UEnd Blog

Project Snapshot:

Project Cost: $ 5,500

Lives Affected: 5,000

Dollars Raised: $ 125

Dollars Needed: $ 5,375

Change for Children is teaming up with their partner organization, KIHEFO (Kigezi Healthcare Foundation), by assisting families/entrepreneurs in Kabale, Uganda, who have been affected by civil strife and HIV/AIDS.

This project was initiated as a response to the growing need for financial assistance required by extended family members having to take in orphaned children.

Many families living in the area simply need a helping hand in the form of a small investment for increasing agricultural production or enhancing entrepreneurial skills and abilities. 

To learn more about this project, click here…

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Project Snapshot:

Lives affected: 350

Project cost: $7,424

Dollars raised: $408

Dollars needed: $7,016

Twinning is about establishing formal linkages for the purpose of deriving benefits in terms of social, economic, educational and political development of beneficiaries involved. The pilot twinning project established by Healthy Child Uganda in partnership with Faculty of Development was about attaching a student to a village and with the help of a health trainer and the Village Health team, there would be consistent interaction right from needs assessment, planning, design and implementation of an intervention to address the challenge identified. This was a fruitful initiative that provided students with the opportunity of experiencing the process of development in a real life community setting. 

The one year period of engagement with the community enlightened the students to the reality that once a community is mobilized and empowered to benefit from the opportunities in their environment, they can give birth to sustainable initiatives with minimal support from government.

What you can do

Check out the Students For Change project and learn more about why you might be interested in supporting it, giving a gift card or donating directly.

Friday Photo

Micro-Credit For Families Of Malnourished Children

As part of Change for Children’s Agriculture & Micro-Credit to Combat Infant/Child Mortality Project, the micro-credit loans component has the potential to make lasting and sustainable change in the region.

Visit this project http://www.uend.org/dt/projects/140

Give $5 as a gift card to a friend http://www.uend.org/dt/gifts/new?project_id=140#

Hi All,

This is a just a quick blog but one that should not be missed. Every now and again the people that are on the ground working with our partners come to town so that you can hear first hand of their work and leave both in awe and inspired. One of those opportunities has presented itself.

Dr. Anguyo, who works with Change for Children in Uganda is coming to Calgary. That’s right. Jay visited with this group when he went to Africa last year and said he is amazing. He highly recommends meeting this man when you have the chance. He will be speaking to a new approach to poverty alleviation, health and nutrition in HIV/AIDS populations.

So here are the details for the Calgary event:
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
6:30pm Refreshments, 7pm Presentation
The Old Y Building, Wrubleski Hall
223 12 Ave SW, Calgary

FB Event link
CFC Website link

There is one in Edmonton the following week if you can’t make Calgary’s event.

Hello all,

As I write this third installment of this series on the relationship of education to poverty eradication it struck me how many projects on our site are listed as education- there are 54 of them out of about 75 total projects.

After having explained the importance and overlapping nature of education to a sustainable solution to poverty it is not really a surprise. That said it would still be useful to see a project that UEnd has listed under the cause area- education.

Let’s start with the project. This one is by Healthy Child Uganda called the Village Health Volunteer Project. A description of the project is as follows. Their ultimate goal is to fight high rates of death in children under 5 years. How they do that is through local networks, training local volunteers about health issues and local development ideas. HCU provides health education for Ugandan communities. From each of the 174 villages where HCU works, two volunteers are elected by their community. These volunteers are then trained by HCU on a variety of topics, including malnutrition, prevention of disease and recognition of child illnesses.

Leading by example, the Village Health Volunteers (VHVs) are able to teach their neighbours about healthy foods, how to wean a baby and the importance of vaccinations. Furthermore, they are able to refer community members to health centres, mobilize for and assist with Child Immunization Days and help HCU identify the at-risk children in the area that require extra attention. The VHVs conduct home visits in their village to provide individual attention and health information to their neighbours.

The Village Health Volunteer Project will support the work that VHVs do in HCU communities by funding training courses and educational materials, Monthly dramatic health educational events, special days to promote child nutrition, monitor growth and to identify and refer at-risk children to health services.”

The now fully funded program set out to train 350 Health Volunteers but have now trained 450 with some impressive results. Malaria deaths have dropped significantly (by 60%), as have incidences of child death over 2 year period (2006-2008) 160 to 104 per 1000 children. So… apparently choosing local people to work within the established community systems doing local education is achieving results.

That is some pretty good work!

This is the last of the 14 video clips by Jay from Uganda.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMlWsHfqtqw[/youtube]

This one reflects on the entire trip and inspiration gathered from the people he met.

Another of Jay’s videos from his UEnd trip to Africa.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mc3EmWhZX0[/youtube]

This one is about the realities of the people that access (or try to) services at Healthy Child Uganda.