Urgent Action to curb COVID to people and gorillas

Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) launched the project, ‘Urgent Action to curb COVID to people and gorillas’ to raise funds to train community volunteers - Village Health and Conservation Teams (VHCTs) and Village COVID-19 Taskforce committees (including health officials, wildlife managers, local leaders, schools and religious institutions) - to increase community awareness on COVID-19 and support COVID-19 mitigation and prevention, including by promoting and improving access to vaccination, through peer-to-peer social behaviour chance communication.

This project was initiated at a time when Uganda was experiencing its second, much more severe, wave of COVID-19 and the Ministry of Health in Uganda introduced Home Based Care (HBC) for all non-emergency COVID-19 cases to be implemented at household level through Village COVID-19 Taskforces (VCTFs).

As a member of the Ministry of Health COVID-19 Taskforce, CTPH has been supporting HBC implementation and other COVID-19 responses in Kanungu and Kisoro Districts around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to half of the world’s remaining endangered mountain gorillas, to reduce the spread of COVID-19 amongst people and from people to mountain gorillas which, with 98% the same DNA as humans, are very susceptible to COVID-19 infection.

The key role of the VCTFs is to support community surveillance and case detection, including deaths.

Other roles include the following:

• Community case management including supporting self-isolation, community-based drug distribution and referrals as appropriate
• Supporting Home Based Care of COVID-19 cases with mild to moderate (non-emergency) symptoms
• COVID-19 contact tracing and management
• Community shielding of vulnerable members
• Strategic communication, creating awareness and supporting information and education to improve COVID-19 awareness and knowledge levels
• Maintaining the Village Health Register on households, data management and reporting
• Responding to other community health needs as appropriate
• Referring emergency medical cases for further care, as needed.

Project Progress

The project has so far raised $2,965 of the $30,000 goal from 16 donors, with 3 monthly donors in 4 months.

Activity Progress

VCTFs launched around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

In July 2021, CTPH established 59 Village COVID-19 Taskforces in Kanungu and Kisoro Districts around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The first VCTF committee was launched in Buhoma Town Council and opened by the Mayor, Moses Bashaija in presence of the acting District Health Officer (DHO), Kanungu District, Dr Kato Besisira.

Functionalizing the VCTFs

The launch of the project included supporting the establishment of 59 Village COVID-19 Task Force Committees (VCTFs) in 8 Frontline parishes around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. These Village Covid-19 Task Force Committees are composed of two representatives from the Village Health Conservation Teams (VHCTs), Local Council 1, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the porter’s association, teacher’s representative, religious leaders, and women’s groups. These are key stakeholders in conservation, community and tourism.

They were trained on COVID-19 contact tracing, how to be the link between patients and health centers or hospitals, and on the Ministry of Health home based care guidelines to prevent and reduce COVID-19 transmission in these communities with high human and gorilla conflict.

The CTPH team also delivered items to all the Village COVID-19 Task Force Committees around Bwindi to support their home based care roles. These items included 59 pulse oximeters, 59 infrared thermometers and batteries, gloves, masks and 99 hand sanitizers (220 ml). The committee members were also trained on how to use the equipment properly.  

This critical equipment enables Village COVID-19 Task Force members to carry out their roles in reducing transmission of COVID-19 in the communities bordering Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, whilst also protecting themselves from infection.

The project strengthened the CTPH One Health approach by adding Uganda Wildlife Authority staff and a representative from the porters’ associations to each VCTF committee.

All VCTF members were trained on data collection for Home Based Care and reporting on key indicators, as required by the Ministry of Health.

The establishment of the VCTFs and other community One Health cadres around Bwindi has strengthened the COVID-19 response in the frontline communities around the park, reducing the risk of spread amongst people and from people to the endangered mountain gorillas, the impact of which could be catastrophic for the species as managing infection spread and providing treatment would be very challenging amongst the wild gorilla populations.

At the request of the Ministry of Health (MOH) COVID taskforce, CTPH Founder and CEO, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, gave a presentation about launching 59 Village COVID taskforces in 8 parishes with high human and gorilla conflict as well as other activities including testing park staff, conservation personnel and Gorilla Guardians; training park staff, VHCTs and Gorilla Guardians on COVID-19 prevention among people and from people and gorillas; vaccination information; and testing of gorillas.

We would like to thank all individual donors from GlobalGiving, Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN), the Ministry of Health COVID-19 Taskforce, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Bwindi Community Hospital, Kayonza Sub County, Mpungu Sub County, Buhoma Town Council, Rubuguri Town Council, Nkuringo Town Council, Kisoro District Health Office, Kanungu District Health Office and all our supporters.

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