Update from the Field: Kasambiika 1

Jambo! Today marks the end of our first week in the village.

I’m sorry, terribly rude, we didn’t introduce ourselves. We are the Kasimbiika 1 UVP team! Our team consists of four American interns, Tina (our fearless co-leader), Nichole, Stephanie, and Nathan. We also have two Ugandan interns, Raphael (our other, actually fearless—to a fault, co-leader), and Josephine.

Raphael with Monday’s dinner.
(Photo Nichole Reinen)

Tina with two full jerry cans—who needs running water?

Josephine and Nicole stay hydrated. 

Stephanie in the middle, Tina and Josephine on the left and right respectively. They each hold oranges, which are green in Uganda. 

Nathan, the wasp-vanquisher. Just kidding, Nathan ran away soon after this photo was taken. Raphael got rid of the wasps. (Photo Nichole Reinen) 

But that’s enough about who we are; let’s talk about what we did this past week. We focused on getting settled in our new house, getting acquainted with our new community, and getting acclimated to each other as teammates.

On Wednesday we rolled up our sleeves and got to work constructing a trash pit, a tippy-tap for hand washing, and a dish-stand. Let’s have a look! We first dug a trash-pit. That was messy so we did not take pictures of the process, but here is the fruit of our labor.

Tippy-taps are ingenious contraptions made from local materials that allow for easy hand-washing without running water.

Josephine plans the base structure.

Raphael starts construction

The Tippy-Tap team tests the tensile strength of the timber. 

 Next we made a dish-stand. This is a hygienic and time-saving way to dry our wet dishes.

Nichole brings sticks from our gracious donor; we call her momma (she’s also our cook; we’ll talk about her in the next post).

Stephanie arranges sticks together so she can tie them together with banana leaves for the platform of our dish-stand. 

Construction begins! 

And voila, the finished project, in use.

 These amenities will help us stay healthy and happy and also serve as examples of sanitary and hygienic improvements villagers can make in their own homes.

We spent the rest of our week becoming familiar with our Village Health Team members and the rest of the Kasimbiika 1 community. In a future post we’ll make sure you get to know our Village Health Team members too! Our Village Health Team was tasked with announcing our arrival and first planned meeting: an introduction and question and answer session for everyone in the community. Their efforts were not in vain, we had a turnout of 142 villagers among the 285 households in Kasimbiika 1. 

A lot of people showed up! 

Our VHT chairperson, Swaga, answering some of the questions posed by community members about UVP’s purpose and function. 

Our team (sans photographers Nathan and Nichole), the VHT, and the Local Chairperson (far right) posing for a picture. 

We would be remiss to forget to mention how we spent our free time: intense word games, learning how to play chess, and conversation late into the night.

Tina relaxes with a book.

We were very lucky to find ripe bananagrams growing outside our compound.

Next week we dive into our projects. We start off with our first Tippy Tap sensitization in Kasimbika Primary School. Then we meet with a focus group for needs assessment. Finally, we will start our baseline surveys on sanitation, water access, hygiene, and malaria. Make sure to check in so we can update you with more stories and background about our projects and Kasambiika 1. 

Update from the field: Bukaigo Village

This is the first of a blog series from our Launch Team #1 interns on the ground in Bukaigo Village

After 3 days of intensive orientation, our team finally arrived in Bukaigo village, our home for the next 8 weeks. Our house is small, so we are getting to know our teammates well. We've furnished our home by building a plate-drying rack, digging a garbage pit, and building a tippy tap, which is a hand washing station. We had a lot of help from our neighbors. We would be lost without them! Knowing how to build a tippy tap will be useful in our upcoming hand-washing campaign in the nearby primary school.

In addition to moving in and getting to know each other, we have begun interacting with the local community leaders. We had two very successful meetings with the Village Health Team and with the local chairman, youth leader, religious leader, clan leader, women's leader and others. They are very eager to collaborate with us, and provided us with useful insights into Bukaigo's health needs.

