Building a Healthier Community: Jubilee Health Services

Creating proactive health solutions 

Joy Niwomujuni saw a problem in her community on the outskirts of Kampala: too many people were waiting until something was wrong to seek healthcare. Having lost a parent at a young age, Joy knew preventative care is essential to catching issues before they become life-changing. Working in healthcare, Joy saw an opportunity to make preventative care more accessible to Ugandans, particularly for schools and communities without consistent access to medical services. 

In 2013, she started Jubilee Health Services from her home. The initial strategy focused on marketing routine medical checkups directly to schools. Since schools often lack the financial resources for full-time medical personnel or equipped sick bays, Jubilee Health provided weekly doctor visits, trained school nurses, analyzed health reports, and assisted in stocking appropriate emergency medicines. They also offered mobile health services visiting different districts in Uganda, often in partnership with organizations like Compassion International. 

By 2019, Jubilee Health Services was able to secure a permanent facility — just before the COVID-19 pandemic. This proved to be a critical turning point for operations and community support. 

Jubilee Health was able to remain active as an essential service provider even when schools closed down. This positioned the clinic as a reliable lifeline, allowing them to provide continuous care, significantly increase local visibility, and build deep, long-term trust within the community that sustained their post-pandemic growth. 

From running a facility to strengthening systems for greater impact 

In 2022, Joy participated in Sinapis’ Aspire Launchpad, which gave her the ability to refine her business model. 

Through mentorship and business support, Joy’s experience with Sinapis challenged her to think differently about what she was building. She began looking beyond the day-to-day demands of running a healthcare facility and started focusing more intentionally on the systems, people, and processes needed to build a stronger organization. 

The shift was important. If Jubilee Health Services was going to serve more people, the business needed the capacity to grow. Jubilee Health Services strengthened its hiring practices and developed clearer HR policies and processes. 

Joy was also invited to pitch in Sinapis’ business competition, where Jubilee Health Services received a $10,000 grant. 

The capital provided an opportunity to invest in areas that could strengthen Jubilee Health’s operations, including upgrading its laboratory services and moving from paper-based records to an electronic patient management system. 

Over time, its core team grew from four employees to 15, with up to 50 field workers supporting the organization during peak medical seasons. 

For Joy, growth was not just about serving more patients. It was about building the internal capacity to serve them well. 

Expanding access 

Thirteen years after starting Jubilee Health Services from her home, Joy’s vision continues to expand.

Today, the business is making healthcare more accessible to mothers, families, and communities beyond the walls of its facility through mobile health services and partnerships with organizations such as Compassion International. 

Joy has also taken what she has learned as an entrepreneur and is passing it on to other women. To date, she has trained more than 286 women in business strategy, helping them strengthen how they build and operate their businesses. 

Joy’s journey reflects something we see repeatedly among growth-stage entrepreneurs: growth is not only about getting bigger. It is about building the leadership, systems, and team that allow a business to thrive. 

For Joy, 13 years is not simply a measure of how long Jubilee Health Services has existed. It is a legacy of learning, adapting and building for the future

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