Weekly Reports from Iganga: March, Week 4

From the Safe Water Coordinator, Patrick Tulibagenyi

Safe Water

·         Patrick has done an AMAZING job juggling five wells (four for Rotary and the last ChooseANeed well). Despite difficulties with one village he has managed to complete one well and has three others in various stages of completion!

·         Ibulanku B (one of the four Rotary wells) broke ground this week, Titus carried out the pre assessment, and the slab was cast. The community was so active and at the same time work was going on at Ibulanku A (another of the Rotary wells)

·          Attempted to hold a community meeting at Butyabule in Buyanga Sub County, but it was postponed to 30^th of March to try to attain better turnout. We went to Butyabule village to have the meeting but still the turn up was poor and from our observation after taking a walk around and asking some community members a few questions we realized that the community was not so demanding and not interested. Titus also went and had a meeting with the sub county officials concerning the shallow well project in their area and asked them to participate in the process.

·         We went for another meeting at Lubira village which was very good, the water and sanitation committee was also elected and the community was ready to get started the following day.

·         On the 31^st of March 2011, the ground was broken at Lubira village.

·         We then went and met with the LC 1 of Buyanga C village in Buyanga Sub County and in the same meeting we scheduled a big community meeting for the 5^th of April. Buyanga C village was selected by the LC3 chairperson of the Sub County after failing to have a successful meeting with Butyabule village.

·         Friday we had the Buwolomera well commissioning with a small turnout.

·         Patrick continues to monitor Lubira and Ibulanku A well construction process. One well is almost done and in the next week we will have done a great deal with the digging process.

·         Ine inputted some data of the shallow well database data but there is still a lot missing, especially with the older wells. Patrick will pull out his old paper files next week for her to go through and try to fill in some of the gaps. He is also working with the GPS because the initial readings for the well were incorrect.

·         Nawaningi Sub county offices are ever closed every time Patrick visits.

From our Program Manager, Linnea Ashley:

Fistula

·         Loy followed-up on our last patient and found she was wet.

·         She found four new patients.

·         We discussed the need to slow down on finding new patients given that we only have a few spaces for the June camp. Next week we will map out the next few weeks of work for her and her budget (some changes may need to be made regarding her work schedule).

·         Followed up with Dr. Constantine about some of the challenges with the fistula program (including payment of patients, follow-up procedures, and consistency of names and other intake information). I provided him with some ideas for improvement that can be incorporated on UVP’s side, including providing a interpreter for the first three days of the camp, providing name tags for UVPs fistula patients, and standardizing who gets money and how. I wait to hear back from him on the initial ideas. We hope to be able to incorporate them by the June camp.

 Orphan Support

·         Patrick went to Busalamu Secondary School to pay UNEB (Uganda National Examination Board) fee for the orphans/vulnerable children benefiting from the program. He also bought a text book for Patrick O. of Iganga Parents Secondary School.

·         Charles, Dumba, Martha, Zauja/Suzan, and Deborah would like to attend technical schools and have brought in the required information. They have been instructed to bring their guardians on Monday to sign a contract that stipulates exactly what we will pay (tuition up to 400,000) and the requirements of the family regarding cost, and grounds for dismissal from the program. We will redo our finance estimates to amend scholarship program figures as they will be higher than anticipated this quarter as a result.

·         Josephine brought her UNEB results and would like to prepare for university. She will work with Maureen to apply to the appropriate schools. Currently money is not in the budget for her to take computer classes but I will look more closely to see if it can be arranged.

·         Moses Nangobi received his UNEB results and apparently did well. He believes he can get into Gulu University. I explained (again) that we could not promise university fees but that we would inquire about a sponsor for him. In the meantime he will fill out the appropriate paperwork to apply in case the money is found.

From our Healthy Villages Program Coordinator, Alanta Colley:
Village Health Teams (VHTs)

This week Ine and Vicki worked on the ID cards for the VHT; collating the information needed for each card. They met with the Walukuba VHT on Monday, as the last village to take their photos. Following requests from Nabitovu and Nabukone VHT about sensitising the village, Ine prepared posters and information to support the VHT in conducting the education outreach on Family Planning. They are currently in Nabitovu with the VHT conducting the education.  Ine also accompanied me on Mosquito net follow up in Namungalwe. 

Internship Program 

Developments in the intern program:

·         I assigned the Ugandan interns to their respective teams.

·         I edited the Team Leader Manual for dissemination to the international internst.

·         I wrote 3 of the Healthy Village Profiles, which Linnea is currently editing, and which will go on the website as well as to the interns.

·         I worked with Maureen to print and photocopy the about manuals, the waiver and emergency contact form for the Ugandan interns to fill at their meeting this weekend.

·         I edited the Orientation Schedule.

Malaria

This week I conducted Mosquito Net follow up in Namungalwe with Ine. Unfortunately we only completed four houses before we were chased out of Namungalwe by a thunderstorm. We will go back to complete more follow up soon.

I have ordered 150 nets from Balton Company, which Titus will collect next week. Unfortunately this will only amount to 15 nets per village. I would love if we could continue to push the ChooseANeed nets campaign.

The Field Officers will begin to work with the Village Health Teams to run sensitisations on malaria in the coming weeks, with the hope of selling nets and emphasising that malaria exists year round. 

Hygiene and Sanitation 

Namungulwe Sanitation Push

The Namungalwe Sanitation Push was concluded on Monday, however the Village Health Team is very keen to continue the push without UVP involvement.

Sanitation Follow Up

Today (Friday) Titus, Maureen and I met to have a discussion about how to conduct sanitation follow up. We decided to pilot a sanitation follow up in Nabitovu. I am currently designing the follow up form. We decided the follow up program should begin with an initial consultation with the VHT, to get feedback on how sanitation has(or hasn’t) progressed since the sanitation push, and outline that the Follow Up will focus on encouraging villagers to make sanitation improvements, but not implementing the measures for them, as this will only increase the culture of dependency and lack of ownership. We intend to check tippy taps and instruct people to fill them, bring soap, and undertake repairs while we are there. We will carry some basic tools to assist this, but not all the materials like a sanitation campaign.

Family Planning

Family Planning outreaches took place this week in Bunio, Namungalwe and Bulumwaki and Butongole. The recent arrival of the rain has limited the numbers turning up to Family planning events as people are hurredly planting. Bulumwaki’s turn out dropped dramatically to 4, as it had been hampered by a clash with an event being run by NAADs (The National Agricultural Advisory Service), so we will run a repeat event on Monday. Family planning continues next week.

Eye Care

The complete list of children who have been screened for glasses by Gregory of Namungalwe has now been submitted to Sight Savers, so we are waiting to see what their program will be for delivering the glasses to the children.

Maureen will be checking with Dr Onyango Esther (the local opthalmologist working with Sight Savers) on Monday about upcoming dates for eye camps. 

HIV/STIs

HIV/STI outreach in Bugabula.

This week I called Sula from St Mary’s to book his organisation’s services for April 12^th for Bugabula B. We are focussing on completing these outreaches so that the intern follow up teams will not have to travel to the Luuka district as often during their time here. Titus is in charge next week of mobilising the Bulumwaki Drama Group and the Bugabula VHT to be prepared for the event.