After these meetings we were a little overwhelmed by the amount of improvements that are needed. For example, many children under five years of age are dying from malaria because the local Health Center lacks the necessary medication.

However, our team is confident that if we work hard and take things day by day, we can have a positive impact. We are excited to start surveying for baseline data as this will give us a good foundation for our work.

We are looking forward to working more with the community and we will keep you updated on our adventures.

Happy Graduation!

As students from all around the world celebrate graduating from university, UVP is celebrating graduations as well. UVP takes on new villages each year for our three year program called the Healthy Villages Initiative. During these three years we implement many public health programs focusing on education and outreaches. Our programs include family planning, water hygiene and sanitation, HIV, Malaria and obstetric fistula. At the end of the three year program, UVP holds a graduation ceremony. This is a chance for UVP to tell the community members about the progress over the three years and to thank all of our partners in the village, sub-county and district.

 In 2012, the graduation ceremonies consisted of a large community meeting where partners could give speeches and UVP could give an update on the progress over the three years. After evaluating this approach, UVP staff wanted to make the graduations a bigger deal in the community and to have a much larger turn out. Additionally, they wanted to use the graduation to provide resources for community members about how to access services after UVP leaves the community. From this discussion, the idea of having a community health fair was born.

At our graduation fair, we have tables set up for each of our programs. Each of the tables have at least one resource person that can answer questions. Additionally at each table, community members can access the same services that we have been providing in the village for the last three years. For example, community members can purchase mosquito nets and Waterguard, can be tested for HIV and women can receive contraceptive methods. We also set up a plate stand, a tippy tap and a mosquito net to conduct the same demonstrations that we do in our community sensitizations.

When we informed the local health centers about our plans for the fairs, they decided to come along and offer immunizations and deworming for kids and malaria testing and treatment because they knew the fair would draw a large turnout. Additionally, we partnered with Marie Stopes Uganda. They brought information on family planning methods as well as promoted their new free reproductive health hotline. We still have incorporated the elements from the previous year’s graduations. We have speeches from district and sub county officials, health center staff, village health team members and UVP. Also, a local drama group performs skits on each of health programs that UVP works on.

After extensive planning we have started having the fairs and I have to say I have been so impressed by outcomes so far. The VHTs have been so happy to be recognized at such a big event and it is much deserving after their hard work with UVP. The community members are turning out in large numbers especially for HIV testing and deworming. There is music and lots of dancing- a great celebration! Putting all of our programs together on one day really shows how much work UVP is doing in the communities. It is truly amazing how much we can accomplish with such a dedicated staff. I’m so happy to be a part of it!

Former Uganda Village Project Intern Studies E-Waste in Accra, Ghana

by Stephanie Ullrich

Since I finished my 2012 UVP internship in Namunkesu Village last summer, I knew I couldn’t stay away from Africa for long. So I sought out my options for returning to a continent that had inspired me and influenced my goals for the future. As a fifth year student at UC Berkeley, I felt that I had exhausted nearly all the resources that were offered to me at Cal, and I was ready for a new adventure in the field of international development or human rights research. With the guidance of a professor at Berkeley, I investigated the major slum in Accra, as city planning and urban poverty were of particular interest to me academically. We quickly discovered that Agbogbloshie slum in Ghana, termed “Sodom and Gomorrah” by some because of its reputation for depravity, had a larger story to tell. There had been a large government lagoon restoration project initiated a few years back, which had forcibly evicted residents in the slum. Meanwhile, the slum was adjoined with the largest electronic waste disposal site in Ghana, a place where migrants and children from the North would pull apart and burn e-waste from the U.S. and Europe with no protection from air pollution or dangerous chemicals. With little scholarship surrounding this issue, I knew that I wanted to investigate further and on my own terms; I made the initial decision to study the relationship between the large lagoon restoration project and the e-waste labor patterns in regards to changed labor protections against human rights violations.

