When Sohi Ashraf was growing up in Iran during its bloody 10-year war with Iraq, his parents did all they could to shield him from its suffering and death. But Sohi saw enough to decide while still very young that he wanted to be a doctor. Not your typical doctor, however: His goal was to practice in the poorest parts of the world, to bring his skills to bear in places where proper medical care is little more than an aspiration. After graduating medical school and taking up a residency at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut, Sohi was given an opportunity through Western Connecticut Health Network’s Global Health Program to practice medicine in Uganda in the summer of 2015.

A woman walks along a dirt road in the rural Millennium Village of Ruhiira, Uganda.

Traveling with University of Vermont first-year medical students Mary-Kate LoPiccolo, left, and Alexandra Miller, Dr. Ashraf went to Uganda looking to help the sickest of the sick in one of the most impoverished countries in the world.

Dr. Ashraf faced a stark reality when encountering the poor hospital conditions and limited resources in Uganda. Patients lie in their beds against a wall of peeling paint in the infectious disease ward at Mulago Hospital in the capital city of Kampala, Uganda.

A single lightbulb hangs from the ceiling of the infectious disease ward at Mulago Hospital.

Medical issues that could have been easily diagnosed and treated with the limitless resources and patient health insurance in the U.S. are not so easily treated in Uganda. After a series of physical tests performed by Dr. Ashraf, a patient's eyes well up in sadness upon hearing that he likely suffered a stroke. If this occured in America, the patient would have received a CT scan of the brain, ultrasound of arteries, an EKG, followed by an asprin regiment and physical therapy. Instead, he was admitted to the hospital to monitor and received just a basic blood pressure screening due to the high cost of scans and treatment.

Dr. Sohi Ashraf looks at an HIV positive patient's X-ray during a patient home visit through the ACCESS Health Training Institute in the rural town of Nakaseke, Uganda. ACCESS is a rural health center that features a medical clinic, medical training institute with dorms and an outreach program to inform the community about disease prevention. Dr. Ashraf sees the importance in public education and rural health clinics and hopes to open up a similar rural clinic someday.

With 84 percent of the country's population located in rural areas and little access to transportation, it is crucial to have rural clinics to provide care for patients. An HIV positive man walks back into his house after speaking with doctors during an ACCESS Health Training Institute home visit in rural Nakaseke.

Friends and family of patients at Mulago Hospital wait in the courtyard of the hospital in Kampala. Attendants, usually friends or family of patients, must be present at the hospital to tend to their loved ones who are unable to get food or bathe themselves. Food, hygiene services and even blankets are not typically provided to patients at the hospital.

Ugandan intern Dr. Alex Kayongo, left, and Norwalk Dr. Sohi Ashraf lift a patient back into his bed after he seized and fell to the floor at Mulago Hospital. The patient fell to the concrete, urinated and lay there for some time before anybody noticed that he fell from the bed.

"You're in a place where the sickest of the sick come, and people die - it's inevitable," said Dr. Ashraf. Despite the efforts of talented Ugandan doctors and help from international doctors and medical students, death can seem inescapable in such a resource-limited setting where patients often cannot afford tests and treatment. Coffins are built on site in a high-traffic area directly across from the Mulago Hospital mortuary in the capital city of Kampala, Uganda.

Dr. Sohi Ashraf looks at a 27-year-old patient with HIV and meningitis as her breathing slows and her condition worsens in the infectious disease ward at Mulago Hospital. The patient had been dropped off at the hospital by her family weeks earlier. With no attending friends or family to care for her at the hospital, she did not receive the necessary treatment.

A nurse puts up a sheet to bathe a 27-year-old patient with HIV and meningitis at Mulago Hospital. The patient died shortly after being bathed one last time.

A 27-year-old HIV-positive patient, right, lies in bed as her two sisters care for her children, a newborn and a toddler, at Nakaseke Hospital in the rural town of Nakaseke, Uganda. The patient's sisters have been out of school to care for the patient and her children, trying their best to come up with money for food and other necessities. 77 percent of Uganda's population is under 30 years old and often the choice must be made between caring for a loved one in the hospital or going to school to get an education.

Ugandan intern Dr. Alex Kayongo, left, examines a patient as Dr. Sohi Ashraf and University of Vermont medical student Alexandra Miller watch during clinical rounds at Mulago Hospital in Uganda's capital city of Kampala. International doctors visiting resource-limited countries learn new techniques, often cheaper alternatives to expensive scans, from the many knowledgable Ugandan doctors. "They're so resourceful and so versatile," said Dr. Ashraf of the Ugandan doctors. "They make things work with next to nothing."

Norwalk Hospital resident Dr. Sohi Ashraf examines a patient with severe malaria and pneumonia at St. Stephen's Hospital in the Mpererwe village of Kampala. One thing many Ugandan doctors came to learn from American doctors was the power of compassion and human touch. "They're so kind," said Ugandan Dr. Alex Kayongo of Dr. Sohi and other American doctors. "It's patient care first, then other things can follow."

"There's a lot of things that can be done," said Ashraf. "Come here and help with prevention and education - not only medical education for students and residents and interns, but help contribute to public education. Maybe I'm a dreamer and I'm too optimistic, but that's what I believe in and that's what I'm going to do."

"If you're going to right off the bat say 'There is no hope,' then why are we doing anything that we're doing?"