Uganda is a landlocked and fertile country, with a moderate climate which allows two growing seasons per year. Around 75% of the population live in rural areas and survive through agriculture, but almost half live in deep poverty. Households also cope regularly with common illnesses such as malaria, diarrhoea, TB and fevers, as well as with the ongoing impact of HIV/AIDS.
We are working in Budaka District, Eastern Uganda. Particular problems in this area include poor housing and sanitation and a lack of health services as well as poor child nutrition. Our three new programmes work together to tackle these issues.
| Village savings and loan groups | Goat breeding groups | Training of volunteer health workers |
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This is a simple but very powerful programme which aims to increase household income and resilience. It helps members to work together, combining their savings to make a viable amount for one member to then borrow, get started in a micro business and then repay with interest. This larger sum is then loaned out to another member and so on. You can read more about this programme here By August 2023, sixteen new village savings and loans groups had been set up in Budaka District, involving over 480 families. A group chairperson explains the impact of this work in a video here
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This programme helps local communities with crossbreeding to strengthen the local goat stock and improve the goats' milk yield. Beneficiaries are able to earn income from small-scale goat-rearing, while at the same time improving their children’s diets. You can read more about this programme here Eight goat rearing projects are now underway across Budaka District; in each, 30 beneficiaries have received a female goat and training in how to care for her. Click on the village names below to watch video messages from the ladies of Katira and Mugiti villages.
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Village Health Teams Disease reduction and health education are important tools in the fight against poverty. In this new programme, 66 volunteer health workers from 16 villages have been recruited. Eighteen of these started their training in January 2023, and are now out and about, under supervision of professional health workers, teaching their neighbours about hygiene and basic healthcare, pre and post-natal care, care of infants and treatment of common ailments. The local health centre is already noticing improvements all these areas. You can read more about this programme here.
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