Dana Phillips

Dana was born and raised in Cullman, Alabama and moved to Memphis, Tennessee as a young adult. She worked as a pediatric speech-language pathologist at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee for twenty years, specializing in oral-motor/feeding assessment and intervention for children with disabilities. After discipling teenage girls for over twelve years in the outskirts of Memphis, Dana moved into a low-income, high crime area to partner with Binghampton Community Church for ministry purposes, where she lived and served for almost five years. BCC remains her sending church and the Binghampton community will always have a place in her heart.

In 2016, Dana led a short-term mission trip to Uganda to provide speech and physical therapy services at a rural children’s home. After a follow-up vision trip, she moved to Uganda permanently in 2018 to set up their speech-language therapy program. Dana’s passions have always included diversity, social justice, education, discipleship and individuals with disabilities. The Lord designed the perfect package to fulfill all of those and called her into more full-time ministry there.

Dana currently leads the Therapy Department at Ekisa Ministries (located in Buikwe District in Uganda). She trains and oversees Ugandan physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language therapists to provide services to children with a variety of disabilities. Their program serves a school for children with disabilities (Ekisa Academy), a residential home located at Ekisa, and many surrounding areas through community therapy visits, home visits, and caregiver trainings. They also empower local communities and families to acquire or create adaptive equipment, providing some financial partnership. The backbone of this program is collaborating with Ugandan professionals and empowering the development of their programs.

Dana is certified as a Speech-Language Therapist with the Ugandan Allied Health Professionals Council. She teaches the Developmental and Acquired Dysphagia class at Makerere University (in partnership with Mulago Hospital), located in Kampala, Uganda and provides feeding assessments for the Dysphagia Clinic program at Health Initiatives Association located in the heart of Buikwe. Dana’s hope is that providing these medical services and trainings will not only improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities in Uganda but will also ultimately lead to an understanding of the saving knowledge of the Blood of Christ.

When you donate to this ministry fund, you contribute in the following specific ways:

• payment of salaries of Ugandan therapists
• purchase of adaptive equipment (wheelchairs, standing frames, braces/crutches) for individuals with disabilities
• transport and miscellaneous costs for community visits in rural villages
• medical/healthcare to improve quality of life for individuals with disabilities
• empowering of families and communities to care for their children with disabilities
• discipleship for people within the community
• support of local churches and ministries

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