India heeds Soroti University’s cry for help

For the past five years, physiotherapy students at Soroti University have been confined to theoretical learning without the practical tools and facilities needed to fully understand their course. 

Their education has been hindered by cramped classrooms, a lack of a functional teaching hospital, and poorly equipped laboratories, conditions that have severely limited their hands-on training and professional development.

In a bid to mitigate some of these challenges, an email from the university was sent out to the High Commission of India in Uganda. Now, what started as a short in the dark, has blossomed into a real-world impact for students and communities in Uganda’s eastern region.

Responding to the outcry, the High Commission on July 1, 2025, donated physiotherapy training equipment it says is worth over $25,000 (about shillings 89 million) to the institution.

Their hope arrived boxed and branded in the form of physiotherapy equipment donated by the Indian High Commission and supported by Indian companies in Uganda.

India’s High Commissioner, Upender Singh Rawat, said the donation reflects a broader vision of strengthening Uganda’s regional institutions through education and health partnerships.

“Just bringing medicines is not enough,” he said.

“We must skill the youth to transform the health sector, and this support will boost physiotherapy training, research and rural healthcare education.”

While handing over the equipment at their premises in Nakasero, Kampala, Rawat noted that Soroti University was chosen deliberately. “Development shouldn’t stop in Kampala. Real impact begins where the need is greatest.”

University vice-chancellor Prof. John Robert Ikoja Odongo thanked the Indian government and corporate sponsors for responding to their request, noting that the equipment will change how they teach and serve the community.

“This equipment won’t just sit in boxes. By Friday, it must be in use. Now, we finally have tools that match our vision,” he said.

Odongo revealed that the institution, established in 2019, has struggled with space, lacks a teaching hospital, and has no proper physiotherapy equipment despite the increasing enrolment.

High Commissioner Upender Singh Rawat (centre-left) handing over items at the High Commission of India offices in Kampala on July 1, 2025. (Courtesy Photo)

“We try to squeeze all our training into small rooms, our laboratories are far from ideal, and since we started admitting students in medicine, nursing and engineering in 2019, equipment has been a major challenge, and this support changes everything.

Odongo, an alumnus of India-based Delhi University, described the donation as both institutional and personal, attributing that many people only associate physiotherapy with gyms, and yet it is also critical in hospitals.

“I’m happy India remembers me,” he said. This support may cost a lot, but it will go a long way. It will raise a generation of citizens who will serve Uganda’s health sector both in public and private service”.

Head of the physiotherapy department at the University Alex Imalingat Ujakol said students were hungry for hands-on learning and the donation will change how they train and how we serve the community.”

“We wanted this kind of help so badly, and it has come at the right time. This will benefit not just our students in physiotherapy, but also in nursing, medicine, and lab sciences.”

The donation was supported by Indian companies operating in Uganda, including Bank of India, UMC Hospital, Keshwala Group, Max Group, Shree Enterprises and  Abacus e-care.

The government university’s mandate includes teaching, research, and community outreach. But with a constrained budget and growing enrolment, fulfilling that mission has been a challenge until now.

Ujakol noted they anticipate the equipment will also facilitate research, which is a major component of education, and help alleviate the needs of the community surrounding the university.

The donation is part of India’s wider development partnership with Uganda, which includes scholarships, skills training, and health-sector support. India also supplies the majority of Uganda’s pharmaceuticals.