Celebrating Student Success!

This is the end of the third and final term for all of the schools and so students are beginning to trickle into the UVP office with their report cards and their thank you notes for their sponsors. Stella came in on Monday, shy smile on her face and requisite papers in her hand. And what was written on those papers?

She scored 24 out of a possible 25 points!

Gushing was necessary, but the good news didn’t stop at her 24 points. The headmaster of her school also recognized what a stellar student our Stella is and awarded her a tuition scholarship for the first term of her final school year next year!

Days like these I’m filled with pride that is befitting the “auntie” moniker many of our scholarship students have bestowed upon me. Days like these I am filled with pride at what our students are able to accomplish when their minds are free from worry about school fees and can concentrate, instead, on studying.

Donations do make a difference and they can change the course of lives. Thank you for helping UVP help Stella.

Summer Internships for 2011

Would you like to spend the summer making a lasting impact on community health and development in rural villages in sub-Saharan Africa? Have you always wanted to experience and learn about the culture of East Africa? If so, please consider applying to Uganda Village Project's summer program.

Uganda Village Project is now accepting applications for its 2011 Summer Internship Program.


Our Mission: Uganda Village Project is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that collaborates with diverse partners on the design of sustainable rural health and development solutions through networking, advocacy and project innovation in the Iganga District, a rural area in eastern Uganda.


Interns will spend 8 weeks living and working in a village in rural Iganga District, Uganda, gaining experience in community education and public health while organizing education programs in the villages, assisting in planning and implementing health care and development oriented programs, and working in partnership with local NGOs and community groups which focus on issues such as sanitation, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, orphan and widow support, and reproductive health.


Applications are due January 31, 2011.


Visit the UVP website to learn more about our programs: www.ugandavillageproject.org
Click here to visit our Summer Internship Center!


Applications are open to all adults ages 18 and over with an interest in medicine, public health, global health or international development. Applicants with previous experience in these areas, with previous experience working in the developing world will be given special consideration. Visit our website and apply today!


For more information, please contact internships@ugandavillageproject.org

The Jigger invasion of Busoga Region

By Alanta Colley

In the past couple of months, the jigger infestation of the Busoga region has been a lead story in the Ugandan media and is now on the lips of many Ugandan politicians, policy makers, and health workers.

While jiggers themselves are not fatal, infestations can result in anaemia or secondary infections such as tetanus, gangrene, septic ulcers and others. Most of the time the site of the jigger bite will heal without complications, particularly if the jigger is removed in a timely manner, however several recent deaths in the Busoga region attributed to jigger related infections have highlighted the severity of the situation.

What is a jigger?

A jigger is a blood sucking sand flea that lives in warm and dusty environments. Both male and female jiggers feed on warm-blooded hosts from time to time, including pigs, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, and humans. The female however likes to burrow beneath toenails, fingernails, or into skin creases of animals and create a lesion where she feeds and lays her eggs.

In the early stages a small, black dot can be seen on the skin, which is the back half of the female jigger; her head buried in the skin. As the flea feeds the black dot increases in size up to a centimeter wide. She lays between 100-200 eggs which are pushed out by the flea and rest and incubate in exposed dirt and sand. After laying her eggs the female flea dies still buried in the skin. Incubated in the dirt, the eggs take 3-4 days to hatch and then 3-4 weeks to reach pupal stage where they will too seek hosts.

What has caused the jigger infestation?

There is no simple answer for why jiggers have come to plague the Busoga region so severely. While a social analyst might tell you ‘poverty’, a public health specialist might tell you ‘hygiene’. A teacher might tell you ‘poor education’, and a veterinarian might tell you ‘climate’, while a scholar might tell you ‘culture’. All the elements seem to have played a part.

The warm dusty environment of the Busoga region has certainly proved amenable to the breeding requirements of the jigger. More than this, exposed dirt floors, walls and compounds common among many village homes in Uganda mean that jigger eggs can incubate even inside the home. Many rural families keep their chickens and goats inside at night, and other animals such as cows very close to the house as a security measure. The close proximity of animals enables the transmission of jigger eggs from animal to human to happen with ease.

Going barefoot, as many young children are, increases vulnerability to jigger attacks. Many children attend dirt floor schools barefoot, where jigger transmission in the classroom becomes easy.

As well as this, the understanding of the cause of jiggers is a source of contention. Some in the village believe that jigger infestations are a result of witchcraft, and some have even claimed that the delay over the election of the new cultural King of Busoga; the Kyabazinga has brought a curse on the people of Busoga in the form of the jiggers. Such ideas have challenged the progress of education campaigns to help people prevent and treat jiggers.

