Our Gorilla Doctors Uganda team was delighted to welcome the Honorable Deborah Malac, United States Ambassador to Uganda, to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest this week. Ambassador Malac was travelling in the southwestern Uganda region to learn more about various USA-affiliated and supported programs and projects. She first made a stop at the Bwindi Community Hospital in Buhoma, which is our surveillance partner in the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT project. Our Uganda Head Veterinarian, Dr. Benard Ssebide, joined Hospital Director Dr. Edwin Birungi to describe our surveillance efforts for emerging zoonotic diseases in the area. The Ambassador then met with Conservation Area Manager Pontious Ezuma and our Bwindi Impenetrable National Park partners at Bwindi’s Visitor Information Center. This gave Gorilla Doctors another wonderful opportunity to also tell Ambassador Malac about our core work to provide life-saving veterinary care to ill and injured mountain gorillas living in Bwindi. Despite a very tight travel schedule, she and her staff took the time to ask many great questions about Gorilla Doctors, and promised to return.  Our Gorilla Doctors’ Uganda team felt fortunate to have this opportunity to acknowledge the importance of its connection to the US, and we look forward to future visits from the US Ambassador and her staff.

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