Health fair celebrates three years in Bulamagi Village

In 2011, Uganda Village Project brought on three Healthy Villages. Last week, after three years of programming, it was time to celebrate their accomplishments, recognize the Village Health Team (VHT) members for their hard work, and empower these three communities to continue improving health on their own. We do this at a community health fair: a busy day in the village where we invite multiple partner organizations, offer health services and education, and share the results from the three years of work. During the last fair in Bulamagi Village, hundreds of people came for health services, drawn in by the mobilization earlier that week and the blaring music from the speakers that morning. 

Health center staff test for HIV and malaria

Men, women, and children were tested for malaria and HIV by health center staff and St. Mary’s—our local community-based organization partner. While they waited for their results, UVP’s Fistula Coordinator gathered small groups of women together to teach them about fistula. Young adults were tested by for HIV and STIs by Marie Stopes, an international organization. The testing kits and staff brought from Marie Stopes dramatically increased the number of people we were able to test and educate during the fairs, because in the past we’ve been limited by supplies and staff capacity. Marie Stopes also offered family planning services to women of all ages, and left everyone with a free hotline number to call for any health questions. A partner organization promoted a water filter to give families a new option to keep their drinking water safe. Health center staff vaccinated mothers and babies for their regular immunizations and gave deworming and Vitamin A pills to children.

HIV counseling by Marie Stopes

The kids had their own kind of mobilization throughout the village. After getting their deworming pills, the health center staff drew big X’s on the kids’ hands in red marker. Troops of kids left the fair with their hands proudly marked, and would arrive back later with a larger group of friends who made their way over to stand in line, chew their pills, and have their hands marked too. A few kids stopped in horror near the table, assuming they were getting a vaccination, but once they saw their friends walk away with a mouthful of sweetened pills, they quickly lined up for their chance.

Promoting healthy messages

Throughout the fair, a health center employee made announcements about what kinds of services are available at the local health center and UVP and Marie Stopes staff members talked about healthy living. Having health center staff provide the services during the fair helps get community members accustomed to them, and instead of feeling intimidated, next time they need to access services at the health center, they’ll be more likely to go.

A drama group engages the audience

In the afternoon, a drama group performed a skit about household hygiene. While this may not sound very entertaining, the audience loved it, and the actors hammed it up while presenting an important message about keeping your family safe from disease by taking preventative measures.

When the play ended, we had speeches from UVP staff, a representative from the VHTs, and local district officials. We gave certificates and soap to the VHTs, thanked the community for their efforts, and encouraged continued progress.

Dancing in celebration

The celebration turned into a dance party, with VHTs leading the way and soon an entire throng of women and kids jumped to the beat in the center of the fair. We pulled the last of the tents down just as it started to pour rain, hiding under the eaves of a house with VHTs and several other villagers who stayed too late to get home before the rain.

Even though this health fair officially marked the end of our work in Bulamagi Village, we will still maintain relationships with community members. The women have decided to pay to continue bringing the family planning nurse to Bulamagi every three months to provide contraceptives. UVP staff members frequently get stopped in town or receive phone calls from former Healthy Village community members asking questions or wanting advice. The well we built with the community’s help will continue to provide safe water for families, and health center services will seem less intimidating and more accessible. We’re proud of the work the community put into the past three years, and we look forward to updates as they maintain these improvements on their own.

Meet Titus

Our latest “meet the staff” features Titus Obbo, UVP Program Coodinator.

Titus started working for Uganda Village Project (UVP) in 2008 as part of the team that conducted a baseline survey in all 70 of our current and future Healthy Villages. Afterwards, he stayed behind to continue working with UVP on a safe water project. Over time, Titus had more tasks added to his role as he helped with hygiene and sanitation and eventually HIV and malaria within the Healthy Villages Program.

“What I like best about my job is that it’s challenging; it makes me think and try to create solutions to a number of challenges that arise. It lets me be creative,” Titus said when asked about his work. He also likes that the entire staff team works together and steps in for one another, which he says isn’t common around Uganda. Titus’s background is not in public health—he was monitoring the universal primary school program in Uganda before coming to UVP—but in his six years with UVP he’s learned practical experience in public health and it has given him an appreciation for issues Ugandans deal with on a daily basis.

