Kampala Key, Vulnerable and Priority Populations (KVP) News

Across the Mpanga River: MSH-Trained Health Worker Helps Pregnant Women Access Care Tadeo Atuhura October 30, 2013 Dorothy Mugisha (left) with Olivia Nkundabanyanga and her new baby. Photo credit: Tadeo Atuhura/MSH. Dorothy Mugisha is a 36-year-old resident of Nyabbani II village in Kamwenge district, Uganda. Trained as a village health team member in 2010 by the USAID-funded STRIDES for Family Health, Dorothy understands the importance of delivering at a health facility. She counsels women on the importance of antenatal care, delivering at the facility, and the benefits of modern family planning–and helps pregnant women access these services at a health facility. Residents of nearby Kanaara village must cross the Mpanga River–or travel over 40 km by foot–to access health services at the nearest health facility, Nyabbani health center III.  Dorothy explains that previously Kanaara residents used logs to cross the deep river; but some p...

MSH and over 60 Organizations Call on Delegates to Support Universal Health Coverage at the Botswana High Level Dialogue on Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda March 04, 2013 March 4, 2013 - MSH joined over 60 civil society organizations in supporting universal health coverage in a sign-on letter to delegates meeting this week in Botswana at the High Level Dialogue on Health in the Post–2015 Development Agenda. The organizations called on delegates to ensure that UHC is included in the post–2015 development framework as a way to bring an end to preventable deaths and realize the right to health for all. The groups also asked delegates to ensure that the “unfinished business” of the unmet health Millennium Goals is recommitted to in the next framework. The groups asked the delegates to recognize: The importance of addressing UHC in a way which sustainably improves population health outcomes for all and overcomes health inequalities; and, The unifying oppor...

February 15, 2012 0 comments A Small Step: Educating Mothers on Family Planning on Immunization Days Margaret Hartley Health Systems Strengthening Women & Gender Photo credit: MSH. This was my first trip to Africa working with a development agency. While I had visited the African continent for personal trips previously, arriving in this context felt different. I was immediately aware of the challenges Uganda is facing. From the crumbling road infrastructure and high incidence of traffic accidents in Kampala, to the mobile phone networks that are pretty reliable while internet access is often spotty, to the prevalence of street children --- I can for the first time see what my local colleagues are up against. I felt a bit overwhelmed in the first few days. Is there any way we can address all these challenges? Can we make a difference? Visiting communities and health centers in Kampala, Eastern ...

MSH and USAID/Madagascar Project Begins to Increase Community-Based Primary Health Care Services October 08, 2013 Photo credit: Lisa Folda, Courtesy of Photoshare Management Sciences for Health (MSH) is pleased to announce the start of a new project in Madagascar with USAID/Madagascar, The USAID Primary Health Care (PHC) project. PHC is  a five-year initiative to increase community-based primary health care service uptake and the adoption of healthy behaviors, particularly for women of reproductive age, infants, and children under five.  The project will focus its efforts in six of Madagascar’s 22 regions, where access to and quality of primary health care services is limited. The six regions cover a total population of 5.5 million people, of whom more than 60 percent live more than five kilometers from the nearest health center.      In these regions, limited access to quality services is a major impediment to servic...

Securing Access to Reproductive Health and Family Planning in Post-Earthquake Haiti: A Conversation with Sandra Guerrier October 31, 2013 Photo credit: Rachel Hassinger/MSH MSH spoke with Sandra Guerrier, Ph, MSc, project director for the USAID-funded Leadership, Management & Sustainability Project in Haiti (LMS Haiti)—one of four MSH projects in the country. Tell us about LMS and MSH’s presence in Haiti. LMS started in Haiti in 2008 and has contributed towards building the capacity of the Haitian people to anticipate and respond effectively to challenges related to HIV and AIDS, reproductive health commodity security (RHCS), and family planning. Since 2012, the primary focus of LMS has been to strengthen local capacity to manage the supply chain of USAID-donated condoms and family planning commodities; and reinforce the capacity of the two Ministry of Health‘s central Directorates to manage commodity logistics in order to facilitate the...

Meeting Family Planning Needs in Democratic Republic of the Congo October 30, 2013 Anifa with three of her children. Photo credit: MSH. At 34 years old, Anifa has already given birth 14 times. Women like Anifa, with too many, poorly-spaced pregnancies, are at a dramatically higher risk of serious health outcomes—including death. While Anifa has survived, six of her children have died before reaching age five. Unfortunately, situations like Anifa’s are common in Sud Kivu Province in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where she lives. Information about contraceptive methods is hard to come by in her rural community of Minova, and large families are the cultural norm. In 2012, the number of people choosing a family planning method was just 83 people. In April 2012, family planning education arrived in this community, through the USAID-funded DRC-Integrated Health Project (DRC-IHP). The project is working to improve the basic health condit...