To first set up my research project, I used all the resources and connections that I knew of in Ghana. I contacted a prior student who had done research in Agbogbloshie; I dove deep into the literature; I searched for professors on campus to see who had done research in this field of electronic waste and I visited them during their office hours. After finding an expert in the field, a professor in the Geography department at the University of Ghana, we began meeting to discuss the project. My consultations with my research adviser changed the direction of my research. From this point onward, I decided to do a research study of the experience of e-waste labor at Agbogbloshie, their access to different forms of human, social, and economic capital, and the labor protections (or rather, the lack thereof). To accomplish this, I designed an interview guide that asked questions such as how did the laborers first get started in electronic waste work? Do they support their family up North by sending money back home? What kinds of relationships do they have with their community, associations, government, and fellow laborers? This last question was one similar to a question we had asked of the people in Namunkesu village in Uganda last summer. Knowing the kinds of relationships the people of Namunkesu had with their community, associations, and government was critical in developing and promoting our health education programs in the village. These were also the kinds of relations that we were looking to strengthen.

My current independent research study in Ghana constantly challenges me; by self-designing a project, I am learning to ride through the many bumps along the way. I travel 2 hours each way to reach my site through every mean of transportation possible- walking at 4:30am a half hour, riding a packed minibus at 5am, transferring to another smaller bus/taxi at 6am, so that I can arrive by 6:30am to begin my interviews before the heat of the day sets in and the laborers are not too busy yet. Sometimes the challenges are quite entertaining. I spend hours a day in an e-waste scrap yard surrounded by young men and teenage boys all talking in a language I do not understand. I constantly have to turn down marriage proposals- a commonality of being a “oboruni” (foreign, light skinned; the equivalent of a Ugandan “mzungu”) female in Ghana- and I have to explain my “mission” in Ghana, often in the Dagbani language- a language of which I can only speak a few words. 

Like my challenges here in Ghana, our team faced many challenges in our village in Uganda last summer. Between difficulties in identifying community leaders in our village, mobilizing the community to come to our sensitizations, and translation troubles, the UVP summer internship is no walk in the park. However, like all challenging experiences, the personal and team growth we experienced over those short 8 weeks was tremendous. The UVP internship has provided me with solid development practitioner skills like conducting baseline surveys and monitoring and evaluation experience. These experiences have also encouraged me to be innovative, self-reliant, and extremely flexible in both planning and implementing of projects. Both the UVP internship and my research project in Ghana have provided me with solid research skills that will help me in graduate study when I pursue a Masters Degree in International Development and solidified my commitment to public service that I will exercise when I am a John Gardner Public Service Fellow next year, serving in an agency such as the UNDP, USAID, or CARE International.

In both my Ugandan and Ghanaian experiences, I have explored entirely new fields for me- public health in Uganda, and labor in the informal sector in Ghana- and it has widened my interests academically and professionally. Both projects have made me more of an advocate for the subaltern populations of informal settlements that are pushed to the outskirts and degraded by dominant rising affluent cultures. The most meaningful aspects of these experiences are the friends I have made along the way.  Here in Ghana, I cherish the moments when time seems to slow down: I watch football (soccer) in one of the few shacks that have consistent electricity in the neighborhood, or I play with a child as all the men go to pray in the mosque on Fridays, or we sit on the floor with friends in a small house in the informal settlement while watching Dagbani “blockbusters” - often without subtitles - and waiting for the rain to pass. Much like my time with the Uganda Village Project, these small spontaneous moments are the memories that stand out the most.

But out of all the memories and lessons I’ve learned throughout these 2 experiences, none have surprised me more than that of the simple dignity and pride in the communities of Agbogbloshie in Ghana and Namunkesu village in Uganda. Their resilience against outside pressures is astounding and some of their aspirations to improve their community are inspirational. Despite being a foreign female researcher/volunteer asking sometimes prying questions in these two communities that speak different languages than my own, both have welcomed me in breathtaking ways that I was not expecting, and for that, I will forever be grateful.

