Celebrating African Motherhood - Amref

UGANDA
Home-based Care Management of Childhood Illnesses
Northern Uganda is in the process of healing and reconstruction after two
decades of civil war between Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebel
group and Government forces that violently disrupted life in the region.
Hundreds of people were killed and maimed, and close to two million were
displaced from their homes. About 40,000 children were abducted to serve
as fi ghters, porters or sex slaves in the rebel army. The regional economy
was destroyed and as the fi ghting intensifi ed, the Government moved
people into protective camps, severely disrupting their social, economic
and cultural lives. Basic essential services like education, health and water
supply were thrown into disarray.
AMREF has been working in Northern Uganda since 1998. Even during
the war, AMREF worked in the volatile region, vaccinating children, and
providing clean water and sanitation in the camps for internally displaced
people in Gulu, Pader and Kitgum. In Gulu, AMREF opened a shelter where
children could take refuge every night to escape abduction by rebels.
With the end of hostilities, the people of Northern Uganda are struggling
to rebuild their lives. However, they are doing this within a context of
poverty and tattered social infrastructure, including a very fragile health
system. Strengthening of the health care system is crucial to improving
the living conditions of the population and achieving sustainable postconfl
ict development. AMREF’s work in Northern Uganda is driven by the
vision of a health care system that operates eff ectively, interacting with
local administrative structures and the communities themselves, which is
therefore responsive to the needs of the people.
Of major concern is the high rate of illness and death among children. In
Gulu for example 250 out of every 1,000 children under fi ve die every year,
mostly as a result of malaria, respiratory and intestinal infections.
Since 2006, AMREF has been addressing children’s health in Pader and
Kitgum districts through its Home-based Management of Childhood
Illnesses project. By training Village Health Teams, including community
vaccinators and community medicine distributors, AMREF ensures that
the major health needs of the communities are met. In particular, AMREF
supports local capacity to provide home-based services for preventing
and treating malaria, the leading cause of child deaths in Uganda, and
for vaccination of children. Through training of health workers, provision
of equipment, including motorcycles to facilitate movement to distant
villages, and strengthening of referral systems, the programme ensures
that health centres in the region are better able to perform their preventive,
diagnostic and treatment functions, especially with regard to malaria.
So far, AMREF has trained 1,570 VHT members, 1,002 men and 568 women.
The project has resulted in a drastic drop in the number of malaria cases in
the two districts. This is because children are treated for malaria within the
crucial fi rst 24 hours of the onset of fever. Malaria in pregnant women has
fallen too, improving chances of survival for the mothers and their babies.
FACTS AND FIGURES
• 28,912 children were treated for malaria by Village Health
Teams in 2009
• 80 per cent of children under fi ve in the project area receive
antimalarial medicine within the fi rst 24 hours of the onset
of fever, compared with 63 per cent before the project
• AMREF has dug over 100 boreholes in Gulu, Pader and
Kitgum Districts. Each borehole is used by about 170
people.
DONORS
• Compagnia San Paolo
• Fondazione Carparma
• Fondazione Cariplo
• Monte dei Paschi di Siena
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