Inaugural Community Health Spring Break Mission to Uganda for GW Medical Students

The Office of International Medicine Programs (IMP) is thrilled to announce the inaugural Community Health Spring Break Mission to Uganda, in partnership with Omni Med Uganda!

On March 30, 2025, a cohort of 12 first-year medical students from the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), chaperoned by IMP Program Manager Rebecca Zacuto, MPH, arrived at Omni Med’s compound in the Mukono district of Eastern Uganda, ready to embark upon a week-long community health mission. This week offered an invaluable immersive learning opportunity f0r students to deepen their medical knowledge and develop their intercultural sensitivity, learning first-hand from Omni Med staff and local health workers. The goal of this trip is to provide students with an overview of the most effective strategies for improving health outcomes in an impoverished, rural African setting.

This new community health mission, tailored towards first-year medical students, is an extension of a long-standing partnership between IMP and Omni Med. Since 2014, first- and fourth-year GW medical students, as well as nursing students, health sciences students, and residents have had the opportunity to travel to Omni Med’s site in Uganda for summer projects and clinical rotations through this partnership. Founded in 1998 by GW SMHS alumnus Edward O’Neil Jr., MD, ’87, Omni Med has a three-fold mission.  

Employing a social justice approach to global health work, Omni Med seeks to empower local communities to improve their own health through innovative programs and cooperative efforts with the local and national Ministry of Health and other partners. Omni Med also provides transformative experiences for global health students and allied health professionals who volunteer their time with the organization, aiming to foster ethical leadership for the next generation of health professionals. Omni Med and IMP have been eager to offer a one-week mission trip to GW medical students since before the COVID-19 pandemic and are very excited the mission was finally executed five years later. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Omni Med and IMP laid the groundwork to offer a one-week mission trip for GW medical students since, and five years later we are very excited to finally launch the mission program.

Since partnering with the Ugandan Ministry of Health in 2008, Omni Med has been training locally elected community health workers (CHWs) and providing community-based health interventions. The organization’s breadth of community health programs include maintaining the volunteer community health worker workforce, constructing protected water sources and cookstoves, coordinating vaccination interventions, oral rehydration therapy training, disease prevention and treatment, and clinical referrals. Omni Med staff also have developed hypertension screening and mental health treatment programs. Importantly, Omni Med conducts and publishes clinical trials to measure program efficacy and impact.  

During the one-week mission trip, GW first-year medical students participated in all facets of Omni Med’s current community-based programming in Uganda. By the end of the week, students gained an increased understanding of the local health infrastructure and the impact of the community health work being done by Omni Med staff. IMP and O’Neil hope that students who participated in the mission broaden their perspectives and leave with a deepened commitment to global health equity and an enhanced understanding of the ways they can apply their medical knowledge in international contexts.  

Check back on our IMP Fall 2025 newsletter for a debrief on the community health spring break mission and to hear reflections from our inaugural cohort! We are thrilled to collaborate with Omni Med to offer this immersive, intensive spring break mission, and we look forward to continuing this program for our medical students in the years to come.