Lack of access to health facilities also plays a role. A family in Kamuli who lost a baby to anaemia after their house was badly affected by jiggers told their local paper that they treated their jigger bites with local herbs, but never sought treatment from the health centre for the multiple infections resulting from the jiggers. Those most affected by the jiggers; young children and the elderly, are the least able to access treatment, particularly those who are so badly affected they can no longer walk.

The response:

Intense debate about jiggers has been raging over the past few years. In 2008 in the Ugandan Parliament legislators called for the arrests of people with jiggers, claiming that “it is total negligence for any sane Ugandan to suffer from jiggers”; and demanding arrests under the Public Health Act of people for failing to take care of their bodies. And more recently the network support agent called people suffering from jiggers “criminals”. Despite the fervour, this has not proved successful.

In the heat of the upcoming election, multiple candidates have claimed jigger eradication as their main platform.

In October the Ministry of Health, in partnership with several NGOs launched the National Jigger Campaign. The campaign involved a clinic in Kamuli, where over 300 people suffering from jiggers turned up to receive medical assistance in removing jiggers and having infections treated with antiseptics and antibiotics. The campaign also distributed free flip flops, towels, basins and soap, to encourage proper hygiene, to remove eggs and prevent infections. A local newspaper reported that many of these items were sold shortly after being received illustrating how poverty creates challenges to progressing the fight against jiggers.

What should UVP do?

Jiggers are known to affect the communities in which UVP works. UVP is now in discussion with the District Health Office about ways we can work together to educate people in the village about hygiene, separating animal and human living spaces, removing jiggers and when to seek treatment for jigger-related infections.

Through training and community sensitisation, UVP hopes to be part of the push to eradicate jiggers from Iganga district and the Busoga region.

Shop On Amazon, Benefit UVP!

Hello friends and supporters!

You can now do your holiday shopping on Amazon and benefit Uganda Village Project! All you have to do is shop through one of the banners listed below. Browse and buy away! It's for a good cause.







Thank you! Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.

Buy Nothing Day: Success!

Buy Nothing Day: Your opportunity to share, instead of spending

Thanks to everyone who participated in Buy Nothing Day - we managed to raise over $700! This money will be going directly to Uganda as soon as possible to bolster our community public health programs - not to our own fundraising, publicity, or administrative work internationally.  Our organization allows supporters to have the biggest possible impact at the grassroots level in Ugandan villages!

We really think that improving the lives of others and sharing our own wealth is what Thanksgiving, and, indeed, the rest of the holiday season is all about. That's why we're going to give you the opportunity to give the gift of health to children and their families in Uganda for the holidays, and dedicate those gifts to your family members and friends. Stay tuned - we'll post the details about how to purchase gifts as part of our Holiday Campaign very soon....

Buy Nothing; Give Something

Buy Nothing Day is Friday Nov 26th in the US/Canada, and Saturday Nov 27th everywhere else* - It's about pausing for reflection in the midst of the busiest shopping period of the year.

Uganda Village Project is asking you to abstain from buying stuff on Buy Nothing Day and instead, to use that time and money to make a difference in the lives of people without the luxury of consumer choice.

Donations can be made at: http://www....ugandavillageproject.org/get-involved/donate/

For the price of a new pair of jeans, you can help dozens of people in rural Iganga access treatment and repair for curable eye diseases. Instead of dinner in a restaurant you can provide mosquito nets to protect a whole family from malaria. Not buying never felt so good.

Forging Ahead in Sanitation Advancement

One of the first things you have to adjust to upon arrival in Uganda is the bathroom situation. Commonly, you are lead a few feet from your living quarters to a concrete 4” X 6” room with a hole in the center. At first, you look at it with robust curiosity; then, you put together what it is and can’t help but wonder, “Where does it all go?”

Sanitation does not cross the average person’s mind in developed nations. But, in developing nations, where 1.1 billion people still use old world sanitation means, there is an ongoing conversation on how to make improvements to rid the general population of the diseases it spreads so quickly. Poor sanitation is the main cause of the spread of waterborne diseases: like Hookworm, that leads to malnutrition that can reduce immunity to other diseases, and Trachoma, the leading cause of preventable blindness in Uganda.

With the rainy season still underway, these concerns continue to rise. The Uganda Village Project launched a new campaign under our “Healthy Villages” program focused on improving sanitation. The Village Sanitation Campaigns created plans to improve and increase the number of latrines, hand-washing facilities, bathing rooms, UV- disinfecting stands, and trash pits in Ugandan homes. Since the project’s launch in early 2010, houses including new methods of combating issues caused by uncontrolled sanitation have increased dramatically: plate stands in houses increased from 15% to 100%, the creation of trash pits rose from 13% to 96%, hand-washing facilities in homes went up 80%, and covers over latrines went from 8% to 64%.

