By
Mutebi Eddie,
Union Of Community Development Volunteers
Block 26, Plot 842, Professor Apolo Nsibambi Road, Bulange Zone 'A'
P.O. Box 35792, Kampala - Uganda
Telephone: +256 414 690 897
Mobile: +256 782 713 500
ucdvolunteers@yahoo.com
Introduction
Being
a member of the royal family in Buganda Kingdom I did not feel cheated being
addressed without my inherited title, Prince. And youthful as I was, humility was evident
during interactions with the community and development partners. The humility was
doubled with a so caring and generous person in me –a person with a listening
ear, approachable, understanding, cooperative, and very helpful to people in
need.
When there was no immediate action-help, I pledged to support them as soon
as I was able. Before being reminded of the assistance pledged, I called to ask
the persons in need to meet me to receive what they requested for. Interventions
focused on areas and needs neglected either consciously or unconsciously by the
community and government. Indeed I value the concept of service above self.
After
my studies, I role-played those traits to best benefit communities around me. I
worked, first, as property manager. I used my strong and wide networks to win
clients from all corners of central region and whoever came into it. As a
property manager, I served his clients diligently to their satisfaction –a
value which maintained healthy relationship with them. This character won me friends
from highest levels of offices to the common people (at the grass-root) of this
country –Uganda.
Being people-centered and rewards from the healthy relationship with the community prompted
me to go humanitarian in every view of work. It is now seven (10) years since
setting out to serve the community I lived among. In the same period I was able
to widen my scope of service the needy communities and areas served. I had been
dismayed by the state of the environment that was primarily responsible for the
ill-health, unproductiveness of the youth, children misery, and poverty within
the city –where I began my work.
The high population within the city did not
only stress the communally-shared resources, but diminished the sense of
responsibility towards both individual and community wellbeing. My main goal
was to transform community life from one afflicted by disease, ignorance,
poverty and helplessness to one full of potential to solve own problems with a
smile –through public health development, educational programs for parents and children (in their teens), and
spirit of volunteerism.
That
was in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): to
reduce illiteracy, child mortality rates, maternal deaths, poverty, and HIV/AIDS
and other diseases. Reports confirm that
1 million people die of malaria annually, the majorities are children. By 2008,
only 34% were using improved sanitation facilities.
And world over, 800 million
people are unable to read and write –mainly children and women. Ignorance,
poverty, and ill-health impact impacted most the children. And according to
UNICEF, at least 22 000 children quietly die each day due to poverty in some of
the poorest villages on earth. The highest rates of child mortality were in
sub-Saharan Africa, where 1 in 8 children dies before their fifth birthday —
nearly 20 times the average for developed regions. In my attempts to reduce the
visible burden of communities as those, my effort and community stretched from
the city center to city-suburbs, and to 9 upcountry districts.
The Humanitarian Work
Humanitarian
work began when I conceived the need to change the lives of the neediest of the
communities. And through the Volunteer Health Program and Volunteer Orphan Care
and Support Education Program, the different micro-elements pertinent to
community survival were met. Those were: access to clean water and proper
sanitation, better hygiene, HIV/AIDS prevention, orphan care and support,
acquisition of vocation skills, environment protection, poverty eradication,
and building of strong community development networks and partners. My work in
those areas lasted 10 years (since 2002) in 9 country districts.
Volunteer Health Promotion
Health
is a basic right enshrined in the national constitution and reinforced by
several human rights instruments, which children are entitled to. Prominent
among them is the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). I turned to the out-of-youth
(between 16 and 30), who because of frustration to making meaningful progress
in life, resorted to alcohol and drug abuse for a hand that would change not
only their lives but the entire community that had serious public health
concerns. The communities’ health concerns were: lack of safe water, risky
sexual behaviors, drug abuse, and poor hygiene and sanitation.
I
realized that by transforming at-risk youth (using the youth-to-children
strategy) into productive and productive ones, he could yield tangible results
at many fronts. I rallied the youths (as change agents) to clean their
immediate environment and provided them with work tools, knowledge about the
importance of their work, life-kills, free information on reproductive health, career-guidance
and counseling, and some money incentive
for their active engagement in community work. The incentives were more than
sufficient to meet their daily fares and food throughout the cleaning exercise.
Volunteers
cleaned clogged water channels, collected and burned littered rubbish in
schools, slums, and market places under my leadership. To the surprise of the
beneficiaries, I never levied any fee from them to cater for the noble cause. And as a token of appreciation and royalty to
the cause, I engaged the same youth (as peer-educators and mentors to children)
in advanced health programs involving community health education and
construction of wells.