Stephanie is a UVP internship alumna from the University of California - Berkeley, who currently is serving a term as a visiting student at the University of Ghana - Legon.

Two flat tires can’t stop UVP

My name is Leslie Stroud-Romero, and I’m the new Executive Director of Uganda Village Project (UVP). I’m fortunate to live in Uganda and so during my first week on the job I went to Iganga to visit our staff. Wednesday was my first day to visit projects in the field, and the sky was dark with the promise of rain up until the time to leave for family planning outreach with Maureen and Patrick. The day before, Maureen had left for family planning on a motorcycle and it poured rain shortly after, but luckily the clouds continued on their way and I stayed dry during my first outing. Another challenge arose, though, when Patrick discovered a small puncture in the car tire and had to get that fixed before we could leave. Halfway to our destination—just before we had to cross a washed-out bridge—we heard a hissing sound from the tire. Another puncture. It was a slow leak, so we made our way to the next town where we got a wheel spanner and changed the spare tire. Coincidentally, it was one of our sponsored students who helped us find the spanner and fix the tire in the rural town where we stopped. As we were there, the women in our destination village called Maureen, asking where we were. “We had more trouble with the tire,” she said, “but we’re on our way.”

We eventually pulled up to a Village Health Team member’s home where women had gathered to receive family planning services. I helped Nurse Peter with the record keeping in the house while Maureen met with the Village Health Team members under a tree outside. One by one, women came up to receive their family planning methods. I met one woman who was 43 with 12 children, including a baby she was nursing during the visit. The work UVP is doing is needed. And based by the women’s relief at our arrival, it’s wanted. I was glad to be invited to share the afternoon with our staff as they brought crucial health services to rural areas. It was fulfilling to see the work, and encouraging that even two flat tires can’t stop UVP from serving our beneficiaries.

Leslie joined Uganda Village Project in 2013. She has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Washington. Leslie is originally from the Seattle area but currently living in Uganda. Before moving to Uganda she was employed at PATH, a global health nonprofit. At PATH she worked with individual and institutional fundraising as well as supporting the donor travel program. She is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Malawi and Uganda, where she built the capacity of community-based organizations and implemented several economic development and health projects for orphans and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Happy World Water Day!

By: Patrick Tulibagenyi 
Edited by: Tiffany Hsieh

Today, developing countries are still struggling to access safe drinking water and improve sanitation levels - especially in rural communities. This phenomenon occurs primarily among poor communities where water and sanitation related illnesses like diarrhea are prevalent.

In addition to causing illness, shortage of safe drinking water in rural communities has far reaching effects which are both socioeconomic and gender based.

In rural Uganda, women take the lead and are charged with the responsibility of collecting water for domestic use. They walk long distances and spend a large amount of time in search of clean water which could be used to do other productive ventures like agriculture.

In order to boost the economies of developing countries, we need to increase access to safe drinking water in rural communities. 

The Uganda Village Project has been implementing a water, hygiene, and sanitation (WASH) program in the Iganga district of rural Uganda and for the last ten years.  UVP’s programs are unique because we leverage community partnerships in order to guarantee the longevity and ownership of the safe water systems. These systems include a shallow water well, water treatment resources, and community education. UVP works directly with the village leaders and citizens, who agree to provide 60% of the total cost through in-kind contributions. The village also elects and trains a water user committee that is tasked with the local responsibilities both during and after the project.

Village members contribute their time and labor to ensure the success of the project

Since 2007, fifty shallow wells have been constructed to increase access to safe drinking water. We have also conducted sanitation campaigns and since the year 2009, we have conducted campaigns in 18 villages. As a result of these campaigns, villagers have been gradually changing their behavior and started putting in place sanitation facilities like Latrines, plate stands, trash pits, tippy taps etc.

At the opening ceremony for one of our completed wells

Today, the Uganda Village Project joins the entire world to celebrate World Water Day because are dedicated to serving the villages of rural Iganga to ensure a healthier Uganda. 