On October 1^st, a decade after they set their Millennium Development Goals, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution clarifying the meaning of a right to “Clean Drinking Water and Sanitation.” As efforts to improve the world’s condition slowly take off, UVP can stand tall and continue its hard work as an example to the rest of the world.

By Jeyandini Fernando

For more information on how you can help our sanitation efforts, please visit our Cause:

http://www.causes.com/causes/16315

Sharing what we've learned

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday found Uganda Village Project staff presenting at the Joint 6th College of Health Sciences and 18th UNACOH Annual Scientific Conference. Ntalo Julius (Fistula Coordinator), Alanta Colley (Healthy Villages Coordinator), and Linnea Ashley (Programme Manager) shared insights UVP has acquired in its seven years working in Iganga District. Our presentations included, community lead sanitation pushes, Volunteer Health Teams and summer volunteer program best practices, and surgical referral networks.

The conference assembled more than 150 clinicans, researchers, and public health professionals from around Uganda and beyond sharing local research, challenges, and innovative approaches to Uganda's health challenges.

UVP summer intern alumnus, Sujal Parikh, also presented, bringing attention to the importance of health and human rights education in the United Sates and opportunities for international collaboration.

CALL FOR OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES

To all officers, trustees, and friends of Uganda Village Project:

We are currently seeking enthusiastic, dedicated individuals to serve on our executive board and board of trustees for the organization. Officers and trustees serve on a voluntary basis to support and guide our activities on the ground in the Iganga District of Uganda, where our public health programs serve rural communities. Our main program is called Healthy Villages, which takes a grassroots approach to developing a basic public health/health package for rural communities in conjunction with community members themselves, and strives to increase access to healthcare and build capacity within these communities. These programs address common rural health issues such as sanitation, nutrition, malaria, family planning, and eye health. Our other areas of focus include safe water activities such as well construction and household storage solutions, facilitation of obstetric fistula care, and provision of scholarships to orphans for higher education.

Current openings include:
-Assistant Director
-Co-treasurer (assists with treasury duties)
-Fundraising Chair
-Secretary/Publicity Chair
-Internship Coordinator
-At-Large Board Members

Qualifications sought include:

- Background in legal issues faced by nonprofits, or accounting/financial experience as it applies to nonprofits

- Fundraising or publicity background, particularly in the areas of grant writing and social media

- Relevant public health and healthcare program experience

To apply for an executive board or trustee position, please send a CV/resume and cover letter to: director@ugandavillageproject.org by September 30th, 2010.

Questions regarding responsibilities of board members or the application process may also be directed to the same address.

Learn more about our programs at our website - www.ugandavillageproject.org

Your Support at Work: Holiday Fundraiser Update

Delivering Water
Since January 2010, we have constructed 4 shallow wells, and facilitated the repair of a fifth. We also have 2 wells currently under construction. Each of our wells reaches at least 500 villagers, over half of them children. Poor water and poor sanitation and hygiene account for 80% of all diarrheal disease in Uganda – and diarrheal disease causes almost a fifth of Uganda’s deaths of children under five! Thus water provision remains one of the most effective ways to save lives in Uganda.
We restructured our Safe Water program this year, putting greater emphasis on educating communities about water treatment, training village Water User Committees, and monitoring and evaluating the effects of our community-constructed shallow wells. We have also adopted an improved and more expensive shallow well construction model, which will ensure that we are delivering the highest quality water to our villages.

Combating HIV/AIDS
Uganda Village Project held 10 massive HIV and STI testing days over summer 2010, counseling and testing 1419 villagers. That’s about 12% of the adults in our villages! Of those tested, 34 were HIV-positive – quite a low rate for Eastern Uganda. We referred HIV-positive villagers to various Health Centers and NGOs for further counseling and free anti-retroviral treatment.

To run our testing days, we partner with a Community-Based Organization (CBO) called St. Mary’s. Every testing day is held directly in the village, so that villagers without the ability to travel to Health Centers or Iganga Town are able to access testing. This year we tested 200 villagers for syphilis, as well as for HIV, and found a remarkably high rate of infection. We are investigating this trend, and plan to bring more syphilis testing to the villages soon.Giving Vision
We committed massive resources to our eye care program during the first half of 2010. Some of our accomplishments are:

12 cataract removals
37 villagers given glasses
27 lid rotation surgeries, for villagers with trachoma
250 villagers treated in total

Alanta Colley, UVP Healthy Villages Coordinator, facilitated one special patient's surgical repair and recovery: "We returned Nabirye Betty to her home today, and she's a different woman from when we first met her; when I met her 4 weeks ago she was in pain, very thin, blind, and very slow. Today she was looking healthy and much less thin, was smiling and able to move around easily by herself. Her pain seems to have disappeared. We returned her back to her family who were overjoyed to receive her. The cataract operation was a success," Alanta reports.

