Pius Okong: saving mothers' lives in Uganda and worldwide

摘要

At the age of 21 years, Pius Okong entered a city for the first time. Born in 1952, the second child in a family of 12, he was brought up in a village in northeastern Uganda, and as a boy had little reason to travel. But as an intelligent child, he was encouraged to follow in his uncle's professional footsteps and, in 1975, travelled to the capital city Kampala to study medicine at Makerere University. 30 years later, Okong is a leading international figure in the Save the Mothers Initiative and is President of the Association of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Uganda. His career has taken him all over the world; training in Ireland and Germany, studying for his PhD at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and serving as a consultant for many international organisations, including WHO, UNFPA, and UNICEF. But despite the international lifestyle offered to him, Okong remains committed to Uganda, where he lives and works. Indeed, he describes being able to work in Uganda as one of the most satisfying thinqs about his job#