Community health projects
Wherever in the world we live, health is the top priority for families. Of course, rural Uganda has particular challenges with Malaria, Tuberculosis, Typhoid and HIV.
Simple, low-cost interventions such as clean water, innoculations and mosquito nets can make a dramatic difference.
Health projects fit into the wider CHIFCOD vision for important practical reasons.
Children were missing school either because they were unwell themselves or because a family member needed looking after. This was sufficiently frequent to disrupt their learning.
Therefore it was decided that the health projects should support not just the children attending the schools, but their wider families.
This has an important additional benefit ... when children are old enough to work in the fields, families are under great econimic pressure to keep them out of school. This significantly shortens their years of education and perpetuates the cycle of under-educated parents and under-educated children holding back development of the community. But, when the child's attendance at school provides a healthcare facility for the family, the child is making an important contribution to the family by their work at school instead of their work in the fields.
When you sponsor a child at one of the schools, you are helping the child and their wider family as well as helping to create an educated community that will be able to solve future problems without outside help.
As well as developing education, volunteers have the opportunity to play a key role in our HIV/AIDS awareness outreach projects by giving talks in schools. Working alongside our NGO partners Mend the Broken Hearts, we teach our volunteers about HIV/AIDS and equip them with the knowledge to deliver life changing awareness talks to secondary school children. Our volunteers work to dispel the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS and ensure that young people possess the knowledge vital to make informed decisions about their sexual health. Our volunteers’ presentations, which have proven to be remarkably successful, are also coupled with on-site testing. Consequently, for many volunteers, this aspect of the programme is a real highlight, as their impact on the lives of young people of Uganda is both tangible and immediate.
A major cause of poverty in Uganda is the very high fertility rate, which exceeds eight children per woman. This high fertility rate means that family's resources are too thinly spread to finance education and healthcare. This combines with the current subsistence farming culture which prevents education as children are kept at home to work. The real problem is that if the population continues to grow at this alarming rate, subsistence farming will no longer be viable, due to lack of land. Research has shown that the education of young women is essential in lowering fertility rates. Our volunteers give talks and run session in schools, teaching about family planning. These talks address the unsustainable fertility rates and encourage young people to have children as they can afford to. This will ensure that parents of future generations of Uganda are able to provide good, education, nutrition and healthcare to their families.
The teenage pregnancy rate in Uganda is the highest in sub Saharan Africa. Over half of its girls give birth before reaching the age of 18. The average age of marriage is 17.8 years. These two factors lead to enormous drop out from education among young women. Volunteers have the optional opportunity to give lessons and talks at their placement schools delivering sex education children and teenagers.
