Rural Initiative for Community Empowerment (RICE) West Nile is a human rights and empowerment-oriented non-governmental organisation based in the West Nile sub region of Uganda. It envisions a self-reliant, sustainable and holistically transformed society.
RICE-West Nile was CHASE Africa’s first partner in Uganda, initiating a new health project in 2018. The unmet need for modern contraception amongst married women in Uganda is particularly high at 33%, and the country’s fertility, maternal mortality, and teenage pregnancy rates remain among the highest in the world.
RICE-West Nile, aims to tackle these issues by reaching remote and rural communities with healthcare including family planning services, education, alternative livelihoods and community development.
CHASE Africa partners with RICE-West Nile on two projects. One project is with West Nile fishing communities, the other is with host and refugee communities around the Bidibidi refugee settlement.
Bidibidi refugee settlement in Yumbe district, hosts over 190,000 refugees who fled the civil war in South Sudan. It is an under-serviced, rural area that has limited healthcare services including a very low uptake of family planning.
Yumbe has high rates of teenage pregnancy and early marriage due to religious and cultural practices that encourage adolescent girls to marry and bear children as soon as they have started their periods. The area has also suffered severe deforestation and environmental degradation, and refugee communities have until recently been supported with food aid.
Alongside health activities, RICE-West Nile are supporting a range of environmental activities to tackle these issues and improve food security.
A similar programme is operated for the fishing communities in Pawor and Rigbo sub-counties who largely depend on the River Nile for their livelihoods. Fishing is the main economic activity, with skills passed down through the generations. RICE-West Nile supports the communities with advice on more sustainable management of fisheries and alternative livelihoods, alongside a health programme.