Guest Post: Fistula Interviews in Kamuli

This December, Emma Richardson, a student at the University of Notre Dame, visited Uganda to perform interviews with fistula patients working with Uganda Village Project. 

Before traveling to Uganda to interview patients at Kamuli Mission Hospital with the help and support of Uganda Village Project, I had done extensive reading and research. Fistula initially caught my attention as I read Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky, and I decided to focus on fistula for my senior thesis as a Sociology and Pre-Med major at the University of Notre Dame.

Visiting a fistula patient (left) in her home with the Fistula Coordinator, Loy (right)

Obstetric fistula is characterized by an abnormal passageway between the vagina and bladder. There are several causes for this condition, but obstructed labor is the primary cause. During prolonged labor, the pressure from the fetal head on the soft tissues of the mother’s vagina and bladder can restrict blood flow—leading to tissue death [1]. As this tissue dies, it sloughs off and creates a fistula [2]. Surgical mishaps can also lead to the formation of a fistula.

As it is a largely preventable maternal morbidity, obstetric fistula is almost entirely non-existent in the United States, so I knew that my research would require collaboration with an organization working abroad. I spent eight weeks in Uganda in June and July 2012 interning at a clinic in the eastern region. Due to my familiarity with Ugandan culture and wonderful experience last summer, I decided to start my search for an organization to work with in Uganda. I stumbled upon the Uganda Village Project during the course of my research, and I was instantly impressed with their fistula outreach programs and involvement with the surgical camps at Kamuli Mission Hospital. I contacted UVP, and we were able to coordinate my research. It was incredibly exciting to find such a great organization to work with, and I could not be happier with the partnership.

Kamuli Mission Hospital grounds

I was familiar with the paths to fistula development and the long, winding paths to surgical repair for the small minority of women able to negotiate their ways to treatment. Though I had an idea of what to expect during my interviews, I found myself in awe of the strength and perseverance embodied by the women I spoke with. Although many of the stories followed a similar course, each was distinctly unique. All of the women were challenged: some women were faced with poverty, others suffered from social stigmatization due the incontinence that usually accompanies fistula, and some were rejected by loved ones—husbands, parents, siblings, and friends. Yet, despite these challenges, these women had been fortunate enough to receive care. Faced with a devastating condition and often lacking sufficient social support, these women had endured months, years, and even decades with obstetric fistula, but had finally gotten the care they so desperately needed.

Interviewing a former fistula patient (right) with my translator, Hatika (middle)

When so many women suffering from fistula fail to ever receive care, how did these women do it? That was the focus of my interviews. I wanted to know what tipped the scale for these women. Though my data analysis is still in progress, I have identified several recurring pathways to care for these women.

The Social Network: Many women reported hearing about Kamuli Mission Hospital and Uganda Village Project from friends, community members, and neighbors. These individuals were key in providing a gateway to care for women suffering from fistula. They spread the word about surgical repair, successful treatment at Kamuli Mission Hospital during the fistula camps, and often even contacted UVP’s Fistula Coordinator to speak to these women.

UVP Outreach and the Fistula Coordinator: Other women initially learned about the fistula camps through Uganda Village Project outreach initiatives for fistula. After learning about fistula, community members would often direct the UVP outreach staff to a woman in the community known to be suffering from that condition. Fistula coordinators played an important role informing women about the surgeries and providing them with the courage to undergo surgical repair.

Radio Advertisements: Some women also learned about Kamuli Mission Hospital’s fistula camps via radio ads. For many, this was the first time they had heard of treatment for their condition.

These three main pathways to care are not mutually exclusive. Some heard about the surgery on the radio, but were only convinced to seek care once they heard of another woman’s successful surgical repair. Other women did not rely on any of these patterns in their journeys to care at Kamuli Mission Hospital.

Despite the uniqueness of each story, nearly every woman expressed her gratitude to Uganda Village Project, Kamuli Mission Hospital, and the visiting fistula surgeons. The fistula camps have given these women the comfort that they are not alone in their problems and hope for a better future.

