Rural Initiative for Community Empowerment (RICE) West Nile was our first partner in Uganda and we’ve worked together since 2018. The projects we’ve initiated have complemented RICE West Nile’s ongoing work covering community health, education and livelihoods as well as environmental protection and the preservation of natural resources.
We caught up with them recently on two important outreach projects in the remote fishing communities of the Pawor and Rigbo sub-counties in Uganda. Both areas rely on the River Nile for their livelihoods, with fishing being the main economic activity.
As part of the fishing community programmes we have collaborated with RICE West Nile to facilitate a number of outreach activities incorporating health services. Resistance can come from some sections of the community, mainly due to traditional and generational beliefs but there are growing numbers of people actively seeking information on rights, health and family planning.
This is especially encouraging given that Uganda has some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and maternal mortality in the world.
Backpack Nurse addresses attendees at an outreach clinic
These outreach activities include:
- A Backpack Nurse who runs a weekly outreach clinic providing confidential Family Planning services and advice for young women in the settlement.
- Community Based Volunteers & Peer Mentors, who are the central point for the community to access information, advice and referrals.
- Role Model Men and Women, who share information and lived experience, such as how gaining access to family planning has given them the opportunity to space their children (providing more potential to access education, create money-making opportunities and provide for their existing family).
- Youth Dialogues, which look to reach the young people in the community through open discussions around health, rights, family planning and future outcomes.
Young people attending the youth dialogue
During the recent visit, some members of the CHASE Africa team joined a youth dialogue with 20 young people from the local adolescent group. All the young came from local refugee and host committees. After some initial reticence to speak the group became more animated when asked about their aspirations and how RICE West Nile could help them to achieve them.
The discussions covered many topics as well as career pathways like wanting to join the police, army, become farmers or builders or set up businesses. Further discussion highlighted, firstly, what resources they would need, and secondly, what skills would be required to attain these aspirations.
They were clear that the main resource needed was money to pay for school fees and the main skills would be in building, farming, sewing and financial literacy.
CHASE Africa's Francis Kadiri, participating in the youth dialogue
Moving forward these discussions reinforce the need for projects that integrate health, livelihood and skills for the youth of these hard-to-reach communities. As well as access to health services, similar programmes are being run successfully in other areas and have involved access to skills development and coordinating internships with local businesses.
Our partnership with RICE West Nile will look to build more holistic youth-friendly programmes to help provide the foundations for brighter futures among the young people in these remote areas of Uganda.