[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 13, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S1907]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           DR. RODNEY BELCHER

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is with great sadness that I rise today 
to inform the Senate of the tragic death of Dr. Rodney Belcher, an 
orthopedic surgeon from Arlington, VA, who was murdered in Kampala, 
Uganda, on March 13.
  I was fortunate to have known Dr. Belcher. Seven years ago, shortly 
after I established the War Victims Fund, a $5 million appropriation in 
the foreign aid program to provide medical and related assistance to 
war victims, Rod Belcher signed on with Health Volunteers Overseas. He 
had lived in Uganda before the civil war there, and the Agency for 
International Development sent him back to start a War Victims Fund 
program to assist people who had been disabled from war injuries. He 
and his wife Dawn had been there ever since.
  There were tens of thousands of amputees, many victims of landmines, 
without access to artificial limbs. The Mulagro hospital and medical 
school, once the pride and joy of that country, were in ruins. There 
were not even basic medical supplies. There was not a single trained 
orthopedic surgeon in the country. The Ugandan Government was bankrupt.
  Rod embraced that enormous challenge with enthusiasm, good humor, 
patience, and a deep, personal commitment to the Ugandan people. Over 
the years he won the trust and respect of the Ugandan Government, and 
of successive United States Ambassadors and the ambassadors of other 
countries who witnessed the impact he was having on the lives of so 
many people. He rebuilt the orthopedic clinic and trained every 
orthopedic surgeon in Uganda today.
  When my wife Marcelle and I visited Uganda in 1990, Dr. Belcher took 
us around the orthopedic clinic. We saw what a difference the War 
Victims Fund had made, as a result of his efforts and the efforts of 
the Ugandans who worked with him. It was an experience that neither of 
us will ever forget. We saw what a difference this one American had 
made.
  Since then I have often thought of that trip, and Rod Belcher became 
the model for the volunteers that have been recruited for other War 
Victims Fund programs. He exemplified what we looked for in others. He 
had a warmth and gentleness, and a commitment to Uganda that was 
extraordinary.
  Mr. President, on March 13, on his way to his office, Dr. Belcher was 
murdered when two men stole his car. He was shot in the chest and died 
right there.
  It would be hard to conceive of a more senseless, horrible crime. Rod 
Belcher was a wonderfully generous human being who devoted his 
professional life to improving the lives of others. For the past 7 
years he lived and worked in a country where getting even the simplest 
thing accomplished often required incredible ingenuity and persistence. 
Rod had both.
  At his funeral, Dr. Belcher was honored by the Ugandan Vice 
President, the Minister of Health, the director of the hospital, the 
dean of the medical school, the American Ambassador, the British High 
Commissioner, and many others. The orthopedic clinic that he worked so 
hard to establish was formally named after him. The streets were lined 
with people who knew him personally or had heard of the American doctor 
who had done so much for the Ugandan people.
  Rod Belcher will be terribly missed. But he leaves a legacy that 
anyone would be proud of. He gave the War Victims Fund its start, and 
for that I will always be grateful. And he leaves a core of trained 
Ugandan orthopedic surgeons who loved and admired him, who will carry 
on in his place.

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