Preventing Malaria
Uganda Village Project continues to provide high quality, Long Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets (LLINs) to our “Healthy Villages.” Since the beginning of 2010 we have sold roughly 1,150 nets! As most of these nets will cover at least 2 villagers, this means over 2 thousand villagers – perhaps half of them children – protected against malaria.

Various studies across the developing world have shown that sleeping under an insecticide-treated net prevents malaria by 14-60%. Yet in Uganda, Africa’s third highest country for rate of malaria deaths, only 12.8% of people sleep under nets! We are committed to increasing this coverage rate in our catchment area, and have recently improved our distribution and monitoring technique in order to most effectively target those villagers most in need of mosquito nets and malaria education.

Providing Sanitation
In early 2010, Uganda Village Project launched Village Sanitation Campaigns in each of our “Healthy Villages.” So far, we have only completed campaigns in three villages, but already we have helped villagers to…. ADD BUTONGOLE.

Dig 9 and improve 181 latrines
Construct 357 hand-washing facilities
Build 21 kitchens and 63 bathing rooms
Build 278 UV-disinfecting plate stands
Dig 289 trash pits

These numbers represent a drastic increase in sanitation levels! In Bugabula, for instance, houses with hand-washing facilities went from 19% to 99%. Houses with plate stands from 15% to 100%. Presence of trash pits increased from 13% to 96%, and houses with covers over their latrine from 8% to 64%.

Poor sanitation causes many diseases, from trachoma (Uganda’s leading cause of preventable blindness) to diarrheal disease (a top killer of children), to hookworm (which cause malnutrition, increase the risk of all other diseases). By increasing sanitation in our villages we are increasing health and saving lives!

Fighting Malnutrition
We have been supporting the nutritional and medical needs of 2 babies in Bulumwaki Village. Both children were severely malnourished as infants, and suffer continual health problems as a result. We have been providing these babies with supplemental milk formulas, treating their co-morbidities (such as measles and malaria), bringing them to doctors who are experts in child nutrition, and training their parents to care for them in the best possible way.

We realize that we can’t save every malnourished child in Uganda. But we can save a few, all the while working to prevent those conditions which cause malnutrition in the first place – malaria, poor water, lack of immunization, poverty, worms, misunderstandings about child nutrition. In fall of 2010 we shall be embarking upon a more comprehensive nutrition program in our Healthy Villages, likely involving vegetable gardens.


Safeguarding Pregnancy
We continued to provide reliable birth control options and family planning education in Healthy Villages, giving youth, women and married couples the ability to choose when they have children and how often. By training local health center nurses to conduct these outreaches, we have improved the ability of the health centers to provide quality contraception in their catchment area.

At the moment, an average of 20 women from each of our 10 villages are on UVP-provided birth control. Some of these women are young – 15 or 16 and still in secondary school. Birth control might keep these girls in school long enough to finish their degree and have a chance at university. Some of the women are older – perhaps 45 with 8 children already. These women are grateful for the ability to stop having children, and focus on providing for the kids they have.

In most of Eastern Uganda family planning is widely regarded as suspect and possibly dangerous, and most government health centers have a periodic supply of contraceptives at best. By coupling education and direct provision of contraceptives we are improving the situation. Most of our villages had only 1 or 2 women practicing family planning before we entered the scene so an average of 20 is a huge accomplishment!


Educating Children
Uganda Village Project continues to provide education to orphans and other vulnerable children in Iganga District. We are currently funding 39 secondary school students. We are also funding 2 university students: Robert Mukholi at Kyambogo University, and Mercy Bakirya at Kampala International University. Our 2 university students overcame personal trails and stiff competition to gain university acceptance, and we are very proud of them!

Repairing Fistulas
Uganda Village Project continues to provide healing surgery to women with obstetric fistula. Since January 2010, we have facilitated this surgery for 17 women.

Obstetric fistula (Latin for “hole”) is characterized by an abnormal passageway between the vagina or uterus and internal organs such as the bladder or rectum, which leads to persistent leakage of urine and/or feces through the vagina. This leakage and the rank odor that follows, together with a diverse array of other possible side effects such as infertility, chronic infection, and neurological injury, all conspire towards a devastating outcome whereby the woman is isolated from family, society, and employment.

Uganda Village Project is continuing to address this horrific condition in Iganga District through village education, the creation of Health Center referral networks, and surgery for women suffering from fistula.

By Leah Bevis