Promote Maternal & Sexual Health in N. Uganda

Dear friends, benefactors and supporters,

We hope this message finds you enjoying the first few days of spring. We want to thank you all for your support so far this year. So far, 2016 has been great for GlobeMed at Columbia as we have added many new members to our chapter this semester, and strengthened ties between members who have already been with us. As a chapter, we have sent members to our national global health conference in Evanston, Illinois, successfully hosted our bi-annual Gala, organized a very successful Krispy Kreme fundraiser and worked on many other events that both raise awareness about our project and help fundraise for our project goal. We are excited to share some recent updates from GWED-G below.

As the region of Northern Uganda is moving towards post-conflict recovery, the region is faced with several factors leading to new HIV infection such as general complacency of attitudes and convictions. This has reduced the fear surrounding HIV, and in turn has led to an increase in risky sexual behavior. GWED-G in partnership with GlobeMed at Columbia is emphasizing scaling up HIV preventions integrated with maternal and newborn health to prevent HIV infection numbers from rising. In order to achieve this the GlobeMed-GWED-G partnership focuses on three objectives: 1. Strengthening Awareness on HIV Prevention Strategies; 2. Promoting Maternal and Newborn Health; 3. Conducting Training and Capacity Building for HIV/AIDS Health Workers.

GWED-G has been working very hard to achieve these objectives in the past year. In 2015, the project conducted 22 awareness and sensitization sessions reaching out to an estimate of 9,162 men and women. 582 mothers benefitted from Mama Kits, which include basic supplies the mothers need for a safe delivery. Women who receive mama kits are also better equipped to be treated at health centers, where medical supplies are often in short supply. Thanks to our partnership with health center staff, expectant mothers in the Mama Clubs receive antenatal care and support with living with HIV. Importantly, for those enrolled in the program, the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission is significantly reduced. In the past two years 422 babies born to HIV-positive mothers in GWED-G`s Mama groups were born HIV-negative!

GWED-G also conducted 4 community dialogues, where mothers were taught about the nutritional needs of their children. These sessions provide the mothers with an explanation of the nutritional patterns their children require and also show them how they can fulfill these nutritional requirements from local resources. In addition to our maternal and newborn health project GWED-G has newly incorporated cervical cancer screenings into its initiative. So far 207 women have been screened for cervical cancer, potentially resulting in early diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

In the past year through GWED-G`s efforts through initiatives such as the Role Model Men groups there was a significant increase in husbands taking their wives to antenatal care services by 35%, as well as an increase in women seeking family planning methods, from 47 to 106 women seeking contraception at health centers every month. There has also been an increase of 46% in the use of condoms by youth in the community. The number of deliveries done in the health facilities around the project area have increased from 20 to 50 deliveries per month, which is likely the result of many sensitizations dialogues encouraging mothers to seek professional medical services as well as donations of delivery kits to pregnant mothers.

As you can see, GWED-G has been working extremely hard to improve the healthcare standards and delivery in communities in Northern Uganda and our partnership remains strong. GlobeMed at Columbia is very grateful for your support and we would like to celebrate the successes we have achieved together. However, we still have a long way to go until the people of Northern Uganda can fully exercise their right to health. We ask for your contribution to and continued support for GlobeMed at Columbia’s project. Feel free to visit our GlobalGiving page, Wordpress, and Facebook pages or follow us on Twitter.

In solidarity,

GlobeMed at Columbia