When not at work, Titus spends time with his family. He’s married with three kids ages 7, 4, and 1 ½, and his extended family is in Iganga District, so he often spends time in the village with them. He also enjoys reading motivational books, including Banker to the Poor, about pioneering microfinance leader Muhammad Yunus. We’re glad to have Titus and his steady presence in our office!

Meet Maureen

Our latest “meet the staff” features Maureen Nakalinzi, UVP Program Manager.

Maureen outside the UVP office

Maureen grew up with a passion for helping people and serving her community. While studying at Makerere University, she began volunteering as an intern with UVP and developed her interest in public health. She was a UVP intern each summer from 2005 until 2008, making her an early member of the UVP family! After university, Maureen worked as the program manager of a women’s empowerment program focusing on incoming generating projects. Maureen has been working full time with UVP since 2011. She is the program manager for the Family Planning program and works with Loy on the management and data for the fistula program. In addition to her program activities, Maureen helps manage the internship program and keeps the office running smoothly.

Maureen is passionate about reproductive health. She finds fulfillment in providing services that are greatly needed by the women in the communities. She enjoys meeting and engaging with Village Health Teams and community members. Maureen says she likes her job because “UVP gives you the opportunity to try out new ideas for improving programs and allows you to make your mark on the program. As staff, you can start with an idea and a concept paper and follow it all the way through implementation and follow up.”

The best thing that has happened while she’s been at UVP has been the expansion of the family planning program. Maureen says “Now UVP is providing a long term method, the implant, during our outreaches. We will also able to add cervical cancer screening to our family planning program with the help from newly trained government nurses.”

When not working, Maureen serves on two boards: the International Community Empowerment Fund (ICEF) and Nazareth Children’s Home. She loves working with children, and in every town she lives in she gets involved at the local baby’s home and teaches Sunday school. When asked one thing that readers might not know about her, Maureen shared that she danced ballet while in school and likes ballroom dancing. 

UVP Rides

Being a Volunteer Health Team (VHT) member is an important job in the communities where UVP works. These members are members of the community and are trained to assist their fellow community members with basic health problems, helping them get to the facilities they need. They also help collect data and mobilizing organize activities for UVP and the district.

An organization called FABIO, with support from Cope Africa, has begun work in Iganga and is offering additional support for VHTs. FABIO is an environmental organization that promotes riding bicycles as opposed to other fuel-consuming modes of transportation. They have worked in Kampala, Kamuli, Jinja and are expanding their work to Iganga. The major objectives for this project are to support the VHTs in their community activities by providing subsidized bicycles and offering training to VHTs on health and environmental issues. They began their work in 2 sub-counties in Iganga- Nambale and Nawandala. UVP was happy to find out that some of our VHTs would have the opportunity to purchase a subsidized bicycle.

Titus, UVP staff member, attended the bicycle distribution event. Excitement was in the air in Nawandala sub county headquarters when the 164 bicycles were given to the VHTs.

Titus sat down with two of our VHTs who bought bicycles:

“By getting this bicycle from FABIO, my work has been simplified because am now able to reach many more households in my community than before. It will also save my time when am doing VHT work especially mobilization for family planning and HIV out reaches as well as home visits to our patients that have been referred and are on treatment. I thank Fabio and their donors for this support” .

- Nandase Zabina

“As the VHT chair person in Nambale Sub County, we are grateful and happy to get these bicycles. Our work is going to be done on time because we have our own transport. I think now our quarterly meeting and health center visits are going to increase. The bicycles have increased our motivation levels to work and we appreciate FABIO for giving us the bicycles.”

- Sagaire Malijani.

Titus engaged with the Fabio staff, thanked them for their work and encouraged them to continue their work in the other subcounties in Iganga. We hope to see even more of our VHTs have this opportunity to reach out to the members of their communities and continue their good work. 

Meet Patrick

We are highlighting our hardworking and talented staff in our newsletter over the next few months. If you don't get the UVP newsletter, please email info@ugandavillageproject.org or click here to sign up. In case you missed the latest issue, here's our first article featuring Tulibagenyi Patrick--UVP's Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Program Manager.

Patrick is married and a proud father to one boy named Conrad. He also leads a children's marching band. Intrigued? Read on.

Patrick worked as a classroom teacher before moving to media where he was a manager of a local radio station. Patrick entered the NGO world in 2005, working directly with communities implementing health related activities. He's well-prepared for all these roles with a diploma in project planning and management and a degree in mass communication. In 2007, he started working with UVP on a part-time basis and was hired full-time in 2008 as the Shallow Well Project Coordinator. Besides the shallow well project, he helps support the internship program and other administrative tasks. Patrick also writes stories for the monthly newsletter.

