle, sheep, and goats for food and income. There are few health facilities, schools, or churches in the area, and water sources are scattered. The team of people I work with have organized a food relief effort. They recently delivered three truckloads of cassava to four villages and plan to serve seven more in the next two weeks. Cassava is a plant with a starchy root which can be made into a type of bread. It is easy to cultivate and is used widely throughout Africa.

While there the team encountered two additional needs – children with cancer and persons needing wheelchairs. Four children were identified who need referral and treatment for malignancies.
     1. A 9 year old boy with a malignant tumor on the face
     2. A 6 year old girl with osteosarcoma on the arm
     3. A 9 year old with a tumor on the leg
     4. A 12 year old boy with osteosarcoma on the leg

We are mobilizing funds for the children to be sent to the Mulago Cancer Center in Kampala. There is hope that the quality of life in these children will be improved and that some will be cured. In the US 80% of childhood cancers can be cured, but results are not as good in Uganda. Also the team is arranging for a transfer of 20 wheelchairs to the area to help people with spinal disease, hip fractures, and those who had leg deformities or amputations.  Also funds have been raised to drill water wells in the region.

Written by Dr. Gregory Bartha

In mid March 2020 just as the pandemic was about to break out in Uganda,Pastor Simon Peter and I were driving through Mbale in the early evening. He commented on the many boys who were hanging around closed businesses. These were the street children who had no homes and were trying to survive by begging, doing odd jobs, or probably  stealing. Most had been driving out of their homes because their fathers had become physically abusive or had remarried, and the stepmothers wanted them to move out of the house. Many were using drugs or inhaling fumes from fuel bottles. They were often attacked by police or security guards. Pastor was very disturbed by this situation and wanted to do something to help.

He contacted some local government officials and relief organizations. All agreed that action had to be taken. With their blessing he gathered up about 100 of these children and transferred them to a secure location. Many were malnourished, had skin wounds and infections, and had inadequate clothing. We started a program of feeding, health care, vocational training, and spiritual development. The transformation of these children has been quite remarkable. They are well disciplined and eagerly participate in training activities.

This project is very expensive to operate. Other organizations are supportive but are unable to provide any funding. Pastor and I have been struggling to keep the programs going. We hope to transfer some of the children to stable homes or to vocational or traditional boarding schools.

Written by Gregory Bartha, MD

My name is Gregory Bartha – MHS Class 63.

I am starting a series of blog stories about my work in Uganda the past 6 to 7 years.

When I was in high school I was inspired by the life and work of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the first European to open a hospital in Africa. He was not only a doctor but also a Bible scholar and a world famous organist. The thought of following in his footsteps was planted in my mind.

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By Gregory Bartha, MD

At least half the population in Uganda is 15 years or younger, so a large part of my work at the clinic involved diagnosing and treating children. As I mentioned in the first blog post I had long dreamed of working in Africa and was aware of my need for pediatric experience. For about 15 years before leaving for Africa I filled in at the Community Children’s Clinic in Midland. And indeed at the Cross Clinic there were always many children coming for treatment.

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Written by Dr. Gregory Bartha

If you are going to Africa to do medical work, you need to have good financial backing because the costs involved, while modest by US standards, mount up rapidly. Most of the people in the villages cannot afford to contribute anything to pay for their medical treatment. They are surviving on one or two dollars a day. Public hospitals in the cities are not supposed to charge for services, but they frequently do. Transportation costs have to be factored in as well as medications, diagnostic tests, surgery, and medical staff salaries.

Some of the costs involved are as follows:

Chest X-ray $7.00
Abdominal ultrasound $7.00
Liver enzymes $15.00
Kidney function tests $1500
CBC (blood count) $3.00
CT scan of abdomen $100.00 (Surgeons frequently want this before doing surgery)
Echocardiogram $30.00
Hernia repair $90.00
Hemorrhoid surgery $90.00
Hysterectomy $100.00
Cataract surgery $90.00
Thyroid surgery for goiter $150.00 (The charge for this surgery was much lower at a Catholic charity hospital 100 miles distant than at a facility in Mbale at $450.00)
Hydrocephalus surgery at CURE Hospital in Mbale $265.00
Spina bifida repair at CURE $265.00
Surgery for osteomyelitis $440.00
Repair of hip fracture $740.00
Repair of other lower leg fracture $400.00
Biopsy for suspected tumor $80.00
Cancer treatment at government referral hospital in Kampala $500.00 (government provided some assistance)
Transportation to Mbale by motorcycle $3.00
Transportation to Kampala by bus $8.00

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Written by Dr. Gregory Bartha

A good Ugandan friend of mine – Bari Stephen AKA Destiny – is a gospel musician. He is married with 2 children. The family had been suffering with frequent bouts of malaria. This is unusual because most African families experience malaria no more than once or twice in two or three years. I visited his home, a grass roofed hut fairly close to a large swamp, but not right next to it. There were several small holes in the walls, the mosquito nets were intact, and there was no heavy vegetation near the house. So it was a bit puzzling why the two children – Ebeneezer age two and Eunice age seven – had malaria frequently.

