malnutrition
Webmasters December 28, 2021 No Comments

MALNUTRITION

The World Health Organisation defines malnutrition as “deficiencies, excesses, or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients”.

The National Health Services of the United Kingdom refers to malnutrition as “poor nutrition”.

There is something in common here, based on those two definitions and that is food.

The food in question is available but it is not exactly the kind of food the body needs and requires to grow as it should grow.

Food is a very vital part of life for children and living life and it shall guide our discussion here.

 

The World Food Programme puts it so well;

“To get to Zero Hunger, food is not enough. Providing food assistance in an emergency can save lives, but the right nutrition at the right time can also help change lives and break the cycle of poverty”.

According to the Global Nutrition Report, Uganda is ‘on course’ to meet two of the global nutrition targets for which there was sufficient data to assess progress!

 

Take, for example, one group of malnutrition (under-nutrition). It includes wasting (having a low weight for one’s height), stunting (having a low height for one’s age), and being underweight (having a low weight for one’s age) as well as having deficiencies in vitamins and minerals.

Undernutrition makes children in particular much more vulnerable to disease and death!

 

According to the World Health Organisation fact-sheet on malnutrition, wasting usually indicates recent and severe weight loss, because a person has not had enough food to eat and/or they have had an infectious disease, such as diarrhea, which has caused them to lose weight. A young child that is moderately or severely wasted has an increased risk of death, but treatment is possible.

 

When it comes to stunting, we are generally dealing with a result of chronic or recurrent undernutrition. Usually associated with poor socioeconomic conditions, poor maternal health and nutrition, frequent illness, and/or inappropriate infant and young child feeding and care in early life. Stunting holds children back from reaching their physical and cognitive potential.

 

For a child to be underweight, they may be stunted, wasted, or both.

 

In the same spirit of having children under the condition of under-nutrition, there exists over-nutrition!

Overnutrition is the situation where a child has more nutrients in their body than they need to have.

Signs and symptoms of malnutrition.

The most common signs and symptoms of malnutrition in children include feeling tired all the time, feeling weak, getting sick often. And taking quite long to recover, a general lack of interest in eating and drinking. Having a low body weight, not growing or not putting on weight at the expected rate among others.

 

Many doctors advise that the best course of action to take once you realize a child is malnourished is to start them on a diet high in proteins and calories.

Food that is high in proteins includes poultry, lean meat like beef and pork, fish, eggs. Dairy products like yogurt and milk among others.

Food that is high in calories includes beans, whole milk, cheese, eggs, oily fish, potatoes, brown rice. And whole-grain bread among others.

 

If you can, it is recommended that you give out a snack in between meals to the child that is malnourished.

And begin them on a diet of drinks that are high on calories like orange juice, apple juice among others.

Adding plenty of fruits and vegetables to the diet of the children helps a lot, too!

 

 Feeding them a balanced and healthy diet, as much as possible hence prevention of malnutrition.

However, this can also begin with the entire journey of the expectant mother. As they are provided this same balanced and healthy diet. In the hope that their children are born healthy and have a lower risk of being stunted, developing poorly, or dying.

Breastfeeding mothers need to eat a plentiful diet to store the energy and nutrients they require to breastfeed successfully.  (UNICEF, 2018)

 

Ps. Since we are talking about malnutrition in children, it is strongly advised medical personnel are consulted to establish what is causing this condition in a child before any action can be taken.

Volunteering in Uganda is the only place you can choose to volunteer to reach out to those who are suffering from malnutrition. Through our community outreach and healthcare plus the orphanage programs, you will be able to extend services and help to these people.

At Love Uganda Foundation orphanage you will get to care for the orphans both external and internal. We care a lot about what type of food our children take. Although they are orphans they deserve to have a balanced and healthy diet. With the help of our partners Tuyambe.org, and Love Uganda Safaris. Through charities and donations that you give to us with we can ensure that they get to eat a balanced diet.

GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Gender-based violence refers to the harmful acts directed at an individual based on gender. This can be directed to both men and women who go through this but most women go through this around Africa. Gender-based violence takes many forms such as intimate partner violence, sexual violence, child marriage, and genital mutilation. Threats of violence, coercion, and manipulation are involved. 43% of the girls are married before the age of 18.

During COVID-19

One in three women experiences physical or sexual violence mostly by an intimate partner every day in Uganda. In Uganda, 22% of women experienced sexual violence during the lockdown. Gender-based violence cases increased to 3,280 with only 1,148 reported to the police. 3.3million Ugandans are exposed to adult domestic violence each year but the government of Uganda was more focused on treating COVID-19 and averting the spread.

