Musical Motorcar Mobilization

by Bailey Miller,  Alumni, 2016 Intern Cohort, Bufutula B Village

From the back of a moving pickup truck, dust kicking up behind us, my teammates and I can see the eyes of community 

members near and far light up as we shout details of the upcoming event through a megaphone. Drama group members joined us, playing drums and singing, making it impossible not to dance.

The HIV Outreach is the best event we do all summer because Uganda Village Project partners with the doctors and nurses from a government health center to provide testing for HIV and malaria, treatment for malaria, HIV counseling, deworming services, and vaccinations for children - all free of cost to community members! In addition to all of those amazing services, UVP also hires a Ugandan drama group to help mobilize for the event, perform songs related to HIV prevention and conduct entertaining skits. As interns, our role is to sensitize, or educate, the community about HIV transmission, signs and symptoms, prevention, treatment, and resistant medicines.

As we returned to the site of the event, the children were chasing the truck and wanting the dancing to continue. Rose, one of my international teammates, and I continued dancing with the children. They were in pieces laughing so hard at Rose and I, and it proved very effective at attracting more people to the event. 

In total we had 270 people get tested for HIV in the village of about 300 households. Amazing turnout! The leadership skills of our Village Health Team members (VHTs) shined so brightly that day as they conducted the sensitization. This was a huge success for us as interns because one of our goals is to empower our VHTs to carry on this work when we leave and until the next cohort of UVP interns arrives.

UVP creates breath-taking moments by providing life-saving services through partnerships and empowering VHTs and their communities to advocate for their health. Just in a single HIV outreach day, so many lives were changed for the better. 

Are you interested in joining our intern cohort? Check out our website or contact Internships@UgandaVillageProject.org to learn more details of how you can implement health programming at the grassroots level.

If you would like to join us in providing life-saving health education in rural villages, you can contribute here and specify the health program of your choice.