Until April 2021 Marsali served with Dwelling Places, providing healthcare for children living on the streets in Kampala and Karamoja. At the end of 2022, she finished her service with AIM.
Marsali was raised on the Isle of Lewis and then in Skye. She trained as a general nurse in Glasgow before working with children in a mission hospital in South India. She then studied Paediatrics in London and specialised in Oncology and HIV at Great Ormond Street Hospital before moving to the Paediatric Emergency Department in Glasgow Yorkhill Hospital. She then felt God calling her to full-time mission, and after joining AIM in 2000 was sent to serve at Dwelling Places in Uganda in 2001.
Dwelling Places works to rescue street children, rehabilitate them in the organisation’s home, and then resettle them back into their families and communities. Marsali says: ‘The health work is a vital aspect of outreach to the children living on the streets. We develop relationships and trust, assist in emergencies, comfort and encourage where possible, teaching about health and life skills. Our social workers work with the children who come off the streets and are part of our rehabilitation programme, family tracing, home visits, and resettlement. For those who have no existing relatives, we pioneer in adoption and foster care, and for some of our older adolescents, they continue into independent living.’
While at Dwelling Places, Marsali developed the medical work within its holistic ministry. Medical work is an amazing tool in reaching out to the lost, and Marsali has a heart to see street-connected children come to know God as their Father as they experience his love through Dwelling Places’ medical ministry.
Marsali worked with them for 15 years and then completed a Masters in Global Health and Development in 2017. She returned Uganda to continue working with Dwelling Places, but this time with an emphasis on frontline healthcare for children living on the streets. Most children living on the streets of Kampala are originally from the Karamoja region of Uganda. Therefore she also works in Karamoja, seeking to prevent the migration and trafficking of children to the streets.
Evangelism and discipleship continue to be integral to life and work in Africa, whether it’s within the team, or with ex-street-connected children and youth.
Besides this, Marsali was involved in training and mentoring members of the Dwelling Places team and others involved in healthcare, counselling and child protection. Until she finished serving with AIM at the end of 2022 she continued to be a member of AIM’s Child Safety and Protection team, which ensures high standards of child care and safeguarding within our organisation. Marsali is currently transferring to serve with Pioneers International.
