Nile Post
  • News
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Education
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
    • Security
  • Business
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • Week in Ugandan News
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • South Sudan
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Health
      • Coronavirus outbreak
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
  • Tech
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
  • Archives
  • Live
No Results Found
View All Results
  • News
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Education
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
    • Security
  • Business
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • Week in Ugandan News
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • South Sudan
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Health
      • Coronavirus outbreak
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
  • Tech
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
  • Archives
  • Live
No Results Found
View All Results
Nile Post
No Results Found
View All Results

Film Raises Funds for Isolated Hospital in Sudanese War Zone

Amon Katungulu by Amon Katungulu
October 30, 2018 at 6:52 am
in Health, News
Film Raises Funds for Isolated Hospital in Sudanese War Zone

With the unrelenting violence in places such as South Sudan and Somalia, the world seems to have overlooked the people of Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, where for several years President Omar al-Bashir waged war against his own people.

A few years ago on a near-daily basis, Russian-made Antonov planes bombed unarmed civilians, injuring and killing them, as well as burning small, thatched-roof houses and crops that would have fed the Nuba people in this remote region.

Most of the medical staff of international aid agencies left the mountain region, but one doctor stayed.

Dr. Tom Catena, who came from upstate New York, is a surgeon, pediatrician and an obstetrician-gynecologist at Mother of Mercy Hospital, which is the only major hospital in the Nuba Mountains for hundreds of kilometers. He first trained in Kenya before landing in Sudan’s South Kordofan state.

Catena does what he can to save the lives of hundreds of men, women and children caught up in the battle between President Bashir and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, rebel fighters who fought alongside South Sudanese secessionists.

Catena’s story is being told to the world by a close friend from Brown University, filmmaker Ken Carlson.

“I found out that he was in great need in the Nuba Mountains five-six years ago, in need of aid. We raised $102K ($102,000), put a truckload together of vaccines and supplies and I realized it was a great story to tell,” Carlson said.

That visit eventually resulted in a documentary, The Heart of Nuba, which Carlson has been showing around the United States and abroad to raise money for Mother of Mercy Hospital. To date, the screenings have pulled in $500,000, according to Carlson.

From engineer to humanitarian

Catena graduated from Brown in 1986 with a degree in mechanical engineering, and despite high-paying job offers in his field, he felt a different calling.

“I turn to my brother Felix and I’m like, ‘Felix, I should go to medical school.’ He’s like, ‘Tom, what are you talking about? You’re an engineer. What are you talking about?’ And I said, ‘No, I think I should do it,'” Catena said in the film.

Carlson said he was drawn to find out why Catena was so committed to the people of the Nuba Mountains, so he flew to the region for several weeks in 2014 and again in 2015 to film Catena in action for his documentary.

The documentary captures Catena, who awakens each day at 5:50 a.m. without an alarm, marches to the chapel where he says a rosary, drinks tea, then walks straight to the hospital for another long day. In one scene, Catena tends to a man who has just had his nose blown off by shrapnel.

Carlson said of Catena, “He’s furious! These families are being destroyed for no reason.”

The documentary was shown Oct. 20 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., for a screening that drew dozens of donors, activists and Diaspora.

Nathaniel Nyoke, a lost boy from South Sudan who ran barefoot for five days to escape the fighting in Bor more than 20 years ago, says one part of the film gave him chills.

“Seeing the kids running from the Antonovs and then jumping in one hole to hide. That’s what I used to do,” Nyoke told South Sudan in Focus.

Sudanese nurse Nasima Catena, who is married to Tom Catena, described what it’s like to be in the operating room when you come under attack.

“No one comes out, but people always run to the foxhole with patients who are able to go, who are able to run,” Catena said.

In January, President Bashir signed a four-month cease-fire with the SPLM-North rebels, but rebel ground attacks continue in the area. The International Criminal Court charged Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2009 and 2010, but he has eluded arrest.

Carlson said The Heart of Nuba has more screenings coming up in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and several U.S. universities, including Princeton, Columbia and Duke.

Tags: healthhealth concernsraise fundsRussian-made Antonov planesSudansudan hospitalThe Heart of Nuba

Related Posts

Faulty condoms go on sale, spark anger
Africa

Faulty condoms go on sale, spark anger

by NP admin
January 8, 2021
0

A Zambian MP has compared a nationwide distribution of condoms and sterile gloves despite the products failing safety tests as...

Read more
Egypt supports removing Sudan from the US terror list

US removes Sudan from state sponsors of terrorism list

December 14, 2020
Sudan PM visits Ethiopia for talks on restive Tigray region

Sudan PM visits Ethiopia for talks on restive Tigray region

December 14, 2020
Sudan activists want to disband old ruling party

Sudan cancels 3,500 passports issued to foreigners

December 11, 2020
Citizens of 15 African countries to pay Shs 50 million bond to get US Visa

Citizens of 15 African countries to pay Shs 50 million bond to get US Visa

November 25, 2020

Discussion about this post

Follow Us

  • 178.8k Fans
  • 150.3k Followers

Latest

2021 Consumer Choice Awards (CCAs) launched

2021 Consumer Choice Awards (CCAs) launched

January 25, 2021
Frank Lampard sacked by Chelsea after 18 months in charge

Frank Lampard sacked by Chelsea after 18 months in charge

January 25, 2021
Friends turn foes: Bobi Wine, Kibalama face off in court

I was coached, forced to lie about Kyagulanyi in NUP case- Kibalama

January 25, 2021
Ugandan government threatens to reimpose Covid19 lockdown

Lukwago to NRM: “If you did not rig elections, allow Bobi Wine to move freely”

January 25, 2021
UIA: Local Ugandans lead in investments in the country

‘Expansion of Namanve industrial park will create 200,000 jobs’

January 25, 2021
cocacola-ad-safebodacocacola-ad-safebodacocacola-ad-safeboda

Featured

Friends turn foes: Bobi Wine, Kibalama face off in court
Featured

I was coached, forced to lie about Kyagulanyi in NUP case- Kibalama

by Kenneth Kazibwe
January 25, 2021
0

In a twist of events, National Unity Platform...

Police apologise to Buganda, Catholic Church for firing teargas during clan meeting

We are vacating Kyagulanyi’s home but maintaining surveillance on him- Police

January 25, 2021
Police: “It is Bobi Wine who doesn’t want to meet his lawyers”

Court orders security to withdraw from Kyagulanyi home

January 25, 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
Call us: +256-417-720-101

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.

No Results Found
View All Results
  • News
    • 2021 Elections Watch
      • The Election Podcast
    • Education
    • Exclusive
    • Investigations
    • Security
  • Business
  • Opinions
    • Columns
      • Parting Shot
      • Two Sides of a Coin
      • Bazanye’s Quick Shots
      • Week in Ugandan News
  • Global
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • The Americas
  • East Africa
    • Kenya
    • Rwanda
    • South Sudan
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Health
      • Coronavirus outbreak
    • Tour & Travel
    • Love Therapist
    • Homes
  • Tech
  • Special Reports
    • Kabaka Mutebi’s 25th Coronation Series
    • Focus on Somalia
    • Sino-Africa
    • Uganda at 56
    • Anti-Corruption Fight
    • Age Limit Map
    • Tuve Ku Kaveera
  • Sports
    • Place-It
    • StarTimes Uganda Premier League
    • Bundesliga
    • World Cup
  • Jobs
  • Archives
  • Live

© 2020 Nile Post Uganda Ltd. - A Next Media Services Company.