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Written by Dr. Gregory Bartha

Stanley was born in Wales in 1841 under the name of John Rowlands. He dis not have a close relationship with his parents and was boarded out to various relatives. He moved to Liverpool and worked at several trades eventually signing on as a cabin boy on a ship. He arrived in New Orleans where he was befriended by a merchant Henry Morton Stanley and took on his name. He subsequently enlisted in the Confederate army, was captured and imprisoned and then released by agreeing to join the Union army. In less than a month he was discharged because of illness. He returned to Liverpool, worked aboard a number of ships and eventually joined the United States Navy.

After the war he became a roving reporter in the U.S. He covered some of the Indian wars in the West for the Missouri Democrat newspaper. He introduced himself to the editor of the New York Herald and was sent on many reporting assignments around the world. He covered the British expedition to Ethiopia to free British officials being held hostage. He was the first to telegraph the outcome of this engagement thanks to his bribery of the telegraph officer and the breakdown of the Ethiopian telegraph system immediately following Stanley’s report.

Stanley was aware that David Livingstone the African missionary had gone missing. There was widespread interest in his fate. He talked the editor of the New York Herald into financing an expedition under Stanley’s leadership to find Livingstone. Stanley traveled to Zanzibar on the east African coast and organized and outfitted the expedition. He did succeed in finding Livingstone after a long and exceedingly difficult journey through the wilds of Africa. The first moment of their meeting gave rise to the famous line “Dr. Livingstone I presume?” He wrote the account of this adventure in his book How I Found Livingstone and it gave him an international reputation.

With the backing of wealthy British investors he returned to Africa to make additional geographical explorations. He again started in Zanzibar, made his way to the interior, mapped out the course of the great Congo River, and followed it to its source on the west African coast. He found the river to be largely navigable, but there were a number of significant rapids which would have to be bypassed. His findings pricked the interest of King Leopold of Belgium who commissioned him to develop the river for commercial purposes. Stanley established several stations along the river, dynamited areas of significant obstruction, and built a road along stretches of the river. This work led to the foundation of the Congo Free State (later called the Belgian Congo and now The Democratic Republic of Congo). On his way back to the east coast he went to Uganda and met with the great chief Mtesa. With the chief’s approval he called for missionaries and other workers in Britain to come to Africa. Stanley also explored around Lake Victoria and Nile tributaries. His findings led Britain to bring Lake Victoria and the surrounding land under British protection.

Stanley embarked on a third expedition, this one to provide relief to the governor of the Equatorial Province in Central Africa and to make further investigations into a possible British protectorate. He again started on the east coast, journeyed to the Congo River, and headed north to Lake Albert. Travel was extremely difficult through long stretches of dense forest.The team experienced serious illnesses, starvation.and frequent encounters with hostile tribes. He lost more than 50% of his men. He did succeed in rescuing the governor and concluded agreements with various chiefs in favor of Britain. He also obtained much information about the Pygmy tribes. He wrote details of this expedition in his book In Darkest Africa.

This was his final expedition. He returned to Britain, married, and adopted a child. He was renaturalized as a British subject and was elected a member of Parliament. He went on lecture tours and traveled widely. He died in 1904. His grave has the following inscription:

  Bula Matari Africa
Bula Matari in Swahili means Breaker of Rocks. This was his Congolese name and refers to his work along with the Africans in building the road along the Congo River.

Tax Deductible Donations to support Dr. Bartha and the Cross Clinic can be mailed to:

First Presbyterian Church
800 West Texas St.
Midland, TX 79701
Please include: Dr. Bartha Uganda Fund in the memo.

Written by Dr. Gregory Bartha

Late one afternoon two women brought a two month old infant into the Cross Clinic. The two women – the child’s mother and her sister – were very poor. They had no shoes, and the mother’s left leg had been amputated. She had no crutch or cane. The child was breathing rapidly and loudly. My driver and I rushed her to Mbale Regional. The hospital consists of nine or ten buildings connected by long corridors. We drove up as close as we could to the sick child clinic. The mother carried the baby all the way down a long corridor to the clinic hopping on her one leg. The child was immediately admitted and treated but died after a few hours. The outlook was bad from the beginning, but we had to try. I will never forget that poor woman hopping and carrying her dying child.