As
a reward to my successful interventions in that particular area of work, I attracted
funding for UCDV from the church of the latter-day saints to sustain his long
term efforts of achieving a healthy and happy community. At that stage, the youth
were able to earn more for their work. They received a wage at the end of the
day in addition to meeting their costs of transport and food. Most of these
youths either headed families (of wives and children) or came from families
destabilized by poverty and diseases, which gave them an added responsibility
of tending for their young siblings and poverty-stretched parents (and grand
parents). Therefore, by economically empowering the youths, he was reaching out
to the vulnerable children under them.
Statement
of Social Impact
The
health promotion work kept the youth so busy that they hardly found time for
the health-challenging risky behaviors like alcoholism and use of unsolicited
drugs. It can be remembered that alcoholism has been responsible for the vast
cases of child neglect, domestic violence and HIV/AIDS –especially among
adolescent users. This was a direct contribution to the fight of mental illness
among older children and youths that over the years was linked to drug abuse
and alcoholism. The program provided meaningful employment to tens of young
people, who now afford rent and food for their dependants.
Besides,
youths use their volunteering experience to offer private or commercial
cleaning services for a fee during their off-hours. Community insecurity and
domestic violence in particular –through which children suffer life-long
psychological problems associated to drug use and redundancy was tremendously
reduced. Money spent on alcoholism and misuse of drugs was saved from wastage
by adolescents and older youths. Instead, it was used to improve family
welfare. It turned the youth under his program into more responsible citizens
and gave a predictably brighter future for than before.
Access
to clean water, proper sanitation, and information on common infectious
diseases in health-risk areas reduced the incidences of HIV/AIDS, diarrhea,
dysentery and cholera. 80% reduction attributed to water-borne infections was
found after an evaluation of the sanitation and hygiene project in the last 10
years among communities he served. And no longer did families, schools and
other sections of the community have to buy water or even queue and conflict
for the few limited water supplies. With the use of alternative sources of
water as aerial and ground tanks donated to schools and identified vulnerable
populations, access to water was guaranteed throughout the year round. It saved
households huge expenditures for water and created community peace in return.
55
springs, 15 school latrines were constructed, and 15 (10, 000 liter capacity
water tanks installed –solving a water and health hazards in 6, 480 households
in Kampala (the Capital City of Uganda) alone. Elsewhere 9 other districts got their
share. In Masaka (60 springs, 15 school toilets, 15 hand washing stations, 500
toilet slabs distributed, accompanied by a participatory hygiene and sanitation
training package -PHAST) while Mbale, Rakai, Mukono, and Buikwe had the same
share. In Mpigi and Wakiso, 22 boreholes
were constructed, 700 slabs distributed, and 15 water tanks installed
accompanied by PHAST package while in Jinja had 5 springs and a borehole were
built.
One
of the beneficiaries wrote:
“We express our at most appreciation for such
commendable task and your full participation at our center which has enhanced
sanitation and hygiene for all this period. We further request for your
continued voluntary charitable support…”
— Joyce
Lulindya, Administrator, Sanyu Babies’ Home, Namirembe Hill, Mengo-Kampala
While part of our strategic partnership,
local politicians used the development programs run by me to get higher
political statures. It eased their way into various political offices. However,
lack of health facilities (for example; health posts and dispensaries) close to
me for easy monitoring and evaluations was a challenge that at different fronts
proved costly. It meant referring critical yet urgent matters to partners
wherever they were to fill the missing gaps for me. I had to incur expenses to
achieve my success with them, yet it would have been cheaper if I owned such
facilities.
Volunteer Orphan Care and Support Education Program
The
right to care, protection and education are very critical in the welfare of the
child; now and in the future. Prominent about me in the community I worked was
the establishment of the children-sponsored scheme. The children’s wide but
vital needs were parental care, food, clothing, education, clean water, medical
care, and shelter –which the program entrusted itself with taking care of.
The
scheme targeted children abandoned by either irresponsible or impoverished
families, or orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and other life-taking illnesses. Priority
was given to children with dire lack of family and social support. The children
are identified by their local leaders, who knew them well and brought to me. I
through my staff kept records of all such children in a file box pending
scrutiny and approval by both me and prospecting sponsor. It took a considerable
period of time to find a sponsor, and it was very challenging task. My biggest
asset was the Christian faith that, one day each one of the children under him
will receive the education they need to become productive and responsible
citizens.
