Uganda's natural beauty in people and land, Mukono, and Kytume Community Based Health Care

7.27.06

Jen and I are now in Busia, which is in the far most East part of Uganda bordering Kenya. The organization we are to meet with seems great and we plan to see a lot tomorrow, so I will write about it then.

On Monday, we met with a CBO called Kytume CBHC (Community Based Health Care), which is located about 20 outside of Kampala, near a town called Mukono. CBHC started about 10 years ago providing medical services to the village of Kytume, but has grown and now provides much more support and to a much larger area.

One of the best parts of the visit was traveling to do home visits to their beneficiaries and to see their various programs. We interviewed elected community mobilizers who are the heart and soul of these types of programs. Without their organizing, nothing can be accomplished in a sufficient amount of time. Consider the fact that organizing here equates to walking (or biking, CBHC has provided bikes to all of its community mobilizers) home by home to inform and organize meetings. THIS is what grassroots is…it makes me wonder why the hell we can’t organize community based programs in more US neighorhoods when communication is so much easier…we ALL have cell phones in the US for goodness sake. I think it’s due partly to the fact that the notion of ‘community’ is much more inherent here. Although there are still disputes between regions here, etc., the sense of belonging to a community is more part of the culture. In the US, we are taught dog eat dog, take or be taken over…its sad. It is really dehumanizing.

The area is mountainous and there is one narrow, bumpy, pothole filled dirt road shared by pedestrians and bikes for the most part that we used. On it, CBHC members drove us to the different villages they support and to their various medical offices. The landscape there was breathtaking…I already fell in love with Uganda’s beautiful green land but this was amazing. And if someone were not taking us around, we would have been utterly lost because houses are off on different paths and seem isolated from each other. The villages are located almost in a forest, which again, was beautiful and seemed almost surreal because it was so peaceful. But I can see why they need community based healthcare so much. I imagine it is extremely difficult and time consuming to seek medical services in town if one is moving by foot or even bicycle and if one has many family obligations, it becomes a major problem.

One image sticks in my mind…the site where vaccines were being administered to young children whom were brought by community mothers. It was done on a few benches by a small church on top of a hill. It seems very provincial when I explain it like this but there was something very nice about it. I mean…these services are being provided in what seemed like a very remote area, but it works and people there recognize the value of CHC in their lives…I think we can learn so much from this type of scenario. For now, I can’t articulate the feeling I got from this experience until I figure it out for myself, but I can at least say that it was like…finding a rare and beautiful flower in a thorn-bush in the backyard of an abandoned building, as if people forgot it existed…and then finding small flower buds growing with a closer look. One may get pricked in the search but the mere sight of the flower makes it worthwhile and fulfilling. I say this because these communities are marginalized and suffering, but as in any situation where there is human compassion, hope exists.

As I am seeing more and more during this trip, communities seem to benefit the most when they are empowered with skills and given autonomy to work in small collectives.

This was the case with CBHC…in addition to giving medical services including vaccines to children and ARVs to HIV/AIDS victims, they have organized three 30 members co-op groups on the parish level. All members of the groups are beneficiaries of programs and are those who are caring for 3 or more OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children). The programs are geared towards helping the caretakers of orphans, so in turn orphans can benefit. Groups started by being given cattle and goats which were bred consistently and now all groups members own animals (which is a major asset here and can help with income generation and nutrition for a family) and the group as a whole sells animals. After accumulating capital, they have organized some microfinance projects as well in order to start other small businesses.

Well….thats all for now. Thanks for reading!