Our priorities for Nyaka grandmothers and children are prevention, nutrition, early testing, and eligible immunization. Nyaka works with two Village Health Team (VHT) members to provide reliable information and mobilization in our community areas. VHT team members assist with health education, especially during immunization days, and follow up patients who miss immunization appointments. VHT team members also conduct home health visits to provide education on COVID-19 prevention through hand washing, use of face masks, social distancing as well as encouraging household members to get vaccinated.
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On Monday, January 10th, 2022 Nyaka welcomed children back to school! In order to keep our community safe, teachers and support staff have been vaccinated. Daily, staff members are doing all they can to follow the strict Ugandan Ministry of Health’s (MoH) operating guidelines including cleaning, maintenance, the provision of hand washing stations, masks for all students, plans for COVID-19 safe classrooms, etc. Medical personnel from the local Kambuga hospital, have visited Nyaka to address staff and students at the Nyaka Vocational Secondary School (NVSS) to provide additional guidance on how to stay safe.
Nyaka has a new coffee table book 'For Our Children’s Sake' available now. To learn more about how to get your copy click HERE!
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Uganda COVID 19 Update:
All Schools apart from international schools are still closed until January 2022. Universities are scheduled to reopen in November 2021 and only vaccinated students will attend physical
lectures. Universities and some secondary schools are conducting online lessons. As of
October 23, 2021, Uganda had registered a cumulative number of 125,758 confirmed
cases, 48new cases, 3,200 deaths and 96,510 recoveries. By this date 2,854,082 doses of the vaccine had been administered.
Scale up vaccination by prioritizing vaccination for 4.8 million of the priority population (teachers, health workers, elderly, security personnel and students above 18 years). Vaccination sites have been increased to include bars, places of worship and smaller health level facilities in order to bring the four different vaccines available nearer to the people. These steps will eventually lead to safe reopening of various sections.
Nyaka Community Covid Cases:
We are happy to report, there have not been cases reported from July to September among Nyaka staff. Despite our efforts to get community members vaccinated and safety precautions, unfortunately, 22 grandmothers contracted COVID-19. 16 of these grandmothers recovered and six grandmothers died from the virus between July and September. We are working diligently to prevent anymore community deaths.
Nyaka Operational Response To Covid 19:
Nyaka was recommended by United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) as one of the partners that can help with vaccine uptake in South Western Uganda. Nyaka’s Country Director and Program Manager have held discussions with Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), one of the implementing USAID partners in Western Uganda, to see how best they can support mobilizing communities for increased vaccine uptake.
All Nyaka services are operational except schools. Students are allowed to come to the libraries to borrow books and also access the internet for those who have online classes as long as they observe standard operating procedures. Teachers continue to support students through clusters and provision of study materials. We also continue to reach grandmothers to educate them about COVID-19 and SGBV.
Keeping our students and grandmothers at the forefront of our minds, we continue to look for support to cover additional costs associated with meeting COVID-19 safety requirements, preparing for the safe resumption of program activities (e.g., schools and community outreaches) in line with government guidelines, providing accurate information on COVID-19 preventive to the community and encouraging community members to get vaccinated. Which has been done through radio programs by different Nyaka staff in collaboration with voluntary health teams, district officials, health staff from hospitals and other health facilities as well as and other stakeholders in the community.
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Like many countries in the world, Uganda experienced a very strict lockdown in the spring of 2020, which helped to reduce the spread of the pandemic (although at considerable social and economic cost, especially for those already living in poverty).
On June 6th, 2021, following a substantial rise in COVID-19 cases, the President announced a second lockdown. Restrictions were further tightened on June 19th for a further 42 days. At present all Ugandan schools are closed, there is a strict curfew in place and only essential workers with permits are allowed to move.
In these challenging conditions, Nyaka continues to work to support students, grandmothers and Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) survivors, whilst taking all possible precautions to protect our community and follow government directives.
We are:
From everyone at Nyaka in Uganda, we thank you for your continued support!
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Our Grandmother Program has increased by almost 5,000 grandmothers! Due to the increase of grandmothers we are also increasing the amount of resources they have access to including: microfinance funds, soap, food, farming tools, training, home improvements, and more.
These additional grandmothers are able to support thousands more children while ensuring that each child has a responsible and loving adult to care for them. Many grandmothers are caring for their grandchildren 24/7 while awaiting for them to be phased back into school.
The Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) recently released the schedule for a phased return to school. This schedule ensures that social distancing and other COVID-19 safety measures can be observed at school.
Until all students return, the MoES has donated Home Study Learning text books for Nyaka Primary School students and we’ll continue to create and distribute additional study materials to all students.
The Ministry of Health has begun implementing it’s COVID-19 vaccination program. During phase one, health workers, teachers, security personnel, citizens above 70, and those with underlying conditions will be vaccinated. This phase will greatly and positively affect the Nyaka community with our teachers and grandmothers being vaccinated, helping keep the entire community safe.
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Educating students remains our priority. Our teachers have been traveling across Kanungu and Rukungiri districts, providing educational materials to our students, and working with individuals and small groups. Nyaka staff members are following strict COVID-19 protocols to keep themselves and the community safe.
We have continued to distribute masks and emergency relief to particularly vulnerable community members. As is the case globally, cases of sexual and gender-based violence have increased in our communities during and after lockdown. Our SGBV staff is working tirelessly to support survivors and provide them with access to medical care, counseling, and legal support to bring their perpetrators to justice.
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