Child Protection Uganda Project #56483

Support life change to babies born in rural areas

by Charitable Incorporated Community Organization Uganda

Support life change to babies born in rural areas

Project Report | Feb 27, 2023
Helping mothers deliver a healthy baby

By James Aleko | Project Director

Objectives:

To explore whether community health worker household-based maternal health visits improve antenatal care and skilled birth attendance among hard-to-reach rural areas in Uganda.

Methods:

This quasi-experimental 18-month prospective study involved 486 consenting women aged 15–49 years, who were pregnant or had a pregnancy outcome in the past 6 months, from 6 island fishing communities. The community health worker household-based intervention (community health workers’ household visits to provide counseling, blood pressure measurement, anemia, and HIV testing) involved 243 women from three fishing communities. Random effects logistic regression was used to determine the association between the community health worker intervention and antenatal care and skilled birth attendance among women who had at least 5 months of pregnancy or childbirth at follow-up.

Results:

Almost all women accepted the community health worker intervention (90.9% (221/243)). Hypertension was at 12.5% (27/216) among those who accepted blood pressure measurements, a third (33.3% (9/27)) were pregnant. HIV prevalence was 23.5% (52/221). Over a third (34.2% (69/202)) of women tested had anemia (hemoglobin levels less than 11 g/dL). The community health worker intervention was associated with attendance of first antenatal care visit within 20 weeks of pregnancy (adjusted odd ratio = 2.1 (95% confidence interval 0.6–7.6)), attendance of at least four antenatal care visits (adjusted odd ratio = 0.9 (95% confidence interval 0.4–2.0)), and skilled birth attendance (adjusted odd ratio = 0.5 (95% confidence interval 0.1–1.5)), though not statistically significant.

Conclusion:

Community health workers have a crucial role in improving early antenatal care attendance, early community-based diagnosis of anemia, hypertensive disorders, and HIV among women in these hard-to-reach rural communities.

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Nov 11, 2022
Hope is restored through our rural Child Survival Program support fund

By James Aleko | Project Director

In a far rural areas that even away from government facility services, in the eastern part of Uganda, a child born to a family living in a mud-made house with no wall around it. There are two rooms, each room has three holes with the size of 60cmx60cm on the walls that serve as the windows to allow the light in. The rooms do not have doors, only a heavy curtain is hanged and a stove to keep the room warm, there is an old red-colour carpet on the floor too.

“David was born in this room. He was healthy and well at first, but later his health condition started to worsen day by day,” said Joyce, David’s mother. The four-years-old baby was severely malnourished and paralyzed.

There is no clinic in the village where Joyce and her family live. She took David to a clinic in town, which is around eight hours way, but could not treat him because Joyce could not afford treatment and medication. “They told me that my son’s poor health is because of hunger and not getting enough food,” Joyce told us. Her and her family had lost hope for David’s life.

She has four goats which are the only source of food and income for her divorced 8-member family. Joyce, the only breadwinner of the family, hardly ever finds a daily labour in the farms of their villages. “My poor income is making us suffer; I cannot afford providing food to my family; I cannot afford buying cloths for them,” she added with deep sorrow in her eyes. “My husband, who could work and help me, divorced me just after having David as our eighth born due to the high levels of poverty our family could go through”

One day, our village partner coordinator, visited Joyce natured with councilling and prayers and told her, “A charity team of an organization thoughtfully pledges to support your family with free treatment and food packages for malnourished children.” After hearing this, Joyce immediately took her son to the project office for a medical federal note to our health clinic service provider.

Just like Joyce, according to WFP report, 1.1 million children are acutely malnourished in 2022. World Health Organization (WHO) has reported a concern that the health sector of low developing countries is on the verge of collapse.

So far, Cico Uganda has been able to provide medical assistance to poor households in rural areas. Cico Uganda under the rural Child Survival Program support fund Project (CSP) donated by GlobalGiving portential donors, reached to 242 vulnerable households living in rural settings through OPD (Out Patient Disease) services; nutrition screening, registering and treatments of malnourished children; and giving hygiene kits to severely malnourished children. Through this project health and nutrition awareness sessions for CHWs (Community Health Workers), Village Health Team(VHTs) members, maternity assistants; delivery & PNC (Post Natal Care) services and distributing super cereals for pregnant/lactating women; and psychosocial treatment were also provided.

After Joyce brought her son to the project office and upon referring her to the health facility provider, they started his treatment and give him approperiat medicine and food packages for malnourished children on regularly basis for two months. After receiving vital support, David is not a malnourished child anymore. “As this team started providing services and giving him medicine and food packages, his health is getting better day by day and sometimes we cannot even believe that this is the same David” said Joyce happily and with a hopeful smile on her face. “We are truly grateful and thankful to Cico Uganda and its staff for helping us not to worry for David's life.”

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