Neglecting gender-based violence by the governments has fueled its effects on people. Limited funds were allocated to the fight. Education, health, and security were allocated supplementary budgets during the COVID-19. In addition, the priorities of governments to focus on the spread of COVID-19 and the elections preparations that happened in Uganda. Leaving women’s wellbeing aside. As a result of the death and injury of many girls and women who suffered sustained emotional and physical abuse at the hands of their husbands and relatives. The economic inequalities between men and women also have fueled the problem too.

East and Southern African regions have the highest rates of sexual violence against women and girls aged 15 to 24 years. Sexual violence against adolescents aged 15 and below is high in conflict and post-conflict countries. For example DRC, Mozambique, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

The persistence of harmful gender norms, alcohol use have maintained the high rate. And overall increased poverty, violence in urban slums areas and conflict areas.

Survivor-centered, ensuring the safety of the survivor, confidentiality that’s how Programs should be. And also respect for the survivor and her/ his right to informed choice.

Programs have been created in the presentation of gender-based violence  as discussed

  • Combating gender-based violence in schools in Benin. Its focus is to combat gender-based violence against girls in schools. Working with the Ministry of education to raise awareness of gender-based violence in schools and legal protections that exist and develop a support network. This will involve the students, Teacher Association members, health care workers, police, lawyers, and magistrates specializing in gender-based violence and social workers.
  • Promoting Women’s Legal Rights in Uganda. It focuses on legal education and assistance to women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. This is through the provision of paralegal training to community health workers, conducting legal aid outreach events, and training practicing lawyers on women’s legal rights. This will create a platform where women and girls can run to in case violence has occurred.
  • Women for action project in The Gambia. It seeks to accomplish three-goal that is: promotion and advocacy of legal reform for the eradication of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Promotion and advocacy of legal reform of national women’s rights bill. And, the sensitization of civil society on the practice and implementation of women’s legal rights under local Muslim law.
  • Stigma Reduction and Empowerment for Women and Survivors of Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The goal is to advance the health, economic and social well-being of women. And girls survivors of sexual violence in rural villages in Walungu Territory Kivu.
  • Elimination of Gender-based violence in Liberia. This is to fight the continued marginalized and discrimination against women and girls in homes, schools, and the workplace and on a professional level.
  • Empowerment of teenage mothers and victims of sexual abuse. This is to empower and assist marginalized groups of young women and girls (teenage mothers and victims of sexual abuse).
  • Women’s Access to Justice: more effective resolution for GBV. And so many others.
About beliefs.

Women have been taken as second-class citizens. So it will take time for men to appreciate that women and girls have the same rights as men.

This is where you as a volunteer come in to support the good cause. So how are you going to help? Through volunteering in Uganda, you will be able to reach out to the affected people to offer help to them through the following ways.

It can be through our community outreach program where you get to interact with people in the communities.

Secondly, healthcare program where you will get a chance to offer medical help to the affected people in many ways.

Lastly, the orphanage program where you will be able to care for the orphans who have been orphaned due to Gender-based violence.

Gender-Based ViolenceAs I summarize, Gender-Based Violence must be addressed as soon as yesterday. .  Reporting the cases of violence to the concerned people: like police concerned NGOs and other organizations. Volunteering in Uganda with its partners Tuyambe.Org and Love Uganda Foundation looks forward to addressing Gender-Based Violence but it cannot do it alone. Let’s join hands through donations, joining the charities organized in communities, and also sponsoring children who are victims of Gender-Based Violence. When we raise our voices together we can communicate, and when we join hands we can help. It does not matter how big or small you can offer as long as it’s for the good cause. Choose to volunteer with us.

 

HIV
Webmasters December 6, 2021 2 Comments

WORD AIDS DAY

 

This is the day when the world comes together to create awareness about HIV/AIDS.  1st of December every year is World AIDS Day. The 2021 theme is “End inequalities. End AIDS.” But have thought of volunteering to help those with the disease or something like that choosing to volunteer in people affected with the disease I think it’s the best thing ever.

When the COVID-19 pandemic break out the infected people found it different access the health services. The country was in a continuous lockdown which made transport means on standstill. Therefore this made it hard for both the patients and doctors who work in that field and for the patients too. This made them more dependent on assistance. People had difficulty accessing HIV treatment slowed down as the treatment and also HIV testing services. Non-diagnosed new infections were on the rise. The newly diagnosed had not started treatment yet which broke the link to HIV treatment. The global increase in viral load testing slowed considerably. And lastly, closed mental health care support services.