Patrick likes his job because it has exposed him to many people of different walks of life both locally and internationally, giving him a global understanding of humanity and how best to help disadvantaged communities. During Patrick’s stay with UVP, he has seen it steadily grow: from one in-country staff person to six staff members, from a 15 square foot office room to a small office duplex, and above all, year by year helping more than 50 communities access safe water sources.

Besides working with UVP, Patrick manages a music project for children, plays the guitar and piano, and enjoys swimming. His dream career is movie making.

A Team Effort for a New Life Free from Fistula

Written by: Leslie Stroud-Romero, UVP Executive Director

The first fistula camp of 2014 started in mid-January. I got the chance to visit Kamuli Mission Hospital and meet some of the women who were there for surgery, as well as one of the surgeons from the UK Childbirth Injuries Fund. It was a long and tiring trip to get to the hospital. Uganda Village Project (UVP) identifies women from all over Uganda’s eastern region to take for surgeries, and without these efforts, the women would never be able to make it to the hospital. 

I asked Loy, UVP’s fistula coordinator, how long most of the women who were there had been suffering with fistula before coming for surgery. “Some just a short time, but more often 20, 30, or more years,” she said, confirming what I’d suspected when visiting the women, many of whom looked middle-aged. I followed up by asking whether they hadn’t come for surgery earlier because they didn’t know it’s curable. “Sometimes,” said Loy, “but most don’t come because they don’t have the funds for transport.” 

There are very few facilities capable of handling fistula surgeries, and so women must travel several hours to be helped. They live each day leaking urine or feces because they lack the small amount that it would take to get them to the hospital, and can’t afford to bring food or necessities with them to the hospital. That’s where UVP and the UK Childbirth Injuries Fund step in. We identify women in very rural villages who suffer with fistula, cover their transport for the long, dusty ride to the hospital, and then provide a food allowance while they are there. Loy looks after them—her caring nature was evident in the way she spoke with the women and they came to her with problems—and then volunteer surgeons from the UK work in partnership with Ugandan staff to heal women through surgery. Each surgery takes just an hour or two: such a short time after years of dealing with the results of a fistula. 

The surgeon I met, Dr. Glyn Constantine, was a friendly guy who had just a short time to talk between patients. Without his support, and that of his colleagues, we wouldn’t be able to provide these surgeries to women. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and during my visit to the hospital I saw that it takes a community to support a woman in need. From the Fistula Foundation that has helped us extend our outreach efforts, to our donors who provide the much-needed funds to transport the patients, our staff who care so deeply about these women, the Ugandan hospital staff at Kamuli who assist in surgery and healing, and the dedicated UK doctors who use their skills to heal—they all came together this month to help 17 women head home in two weeks with the opportunity to start a new life free from fistula. 

Edited by: Tiffany Hsieh

Behind the scenes: Community Sanitation Meeting

Written by: Leslie Stroud-Romero, UVP Executive Director

Edited by: Tiffany Hsieh

When we use the toilet, we flush away all traces of our waste. In many of our Healthy Villages, a lack of latrines means that villagers are confronted daily with evidence of waste. Uganda Village Project’s (UVP) sanitation campaigns highlight the problem of “open defecation” and other unhygienic practices, and then offer solutions to building a healthier community. I was at a recent community meeting to introduce a sanitation campaign for one of our 2013 Healthy Villages. Kasambika 1 is very rural. The road to get there went from paved, to dirt, to a skinny dirt road, to really more of a footpath by the time we reached the meeting site.

UVP staff members traveled there to talk about the sanitation campaign. Before this meeting, UVP had already worked with the Village Health Team members to ensure that their households had proper sanitation facilities in place, which include a latrine with door, a bathing room, a plate stand to hygienically dry dishes in the sun, a trash pit, and a “tippy tap”—or hand washing station. The Village Health Team members will now be responsible for encouraging their neighbors to improve their sanitation practices and facilities, but we wanted to gather everyone for a community meeting first. UVP’s staff member Obbo Titus engaged the participants and, although I understood very little of what was said, it was clear that although they were talking about diarrhea, cleanliness, and piles of waste, the women and men had a great time as they laughed at jokes and nodded in understanding. Titus also shared the results of the baseline sanitation survey that our 2013 summer interns conducted to show them the progress they made from six months ago. 

