KIU, Western Campus – As many students are locked down at home, Patrick Asaba, a third-year Diploma in Clinical Medicine and Community Health student at KIU Western Campus is getting hands-on clinical experience at a health center in Fort-portal, Kabarole district.

After educational institutions were abruptly closed by president Yoweri Museveni on June 18th following the increased severity of the COVID-19 second wave in Uganda, Asaba rushed back home to Fort-Portal.

He however did not sit. The day after his arrival back home, Asaba went to the health facility and applied to do his clinical practice there and he was accepted.

“I happen to be staying at a nearby health facility so I applied for clinical practice and I was accepted. So, every day I go there to attend to my designated duties,” Asaba, also the president of Timeless Mission, a student debate and public speaking association, says.

“Having lots of interactions with doctors and patients has added more to my clinical knowledge,” he adds.

Though clinical practice takes up the lion’s share of his ordinary day, Asaba spares a few hours to tend to the other aspects of his life.

“I do evening walks with my brother or a friend till around 6:30 pm, just before curfew begins and thereafter I have a shower and watch the evening news.” 

“After the news, I watch a movie, have supper and read through my school notes for an hour. I then interact with my friends on social media up to around 11:00 pm when I go to sleep,” he reveals.

He reckons that the lockdown has not come without its challenges, especially in the immediate aftermath of its imposition. He says there was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty.

He believes that the COVID-19 pandemic may stay longer than most people think and he advises fellow students to strictly adhere to the Ministry of Health Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which have become a theme song in the media content pool but which very many people ignore.

“The only solution to COVID-19 is if we follow the SOPs. Please mask up, let’s contain the infections and counteract it,” he advises.

For those not lucky enough to have something to do along professional or occupational lines during the lockdown, Asaba advises them to help parents with domestic work, read as hard as they can and cater for their mental health through reading, exercising and relaxing enough.

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