Hannah Coulter, Lukwiya Fellow 

Hannah was born and bred near the blue waters of Lake Taupō, New Zealand. Her upbring­ing was classic Kiwi style, fea­tur­ing a solid family, sup­port­ive friends, plenty of sport and out­doors, and of course, under­pinned by a strong Chris­tian found­a­tion. Both parents being doctors, she was destined to either love or loathe the pro­fes­sion. For­tu­nately, medical school was on the cards from halfway through sec­ond­ary school, and she left Taupō to pursue this in 2018.

Study­ing mostly in Dunedin, she also spent some time in Mas­ter­ton, Inver­car­gill, Timaru and Central Otago, giving her a wide range of exper­i­ence in New Zealand health­care before getting her first job as a doctor in the Wel­ling­ton region, where she has been working for the last two and a half years. Outside of work, she enjoys getting out into the bush, tus­socks and hills of the Tararua Ranges, rowing on the Wel­ling­ton harbour, baking, cooking, paint­ing and spend­ing quality time with close friends and whānau.

Hannah’s passion for global mis­sions has been growing gradu­ally, but par­tic­u­larly in the last two years, where she has seen the oppor­tun­ity to use her skills in the work­place to benefit com­munit­ies in the most effect­ive ways. Every­one has a gift that is given to them by God, and she believes that her gift lies in her care for other people, com­bined with her love of problem-solving, science and the art of medi­cine. Africa has always pulled at her heart and piqued her interest due to family con­nec­tions, its rich cul­tural and envir­on­mental aspects, and its com­munit­ies, which have con­tin­ued to be in great need through­out recent centuries.

The Lukwiya Fel­low­ship has opened new doors for Hannah to explore how to help those in Africa in a way that util­ises her skills and fits her well. This is a pre-arranged place­ment lasting at least three months under the super­vi­sion of Dr Nick Laing in the St Phil­lips clinic in Gulu, North­ern Uganda, which serves to meet the needs of those who are dis­ad­vant­aged most. Dr Laing runs a charity called One Day Health, which focuses on provid­ing primary health­care to those who are unable to access it otherwise.

The pos­i­tion is sup­por­ted by the New Zealand Church Mis­sion­ary Society, and Hannah came across the advert­ise­ment for it in the Chris­tian Medical Fel­low­ship’s monthly news­let­ter. Its name cel­eb­rates the work of Dr Matthew Lukwiya, a Ugandan phys­i­cian who did incred­ible work, par­tic­u­larly in the area of Ebola care in the 1990s during the Ebola epi­demic in Uganda, and who was the last staff member to die of the disease he self­lessly did so much work to prevent. It is a par­tially funded pos­i­tion awarded annu­ally to a health pro­fes­sional from New Zealand, sup­port­ing them to use their God-given gifts in the African health­care and com­munity contexts.

In being awarded the Lukwiya Fel­low­ship, Hannah anti­cip­ates that she will heavily involve herself amongst the com­munity of Gulu and its sur­rounds, both for her own and others’ benefit. She greatly looks forward to learn­ing about Ugandan culture, lan­guage and tra­di­tions, not to mention the food, and hopes to bring aspects of these things back to her life in New Zealand on her return. She hopes also that she will be able to learn plenty about dia­gnoses and man­age­ment of disease in resource-poor set­tings, keeping her ‘L‑plates’ on and staying humble, absorb­ing the know­ledge and exper­i­ence of those around her. While the current global polit­ical sphere has thrown some tur­bu­lence at her travel plans, these are going ahead with some slight alter­a­tions, and she plans to leave New Zealand in mid-May 2026, return­ing in November.

For those wanting to pray for Hannah and her upcom­ing adven­ture in Uganda, she would most appre­ci­ate the Lord’s guid­ance on using her skills wisely and com­pet­ently to support her patients and col­leagues in the health­care sphere. She needs courage to be unashamed and speak of God with wisdom to her local com­munity, make lasting friend­ships and build His Kingdom in fel­low­ship with others.

In pre­par­a­tion for travel, she is focus­ing on getting all her ducks in order, fun­drais­ing for One Day Health and other African charity ven­tures, and ensur­ing safe travel halfway around the world in its current turmoil. Finally, she hopes that those sup­port­ing her at home will pray for ongoing pos­it­ive impacts after she leaves Uganda, both for the people of Gulu and also for her own per­sonal devel­op­ment, so that she can con­tinue the Lord’s work when she returns to New Zealand. May the Lord speak into Hannah’s life through His people in Uganda, and into the lives of those around her.

Learn more about the Lukwiya Fel­low­ship — https://​www​.nzcms​.org​.nz/​g​e​t​-​i​n​v​o​l​v​e​d​/​l​u​k​w​i​y​a​-​h​e​a​l​t​h​-​f​e​l​l​o​w​s​h​ip/