Titus at the sanitation meeting

During the next three months, Village Health Teams will sell subsidized materials so that their neighbors can build tippy taps. They will consult about proper latrine construction, and lend a hand when cleaning up compounds. The purpose of the UVP sanitation campaigns is to educate or remind villagers about proper hygiene and sanitation, such as why using a latrine is important and how washing hands prevents disease. We do this by helping community members see the problem and then encouraging them to work together for the goal of a healthier community. No one wants to be the only person on the road without a latrine, and people want their compounds to look nice with a functioning tippy tap on site.

Our 2014 summer interns will evaluate the success of the project by identifying the improved sanitation facilities at each household, but if the meeting last week was any indication, it seems that Kasambika 1 is well on its way to making community-wide healthy changes.

Fistula Ambassador Training

Obstetric fistula, a childbirth injury which is a result of prolonged obstructed labor, is common in developing countries where the poor women cannot access proper medical care during pregnancy and labor. Uganda is no exception. Over 200,000 women suffer with fistula throughout the country.

Women with fistula live a life of isolation because the condition causes constant leakage of urine or feces. Sadly, many women suffering with fistula do not know that there is a cure for their condition. Due to a lack of information and education on their condition some even attribute their condition to curses or witchcraft.

The Uganda Village Project works hard to identify patients and giving them access to repair surgeries. However, locating patients proves to be difficult as women with fistula are isolated and marginalized in their communities. Our Fistula Coordinator, Loy, works tirelessly to locate fistula patients across 8 districts in Uganda. She is very successful in communicating about fistula and counseling women suffering with the condition because she herself suffered with the condition and had repair surgery. As one of our former fistula patients said, “I felt more comfortable because the person [fistula coordinator] who came to talk to me about this condition had gone through the same ordeal and was in a position to explain to me what fistula meant and that it could be cured”. Uganda Village Project wants to replicate Loy’s success by identifying other former fistula patients to be ambassadors in their communities.

In November of this year, Uganda Village Project's Fistula Program launched a Fistula Ambassadors project which brought together 18 former fistula patients from the districts of Namayingo, Iganga, Luuka, Budaka, Pallisa, Mayuge and Kaliro. In this two day training, the women were given knowledge on the causes, prevention and treatment of fistula. Additionally, trainees learned how to effectively communicate about fistula in their community and attended a fistula outreach where they could watch our Fistula Coordinator give her presentation and answer the community’s questions.

Now, as fistula ambassadors, these former fistula patients have the skills to actively identify patients in need of treatment, participate and organize outreaches in their communities to educate people about fistula, and create support networks where they can meet and discuss challenges and personal issues prior to or after surgery.

Since 2007, UVP has helped a total of 240 women living with fistula receive fistula surgery by conducting sensitizations, identifying fistula cases and facilitating the process of taking the women for surgery and supporting them while the recover in the hospital.  We hope that with our Fistula Ambassador program, we can help that many more women. UVP’s Fistula Ambassador activities have been funded through a grant from the Fistula Foundation. 

Check out photos from our training below:

Our Fistula Ambassadors

Written by: Kait Maloney
Edited by: Tiffany Hsieh

Dr. Alison Hayward speaks at GlobeMed HillTop Conference 2013

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This month, Dr. Alison Hayward, Uganda Village Project's co-founder and chair of the board, was invited to speak at the GlobeMed Global Health HillTop conference held at Columbia University in New York City. GlobeMed is a student-founded nonprofit with many similarities to UVP in its mission and values. Both organizations focus on grassroots community-based work to improve health and alleviate poverty via partnerships between students and community members.

Dr. Hayward gave an overview of Uganda Village Project's history and its programs to conference attendees, with emphasis on the Healthy Villages program. This lecture was followed by a lively discussion of the challenges of nonprofit work in resource limited settings and of creating behavior change in communities as part of public health initiatives. Thanks to GlobeMed for the invitation to participate and speak at the conference this year!

UVP Fistula Program in the News

Uganda Village Project (UVP) was mentioned in a recent article about obstetric fistula in Uganda. There are approximately 140,000 to 200,000 women living with fistula in Uganda. This devastating childbirth injury can be fixed--and UVP is working to do just that. We send women to fistula repair camps run by the Uganda Childbirth Injury Fund three times a year. Read more in the article here.