Physical Health Uganda Project #10618

Healthy Families, Brighter Futures Family Planning

by Karin Community Initiatives Uganda

Project Report | Apr 15, 2013
Connecting rural grassroots women

By Hope Okeny | Project leader

Filda attending the grassroot women

This month the women in our community joined hands with the rest of the world to celebrate the International
Women’s Day 2013 with a theme symbolic of our post-conflict recovery and development efforts: “The Gender Agenda: Connecting Grassroots Women to Development”.

It was important for us to connect rural women to our post-conflict recovery and development efforts. It is crucial because all the vital statistics relating to women and girls show dire outcomes for our post-conflict recovery and development:

Our Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) still stands at a high of 143 deaths for every 100,000 successful deliveries;

Our Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is still unacceptably high at 25 deaths for every 1000 live births;

Our Mothers and Children are still exposed to such high malnutrition that 30% of our children are stunted, 16.7% retarded, and 5% are wasting away. As a result of such inauspicious mother- and childhood figures, Gulu District is beset with the following:

23 women die every year due to pregnancy-related complications;
9 children die every day due to preventable health-related conditions;
3 out of every 10 children are stunted;
56 out of every 100 women do not use family planning;
only 42 out of every 100 women attend the requisite four antenatal visits;
77 out of 100 men do not accompany their wives for health services; and
15 out of 100 deliveries are still conducted at home.

When you add to this the fact that up to 34 out of every 100 households in Gulu District do not have latrines, the management of the health centre felt that in order to reduce these numbers,we should not only carry out
health talks in the health centre but reach out in the villages too: health is made at home. It is only repaired in health centers and hospitals.

The management of the health centre feels that if we do not connect to the grassroots women first we cannot ensure much development. It is only after we have given the rural woman and child a fighting chance at surviving high Maternal and Infant Mortality Rates that we can hope to successfully go about providing the wherewithal that
will connect them to development.

It was a marker of our intention to fight the obstacles preventing the rural, grassroots woman from participating fully in our post-conflict recovery and development efforts.

Karin Children Medical Centre believe in joining hands with the community in supporting the grassroot women it is like the famous quotation from the great British author Dorothy L. Sayers who said:

“Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him – or so they used to say. It would be interesting to know how many great women have had great fathers and husbands behind them.”

I therefore take this opportunity, to thank our donors who have seen us through these time. In so doing we will have finally and irrevocably connected grassroots women to development.

Local women

one to one with Filda

Permalink

Jan 2, 2013
Sensitising Gulu Women on Better Family Planning'

By Hope Okeny | Project leader

A happy new year to you dear friend.

We share again with you happiness in this new year from all the children and their mothers you are immunizing through this project every year.

Immunisation exercise has now become a weekly activity since the opening of the health centres with increased number of mothers turning up each week. This is an achievement to us becuase it means that more children are getting immunised. The village health team move around the villages every week before the immunisation days to remind mothers to take their children for immunisation. They also remind expectant mothers to go for tetanus shots too.

Sarah Lawino is pictured in the photo holding her son Ojok (22 months), they have just had his immunisation at the Karin Children medical centre.

Sarah is from from the nearby village, Agonga. Sarah told us that coming to this health centre was really an opportunity because it is very near to her home. She now can quickly go back to tend to her home and her business. In the past she had to walk very far away, and by the time she gets back home, she is tired and hungry, her children would be waiting for her and it would also cost her business too. This will not happen anymore and she will continue coming back for the other immunisation days too. She tells us that Ojok did not cry so much during the immunisation and she believes the health workers were very good too.

Sarah tells us that she is going to tell her friends and neighbours to bring the children to Karin children medical centre because the health workers are very friendly and the service is very quick. She narrates to us how this is different from the government health centres where there are hundreds of mothers and childern waiting to be attended to. And one has to get to the health centre very early, and this can be very inconviniencing

Sarah says that many mothers are put off by the long waiting ques and then they end up postponing the immunisation of their children. Some mothers even do not take their children at all for immunisation because they do not know the importance. She urged us to carry out health education in the market days and this will increase the awarneness about immunisation.

Friends tell us what you think of our work? We need to reach out to more mothers and children, can you support us to attract a wider support?

Happy New Year to you and we also wish you a great year ahead.

With warm regards,

Hope

P..S. Find more about www.childcareuganda.org

Friend us on facebook: www.facebook.com/childcaredevelopmentorganisationuganda

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Oct 1, 2012
Sensitizing Women on better Family Planning

By Hope Okeny | Project leader

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