Thursday morning presented us with a wide range of information from various speakers. We first heard from Nathan Lasche of the Clinton Foundation, who spoke to the participants about his experience working with the government of Uganda in the foundation’s effort to make ARVs more widely available to the people of Uganda. He explained how the process of ARV treatment works, and of the two major initiatives he is working on. The first is pediatric treatment, finding ways to provide the more expensive pediatric treatment for children with HIV. The second was providing second-line ARVs, which patients who have been taking first-line ARVs for many years need to switch to. We learned about the growing importance of the latter initiative, as more people infected with HIV are now in need of switching to the second line of treatment.

After Mr. Lasche, Chris Day from Engage Uganda came to speak to us. His stories of his experience working with Medicin Sans Frontiere (Doctors Without Borders) for 9 years, in countries like Sudan, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Sierre Leone, and more, provided participants with a broader understanding of development work and working in conflict zones.

In the afternoon, Nakalyango Magalene from Nsambya Hostpial, a private missionary hospital in Kampala, came to speak with us about the opportunities and challenges of running a private hospital in Uganda. This allowed us to compare these issues to those of Mulago Hospital, the government public hospital we had visited a few days before.

In the afternoon we broke into small group discussions to reflect upon what we had heard that day, and also to part from our fellow Ugandan participants as it was their last day with us. We also discussed the conflict in the North, in light of the Americans upcoming trip to Gulu an Apac. Both Americans and Ugandans learned about the view of the North from the Southern Ugandans, observing first hand the large information gap that exists in the country regarding the region.

Following discussions we had a closing ceremony and discussed the next steps in the USA and Uganda for each participants.