I
spent relentless time and effort searching for child sponsors online and
through networks while some who failed to get them (sponsors) in a shorter time,
took with them my hard-earned income with special interest put on the
girl-child. When I received more funding for the program, those who had earlier
not benefitted took their day. Because of the children development burden for
both I and the parents, benefiting families and youths undertook life-skills
and reproductive health lessons to better their decisions on healthy living and
career development (or economic well being).
I
was very passionate about hand-on skills. Children, who found themselves unable
to pursue further studies or to find their career in different fields other
than those provided by formal education, are advised to opt for hand-on skills
training. The training involved wielding, kneading, tailoring, building,
shoe-repair, motor vehicle mechanics, power installations, weaving, and
hair-dressing. Skills acquired became part and parcel of their being for many
years to come.
I
also had strong working relations with foster homes and rehabilitation centers
for the disabled children namely; Sanyu Babies’ Home, Nsambya Babies’ Home and
the Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped. In those homes and the
education facility for the disabled children, I found children, who were
abandoned by their mothers in public places, that survived being drowned in
latrines (again by their mothers), or deliberated taken to those homes by well
wishers and families who thought it was necessary. I contributed to each of
their mission statements by providing moral, physical and structural support.
This program, however, was concentrated mostly in the city suburbs or slums. A
lot of work on children demanded equal attention in the up-country districts.
Statement
of Social Impact
Some
of the children, who excelled were retained by UCDV to work on his health and
education programs as peer trainers and training of trainers for a fee while
others either worked in big wood or metal workshops or start their own
businesses. The wage income received was used to improve the general financial
and health wellbeing of families (access to medicine, proper nutrition and
siblings’ education) and to tend for them-selves. 300 children were direct
beneficiaries of the program, 30 were confirmed ready to tend for them-selves
after attaining building and other related vocation skills.
Formal
education was conjoined with the informal for both in-school and out-of-school
children. From the reproductive health lessons (including negotiation for sex,
goal-setting, and HIV/AIDS and other STDs prevention through abstinence, being
faithful, use of condoms and medical circumcisions), parents have became more
responsible towards their health and economic future. Indirectly, the program
affected 49, 000 children –a combination of in-school, out-of-school and
government-supported fraction (4 per family). While 10 years ago a family in
the areas I worked had an average of 12 children, today it is fashionable for
young people to have a maximum of 4.
Parents
and youth learned to measure their intentions to have children and marry
against the available resources under their control. That delayed sex among
adolescents under his program and accelerated prevention against HIV/AIDS. And
it caused a lasting impression on young people, who if asked about the number
of children they wished to have, the commonest response was 4 (children). They
developed positive reasons for reproduction and looked forward to having
numbers of children they could afford to care for until the age when they could
move out to live independently.
Assistance
to homes for vulnerable children was as follows: 1) At Sanyu Babies’ Home, 1
toilet and water tank was constructed, regularly cleaned their play-ground and
donated toys since 2001; 2) At Nsambya Babies’ Home, I supervised its cleaning
and ensuring of proper hygiene and sanitation for 1 month; and 3) At the
Kampala School of the Physically Handicapped, I donated a tank, did painting of
the school, offered firewood for cooking and conducted cleaning exercises. That
did only help bring hope environment wellbeing to the children, but greatly
eased the work of institutions, which directly took care of them in as far as
planning, budgeting and expenditures were concerned. A section of the
communities served reaffirmed the program contribution.
“We thank you all volunteer members for their
dedication and commitment towards this community service. Your services have
been of great impact to the school…”
— Director,
Joy Mwesigwa, Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped, Mengo-Kampala
Conclusions and Future Actions
It
is, as it has been, a long journey yet gratifying for in my effort towards
dignifying lives for impoverished, disease-stricken and unsuspecting
communities, which inflict worst damage on children and their future to come.
However, community development needs are still huge for me. More children and
reports of at-risk population fill his desk beyond those he or resources at his
disposal can handle. For example; at least five children in need of education are
brought to his office everyday. With the registered number (300) still
overwhelming, the new figures provides me only with a bigger challenge to face.
Focusing
on sustainability of programs run by me is central to causing a lasting
solution to children miseries. That is reachable with persistence of the care
and support of children, enabling government fiscal policies (focusing on
poverty eradication), increase partnerships and networks in his area of
operation, establishment of community support units (as community-run orphanage
and children support center, community-run savings and loan scheme, a
community-run grade and high school, community-run vocation centers,
community-run health posts, and community-run agribusinesses), scale up
life-skills and reproductive health education, strengthen environment health
education, and to focus funding on impact projects that addresses the real
needs.
And
of course, achieving all those, necessitate having effective and efficient
personnel, who are well remunerated beyond the current numbers and rewards. When
the children are secure, the future is same for everyone.
