Enhancing Rural Girls' Education and Wellbeing

Report on Home visit for orphans and vulnerable education and health programme. (36492)- Feb 2021.

The HIV/AIDS and other diseases have left many children without parents or one of them in Kyangwali Village in Hoima & Kikuube districts. Many Families are headed by elderly grandparents and young people. It is also a common thing to find orphaned children living with HIV/AIDS, having acquired it from their parents during delivery.

Hope for Children’s Health Foundation previously conducted a needs assessment and decided to start up an education program for the young girls and give them a bright future. The survey discovered the following were most pressing needs of orphans and vulnerable children;

• Education especially for basic and vocational education.

• Life skill and counselling for orphans.

• Capacity to meet the basic needs of the orphans.

• Capacity building for the caregivers to take care of the HIV positive children.

The primary aim of the project is to assist orphans and other vulnerable children realize their full potential through strengthening the capacity of the local institutions and structures to be able to respond effectively to the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS through education and good health service delivery.

This has been possible through; Strengthening the capacity of the relevant community institutions and structures through training of OVC to meet the socio-economic needs of orphans and vulnerable children in a sustainable way ,Establishing or strengthening linkages between the community institutions and structures with the various public services such as education and health training institutions, enhancing the opportunities for the AIDS orphans and vulnerable children for appropriate training and Income generating ventures. ,enhancing the level of awareness on HIV/AIDS and promote positive behaviour change in order to reduce the rate of transmission and the prevailing social stigma associated with the pandemic and Hope for Children’s Health Foundation has been Facilitating advocacy and lobbying for recognition and support for the rights of AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children.

Achievement

We have been able to conduct home visit for our beneficiaries and provided food supplements to boost the nutrition for our beneficiaries and this has however been limited with funds since we have more 7 families in this category to visit and offer the service.

Challenge

Limited funds to support other vulnerable children and adolescents to access better nutrition care.

We would like to extend our thanks to all our donors and well-wishers for the continued support towards creating a big difference in the lives of young girls/children in the rural area of Kyangwali in Hoima and Kikuube districts as well to have a better future.

• Activity report (PDF)
  

Background

HOPE FOR CHILDREN’S HEALTH FOUNDATION(HCHF) is a community Based Organization, NOT for profit operating in the Bunyoro region especially Hoima District, committed to addressing issues related to HIV/AIDS, Malaria, T.B and other infectious diseases among children, adolescents and their families through campaigns for preventive measures, treatment and vaccinations, advocating and protecting children and women’s rights through provision of prevention and multi-disciplinary intervention in investigation, information dissemination, and treatment of child sexual abuse victims in an environment that is child sensitive, supportive and violence free. HCHF also promotes general Health and Reproductive Health awareness and other services like Family Planning, HIV/AIDS and access to healthcare services among others.

Activity Implementation

Reaching out to poor rural community children with scholastic materials is one of the key activities of Hope for Children’s Health Foundation in Uganda. Children attending school in Rural Communities of Uganda especially in Kyangwali village face a great number of challenges like: inadequate materials to use at school, limited food, walking long distances, failure to pay school fees and limited clean and safe water resources, among others which hence leads to school drop outs. Besides education program, HCHFUG conducts home visits for malnourished beneficiaries and their families and supports them with nutrition supplements and counseling.

During this COVID-19 period we have faced challenges of reaching our beneficiaries through meetings since gatherings were prohibited and with limited resources we were able to conduct home visits for children and offered psychosocial support and delivered food to malnourished home. A total of 2 households were visited and 03 children visited.

Challenge

Limited funds to conduct follow up on our beneficiaries and their families even support them nutrition supplements. We have more 8 malnourished beneficiaries who need nutrition supplements.

Appreciation

We thank our donors and well-wishers for their support which make the organization projects a success and be blessed always.

Prepared by

John Mwesigwa

Project Leader

• Report on home visits for malnourished families (PDF)