My translator Hatika (left) with two fistula patients

Like the women I spoke with, I am very grateful to the Uganda Village Project and Kamuli Mission Hospital staffs. Everyone was incredibly accommodating and helpful during my research, and I cannot thank you enough for your help. Uganda Village Project is doing amazing work in the Iganga region, and it was inspiring to hear how life-changing surgery has been for these women.

References

[1] Cook, R. J., B. M. Dickens and S. Syed. 2004. "Obstetric Fistula: The Challenge to Human Rights." International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 87(1):72-77.

[2] Hilton, P. 2003. “Vesico-vaginal fistulas in developing countries.” International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 82(3):285-95.

An HIV/AIDS-free life and marriage

Muzamiru Ngobi is 27 years old and resides in Nakamini (a 2011 Healthy Village) where UVP has just conducted an HIV outreach. He was able to attend and get tested for HIV/AIDS after getting education and group counseling by the nurse and counselor. When asked why he wanted to get tested for HIV/AIDS, he had this to say: "I am planning to get married in August this year and we have tested for HIV as a couple once since our relationship started. Today I have come alone for testing because she is out of the village but I will share my results with her and move with her to Namalemba health center for another round of HIV/AIDS testing so that we are able to live an HIV/AIDS free life and marriage." 

This was the first HIV/AIDS outreach day of 2013.  It was a success with over 150 community members coming for counselling and testing- many testing together with their partners or other family members.   

Accepting Applications for Summer Public Health & International Development Internship in Uganda - Summer 2013

About Uganda Village Project

The Uganda Village Project (UVP) is an international public health organization that works with people of Iganga to promote public health and sustainable development in the rural communities of Iganga, in southeast Uganda.

Summer 2013 Internship Opportunity

We are currently accepting applications for our Summer 2013 internship program. Interns spend 8-9 weeks living and working in a village in rural Iganga District, Uganda, gaining experience in public health, community education, and international development. Interns work in diverse teams composed of Ugandan and non-Ugandan team members. Interns will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities in several focus areas, including water, sanitation, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, malaria, and reproductive health. 

Learn more about our internship program here: http://www.ugandavillageproject.org/get-involved/summer-internships/

Intern Qualifications

We are looking for individuals who are passionate and have experience in public health, medicine, or international development. We give extra consideration to individuals who have prior experience working in developing and low-resource settings. Ideal applicants are those who have a strong interest in development and/or global health and are looking for a cross-cultural and entrepreneurial opportunity to work in a rural setting. All interns must be at least 18 years old. Historically, interns have come from all around the world as medical students, graduate students, undergraduate students, and professionals. 

Internship Program Dates

• Team Leaders: Monday, June 17, 2013 – Tuesday, August 20, 2013 (9 weeks)
• All Interns: Thursday, June 20, 2013 – Saturday, August 17, 2013 (8 weeks)

Internship Fundraising Requirement

Once accepted, all interns are required to fundraise $2,000 USD for UVP, in addition to a deposit of $500 USD. The deposit is refundable upon successful completion of the program. This sum includes a donation towards UVP's programs in Uganda as well as pick-up and drop-off at Entebbe Airport, orientation costs, room and board, in-country transportation, food, and Uganda-based staffing costs. All interns are required to individually purchase airfare to and from Entebbe Airport in Uganda.

Application Deadline

The deadline for applications for the Summer 2013 internship is February 1, 2013 at 11:59PM PST. In order to apply, there are two steps:

• 1) Complete the online application at http://bit.ly/SbEItX
• 2) Submit your CV and essay questions via email to internships@ugandavillageproject.org — instructions on both are on the last page of the online application

Questions? 

Email us at internships@ugandavillageproject.org
Learn more about the internship: http://www.ugandavillageproject.org/get-involved/summer-internships/
Visit us at http://www.ugandavillageproject.org.
Follow us on twitter: @uvp