Plan Uganda Annual Progress Report 2009

EGYPT

U. A. E.

A YEAR IN Lake Nasser

UGANDA SUMMARY REPORT

09

ERITREA

YEMEN

3

DIJBOUTI

GOOD REASONS why Plan works in Uganda

• More than one in ten children under the age of three suffers from severe malnutrition Girls from the Kamuli Primary School open a new building.

• Half of Uganda’s children have no access to healthcare • Only 10% of Ugandans practise effective hygiene and sanitation

Our priorities in Uganda SUDAN

• Empowering children and families living in poverty

ETHIOPIA

KENYA

Arua

Gulu

DR CONGO

Luwero West Katikamu Bamunanika

Moroto Kamuli West Kamuli Tororo North

Kampala

Mbarara

Jinja Entebbe

Tororo East Tororo West Kawempe

Lake Victor ia

UGANDA RWANDA

Country Office Programme Unit

• Strengthening children’s health and access to health facilities • Promoting learning for children and adults • Protecting children affected by HIV/AIDS and reducing stigma in communities SOMALIA

“Community-led projects and partnerships are demonstrating their greater effectiveness and impact” – Subhadra Belbase, Plan’s Country Director

A Plan staff member discusses projects with a family.

TANZANIA BURUNDI

UGANDA FACTS Lake

Capital:Tanganyika Kampale Population: 22.2 million Language: English (official).

Swahili and Luganda are also spoken Climate: Although equatorial, the climate is not uniform as the altitude modifies the climate. Southern Uganda is wetter with rain generally spread throughout the year.

At Entebbe on the northern

shore of Lake Victoria, most rain falls from March to June and the November/December period. Further to the north a dry season gradually emerges; at Gulu about 120km from the Sudanese border, November to February is much drier than the rest of the year. The north eastern Karamoja region has the driest climate and is prone to drought. Rwenzori in the south west on the border

with Congo (DRC) receives heavy rain all year round.

Economy: Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. The country has largely untapped reserves of both crude oil and natural gas. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80% of the work force, with

coffee accounting for the bulk of export revenues.

In the 1950s the British Colonial regime encouraged some 500,000 subsistence farmers to join co-operatives.

Since 1986, the government (with the support of foreign countries and international agencies) has acted to rehabilitate an economy decimated during the regime of Idi Amin and subsequent civil war.

A YEAR IN

UGANDA 09 SUMMARY REPORT

FOCUS ON: STRENGTHENING CHILDREN’S HEALTH Plan is working to protect very young children from preventable diseases.

We aim to reduce malnutrition and widen access to healthcare. We also aim to increase access to safe water and promote good hygiene and sanitation.

At the same time, we’re trying to get children and communities more involved in healthcare, and decisionmaking on health.

SANITATION LED BY THE COMMUNITY

I

n the Kumali district, in the centre of Uganda, more than a quarter of a million people do not have access to decent toilets.

A community member from Airenera village contributes to a savings and loan scheme.

The Bigger Picture

Plan is working with children, families and whole communities to address the problems that Uganda faces. This report can only tell a small part of that story. As a further insight, last year we also: • Helped to distribute birth certificates to 40,734 children, enabling them to exercise their rights to education, health services and more • Provided 3,000 mosquito nets to control the spread of malaria among children and their families • Enabled 11,706 women and 4,507 men to buy animals, upgrade homes and start businesses through savings and loans clubs.

Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these positive results. So on behalf of the communities, partner organisations, and most of all the children we work with – thank you!

This lack of sanitation facilities is a direct cause of contaminated water and disease, especially among children.

But for an agency like Plan to build toilets on the massive scale needed simply isn’t practical. Firstly, when they break down, they’re difficult to repair, and often local people don’t see the need to use them.

So Plan is using a different method: Communityled Total Sanitation (CLTS), which enables communities to solve their sanitation problems themselves, without the need of external support.

Bulondo is a village in the Kamuli district. In 2007, only half its households had proper toilets, leaving children and their families vulnerable to life-threatening disease. Bulondo residents used not to mind people using bushes as latrines. But Plan workers helped to showed them how this was putting their health, and the health of their children, at risk. ‘Faeces mapping’ demonstrated how disease is spread by flies landing on human waste and then on food. Once they were aware of the facts, the villagers resolved to change local sanitation practices.

Taking action

“We sometimes make unexpected visits at home to make sure they use clean water and wash their utensils before cooking” To learn more about Plan’s work in Uganda visit plan.org.au/ourwork/southernafrica/uganda

Produced for Uganda by the Australian National Office.

People of all ages came to the meetings. Elevenyear-old schoolgirl Susan, who lives with her grandparents, learnt that it is not enough to have your own latrine – if your neighbour doesn’t have one, you remain in danger. Susan went home and convinced her family to improve their facilities immediately. “We used to suffer from a

“We used to suffer from a lot of diseases like malaria and diarrhoea, but we built a new pit latrine and hand-washing facility, and haven’t been ill since”

lot of diseases like malaria and diarrhoea,” says her grandmother. “We listened to Susan and built a new pit latrine and hand-washing facility, and haven’t been ill since.”

Local mother Lukiya went to a meeting where a map of the defecation areas in the village was drawn. She was horrified to discover that human waste was ending up in her family’s food and water. Together with her children, she dug a proper pit, and now feels much more confident about her family’s health.

Working together Those who went to the meetings also organised Village Health Teams to visit people in the community, and spread the message. Due to their efforts, Mzee, aged 86, is the proud owner of a new latrine. He had never had one before, but a series of visits from the Health Team convinced him he needed to build one. Unable to construct it himself, he joined a Health Club which helped him dig the pit. “I used to suffer from an upset stomach, but now my family is the happiest one around,” he said.

As a result of their efforts, the residents of Butondo Village were able to declare themselves ‘Open Defecation Free’ three months after the start of the project, this success is entirely due to the efforts of the villagers themselves. Health concerns are fewer, and there is a general sense of pride within the community for what they have achieved.

Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy purposes.

plan.org.au