Museveni roots for ICT in regional integration Publish Date: Oct 30, 2013 President Museveni (left) and Rwandas Paul Kagame newvision By Vision Reporter President Yoweri Museveni has told the "Transform Africa Summit 2013" taking place in the Rwandan capital of Kigali  that in the application and utilization of Information Communication Technology (ICT) must not be unidirectional but multi-directional and integrate it in the whole social economic transformation process' of our  national economies. The Transform Africa Summit 2013 is being held under the theme of "The Future Delivered Now" and is attended by seven Heads of State seeking to spearhead broadband connectivity on the continent in order to overcome connectivity ICT challenges and to offer appropriate platforms for dialogue between governments and the private sector. It is hosted by President Paul Kagame and co-hosted by the Secretary General of the International Telec...

Govt criticized over climate change policy Publish Date: Oct 30, 2013 Floods newvision By Gerald Tenywa    As vagaries of nature continue to pound Uganda, Government has delayed approving the Climate Change policy leading haphazard intervention and wastage of resources, according to Climate Change experts.  Robert Bakiika, the director of Bwaise Facility Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement said cooperative action against Climate Change is needed. “We do not have coordination and monitoring that would promote effective implementation of actions to address Climate Change,” said Bakiika, adding that Government, Civil Society, communities and researchers are working independently. Broken bridge along River Nyamwamba. Flooding blamed partly on climate change caused wanton damage and displaced thousands. Bakiika was speaking at the Climate Change Forum organised by the Climate Change Unit in the Ministry of Water and Environm...

Thousands flee DR Congo fighting to Uganda: UN Publish Date: Oct 30, 2013 Congolese refugees entering Uganda newvision Over 5,000 refugees fleeing fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have escaped into neighbouring Uganda this week, United Nations officials said Wednesday, warning that double that number are expected to cross the border. "Fighting...is causing a large amount of displacement into Uganda," said Lucy Beck, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, adding that 5,000 refugees had crossed the border since Monday. "We are predicting up to 10,000 people would have crossed by tomorrow, because the fighting seems to be going on very close to the border... People are continuing to cross even as we speak." Congolese troops backed by a United Nations intervention brigade launched a major offensive earlier this week against the M23 rebel movement of army mutineers in Congo's turbulent North Kivu province. Th...

Man behind Mandela murder plot jailed Publish Date: Oct 30, 2013 Some of the 20 right-wing extremists convicted of high treason for a plot to kill former South African president Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country attend their trial at Pretoria High Court. PHOTO/AFP newvision JOHANNESBURG -  The mastermind behind a rightwing extremist plot to kill former South African president Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country has been sentenced to 35 years in jail. Mike du Toit, the ringleader of a white supremacist militia called Boeremag, was given the heaviest sentence of 35 years along with four other defendants over a botched 2002 plot to overthrow the post-apartheid government. The judge at the High Court in Pretoria sentenced the rest of the 20 militia members on trial to between 10 and 30 years depending on their degree of involvement in the plot, National Prosecution Authority spokesman Medupe Simasiku told AFP. All the a...

Man behind Mandela murder plot jailed Publish Date: Oct 30, 2013 Some of the 20 right-wing extremists convicted of high treason for a plot to kill former South African president Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country attend their trial at Pretoria High Court. PHOTO/AFP newvision JOHANNESBURG -  The mastermind behind a rightwing extremist plot to kill former South African president Nelson Mandela and drive blacks out of the country has been sentenced to 35 years in jail. Mike du Toit, the ringleader of a white supremacist militia called Boeremag, was given the heaviest sentence of 35 years along with four other defendants over a botched 2002 plot to overthrow the post-apartheid government. The judge at the High Court in Pretoria sentenced the rest of the 20 militia members on trial to between 10 and 30 years depending on their degree of involvement in the plot, National Prosecution Authority spokesman Medupe Simasiku told AFP. All the a...

SHARE   BOOKMARK PRINT RATING President Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta (C) welcomed to Rwanda by host Paul Kagame (R) yesterday. Photo by PPU   By  DANIEL K. KALINAKI Posted  Tuesday, October 29  2013 at  02:00 SHARE THIS STORY       0 in Share RELATED DOWNLOADS INTEGRATION PROJECTS SUMMIT JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ Kigali-  Uganda will abolish work permit fees for Kenyans and Rwandan citizens from January 1, 2014, one of several reforms East African leaders launched yesterday to reduce the cost of doing business and speed up the movement of goods and people. Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya met in Kigali yesterday to sign off on a Single Customs Territory (SCT) for the three countries. President Salva Kiir of South Sudan also attended the event, which followed earlier infrastructure summits in Kampala in ...