A huge THANK YOU to everyone who made our Christmas campaign such a success. With your support we managed to raise a staggering £15,470.
Your donation will help our Health Clinic and team of Community Health Promoters provide essential and life-saving health and sanitation advice to stay safe against Covid, provide clean water, increase immunisation coverage and maternal care in an impoverished area in Uganda with high infant and maternal mortality.
Our Health team work in Mbale, Uganda. Disease is the cause of 8 out of 9 deaths in Uganda. Women are 56 times more likely to die in childbirth in this district than in the UK and children born to the poorest families, with mothers who have not been educated are most likely to die before age 5. The under-5 mortality rate was 69 per 1000 live births in Uganda in 2015. Infectious disease and poor sanitation are leadings causes of childhood mortality. Maternal mortality (MMR) in this area is 500 in 100,000; the UK is 8.9 per 100,000.
Our Health Clinic and 180 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) provide sanitation/healthcare advice and immunisations to this impoverished community. CHPs travel to villages providing vaccinations, health education, advise on sanitation, malaria, nutrition, ante and post-natal care. Our CHPs will support women to give birth in a safe environment whether at home or at our Clinic reducing the high risk of maternal death.
Covid 19 infection rates remain relatively low but with lack of testing it is difficult to be certain in a society where death from infectious illness is high. The CHPs have been very active in ensuring that hygiene measures are undertaken in the community to reduce the spread of Covid 19. The effects of strict lockdown have had a severe effect on the community leading to increased poverty, starvation and health inequality. There is a higher teenage pregnancy rate as a result of school closures. These girls are very vulnerable and desperately need the outreach support of our CHPs and maternal health care at the Clinic.
Our Impact
Your donation will help us to save lives by reducing the spread of Covid 19 & other diseases, increase health education, sanitation and hygiene awareness, immunise against preventable disease and reduce the high infant & maternal mortality rate. Our CHPs project empowers communities & strengthens the delivery of health services at the household level as our CHPs are often the only people providing health care/ advice in areas with poor accessibility.
Our Health Clinic is the hub of the health project which is located in the slum villages of Bukasakya subcounty, Mbale, Eastern Uganda - a peaceful area, but poor even by Ugandan standards. Basic infrastructure and access to public services have largely been absent and people suffer high mortality, little primary healthcare provision, lack of clean water and a low opportunity for education and employment. Many families have been ravaged by malaria, HIV/AIDS and war - displaced to Mbale by conflict.
This project will transform lives and give real hope to this community. Thank you for supporting us.
