Project Report
| Jan 19, 2017
January 2017
By Caroline Fernandes | Director of Partnerships
January has been a productive month for Mpoma! MCHI's manager, Peter, informed us at a recent Skype call that the team has contacted a woman from the U.S. to sell beaded necklaces and bracelets made by students from Johnson Nkosi Primary School. The funds will be used to purchase more materials to make more reusable sanitary pads for the girls. On that topic, Peter informed us that the structure built last summer for the girls to wash and dry their pads safely is being used with no major complaints so far. They are planning on painting the wall that faces the school and the large (futbol) field that the students can be found running around on during Physical Education and at the end of the day. They plan on writing inspirational words on the wall as little reminders to motivate the girls every time they walk by the structure.
Additionally, the Mpoma team recently had a meeting with the sub-county to discuss the research paper the last GROW team wrote which detailed the WASH project’s progress, particularly in increasing community overall hygiene and sanitation behaviors.The sub-county council recently passed a resolution acknowledging MCHI’s work in the local area. They plan on sending MCHI an official certificate thanking the organization for their tireless efforts. Later this month a Memorandum of Understanding will be put together highlighting the sub-county expectations and focuses for WASH in the upcoming months. This is done in order to ensure that MCHI’s work fits into the sub-county’s goals for this year. We are excited to see what we can accomplish in 2017!
Links:
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
Nov 28, 2016
November 2016
By Caroline Fernandes | Director of Partnerships
November was an eventful month for Mpoma! Earlier this month the Mpoma team went on another outreach to the villages Waluga and Katogoo. The goal of these trips was to share the next steps in our WASH program for the year. Some major focuses are community empowerment plus the importance of latrine covers and permanent handwashing stations. These current goals address several points of imporvement that we discovered through our survey research over the past two summers.
The Mpoma team also recently shared the formal research paper this year's GROW team wrote with Nama sub-county government officials (the Chair-person and Community Development Officer). They are very excited about our findings!
Mpoma also visited Kyampisi, a prospective WASH village, to do a massive community mobilization. This step is a vital part of the WASH project as it brings all village members on board before building a new water source. Additionally, doing so educates the community on the various responsibilites required to properly maintain the borehole.
Lastly, our new sanitary pad project at Johnson Nkosi Primary school is doing well! The permanent structure built to wash and dry reusable pads is being used by the girls and there have been no problems so far.
Links:
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
Jul 1, 2016
June 2016
By Caroline Fernandes | Director of Partnerships
June has been an eventful month for Mpoma and GlobeMed at UCLA! The 2016 GROW team arrived in the village Lukojjo (where Johnson Nkosi Primary School is located) on June 13th. After two long plane rides and one 3-hour car ride through Entebbe and Kampala we finally arrived. We were immediately welcomed by the community and have met countless amazing people and made so many new friends. Apart from successfully acclimating into our new surroundings we have accomplished so much!
Early in our trip we visited the Nama Sub-County headquarters to inform local government officials about our fieldwork surveying households about various sanitation and hygiene criteria in person and via a formal letter. We informed them exactly how we would conduct surveys while maintaining confidentiality, and the number of villages and households we planned to visit. We also wrote up a formal letter informing headquarters that we will be have our Biannual Meeting in a few weeks where we will train water user committees and share the data from our outreaches (fieldwork).
So far we have visited 4 water sources in the villages Waluga, Lukalu, and Buyki. This year we decided to take GIS (Geographic Information System) points at every house we visit so we can accurately measure the distance between the water source and each household. These points will also be helpful for next year so we know if we visited a house the year before! Additionally, we’ve identified two possible villages to implement new WASH programs in that can also serve as controls for our research. We’re almost halfway done with our stay in Uganda but I can’t wait to see what else we will accomplish!
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
