After allegedly running an unlicensed medical facility and fatally operating on Ugandan children, U.S. missionary Renee Bach is being brought to trial.
Bach, whose nonprofit organization Serving His Children provided medical services for more than 3,000 children in Uganda, will appear in court next year after her actions are said to have caused more than 100 deaths in children, reports NBC News.
In 2018, Medium featured a story of another white missionary who warned of Bach’s “white saviorism” motives, which went ignored.
The lawsuit is calling for the medical facility to be shut down as well as compensation for damages. The plaintiffs in the case, Gimbo Brenda and Kakai Annet, are both mothers of children who they claim died under Bach’s care.
“It is unacceptable, narcissistic behavior, for anyone, Black or white, rich or poor, missionary or angel to pass off as a ‘medical practitioner’ when they are not,” Beatrice Kayaga, officer for Ugandan advocacy group, the Women’s Probono Initiative, told NBC News.
Court documents also state the medical facility was closed in 2015 but “still continue[d] to admit ill children to its premises.”
Accusations via social media have rolled in since the facility and Bach were sued, stating that the nonprofit “had poor follow-up practices,” and Bach “who only has a high school diploma, was actively practicing medicine on children.”
Bach’s attorney, David Gibbs, disputes the claims as being “entirely without merit” and asserted that the public who criticized his client via social media were “reputational terrorists.”
Shifting the focus away from Bach, he further claims that Serving His Children employed Ugandan healthcare providers who Bach occasionally helped.
“She never represented herself as a doctor or nurse, but she made nutritional care provided by qualified medical professionals more accessible for families in rural areas," he added.
During an interview about her nonprofit in 2017, Bach said: “Our focus is malnutrition, so we do preventative care programs and then also treatment services.”
Bach’s case is expected to go to trial in January 2020.