“When I Grow Up, I Want to Be…”

July 2, 2023

At the Children’s Surgical Hospital in Entebbe, we like to ask our young patients what they want to be when they grow up.

Some, like seven-year-old Collins, say, “Policeman.”

Miracle, 7, says he doesn’t know, but he still has time to think about it.

And many, like Kitenga Jesse, also 7, answer, “Doctor.”

Caterina, one of our nurses here, tells us this is one of the most motivating parts of her job.

“We stay really close to the children, we see them before and after the surgery and the process that they are going through. And when they add that they would like to become doctors, to give back what they received here – I think that this is really beautiful.”

Seventeen-year-old Celestino says, “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor because I’ve seen from here the way they treat us.”

Ayesiga, 14, agrees. “I like how they are doing things, and how they are helping people, and how they are helping me,” he tells us. “I want to be a surgeon. To help people to be healed.”

Every patient at the Children’s Surgical Hospital receives the treatment they need, completely free of charge. Since opening in 2021, we have performed over 2,000 surgical interventions, and the average age of our patients is under six years old.