The repeated visits to HIV clinics to collect medicines put at risk of contracting COVID-19. The pressure of dealing with both the HIV and the COVID-19 pandemic caused an impact on the mental health of people living with HIV.

The interrupted hive preventive programs. Preventing vertical transmission programs like Voluntary medical male circumcision, PrEP, and other prevention options were impacted. COVID-19 put many children out of school which has put children’s health. Most especially the girls at higher risk of contracting HIV. The harm reduction access for people who use drugs has been curtailed.

There has been an increase in gender-based violence during the lockdowns. Sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women continue on the streets, in public spaces, and online.

The risk of transmitting HIV to your partner is much higher when you stop taking medication since the viral load will go up. The economic fallout forced patients to make tough choices as some patients were prioritizing food over medicine. This was because taking drugs without eating would make one dizzy and sometimes bring stomach ulcer pains. So one has to wait when food is available and they swallow the meds.

During the COVID -19, some HIV caregivers were delivering food and drugs to their patients and some volunteers ride long distances around Kampala but not everyone could access these essentials.

So the question comes out “how can you volunteer?” And “what should you carry?” When you drink tea with them, hug them, showing them that you care for them you will not get infected with HIV. Choosing volunteers for HIV patients is simply encouraging them to take their drugs as recommended by the doctors this will enable them to remain on drugs and take them at the right time.

Secondly by encouraging them to eat a balanced diet and also providing them with food and related foods like fruits that help in building the immunity to fight other diseases.

Thirdly, you can volunteer by offering guidance and counseling to the patients. This is to help them regain confidence and also to know that somebody else cares for them. Many people when they are told that they have the disease they think they are going to die any time soon. Guidance and counseling restore hope to them in the picture that they can leave longer as those without the disease and that they can work as before.

By offering those clothes and other materials to the patients is also a sign of volunteering. Many affected people don’t have clothes and cannot access most of the basic needs of life. So by choosing to provide them with basic needs you are lying a hand.

In a nutshell, volunteering is the best way of restoring hope to the people affected with HIV as well as the impacts of COVID-19. When tested is the only way to know your status. To reduce the risk use condoms, ensure that your partner who is living with HIV is taking treatment. Furthermore use PrEP to prevent getting HIV if you have ongoing risk. Choose to volunteer, donations and do charities to help those living with HIV. We as Volunteering in Uganda our aim is “Work For A Cause” under our program of HIV/AIDS program. In partnership with Love Uganda Foundation, Tuyambe, and Love Uganda Safaris we can change people’s lives for the better.

 

 

 

 

 

Medical Camps
Webmasters January 8, 2021 No Comments

FREE MEDICAL CAMPS_ASAVIOUR TO THE POOR AND SLUM DWELLERS

Free medical camps are medical care services that are taken directly to the grassroots population free of charge. And there are set up with the sacred aim of bringing awareness amongst the most deprived population of the country. Who has less access to basic medical services or knowledge about different diseases they suffer from?

So medical camps offer all services at no cost to these communities. Among such services include medicine distribution, medical advice, surgeries as well as making a referral to where it is required.

Rural and slum areas being prone to extreme poverty, there is a great need for NGOs and other stakeholders to fuel the need for offering free medical camps. With the agenda of saving lives at least once every 3 months. Or depending on how they please because a healthy body is a healthy mind.Free-Medical-Camps

Besides proving primary health care, the camps also contribute to raising awareness amongst the people informing them about the importance of adequate nutritious food, clean water, dangers and risks of environmental pollution as well as the vitality of family planning education and services.

Objectives of free medical camps

More so, the main objective of these camps is to bring affordable health care services to the community. And identify the common health problems to devise ways of addressing them. These camps ensure that people get healthcare at the right time. And see the doctors before the small problem gets out of hand.

Medical camps are conducted by professionals and they carry out a limited health intervention amongst the underprivileged communities. Getting the appropriate kind of health checkups is vital for every human being. And while considering it, some important factors like age, lifestyle, family background, and risks are taken into account.

Importance of free medical camps.

Health examinations and tests at an early stage of the sickness can help to cure it faster and save a life. Before it can cause any damage. People live longer and healthier only if their lives are taken important.

Medical camps are as well good in proving the poor population with an overall physical examination. Which includes eye checkups, HIV testing, assessment of the functioning of the vital organs. Like the lungs, kidney, liver digestive system, immunity, and heart. Such services are helpful for the poor people who earn a meager income. Regardless of their race or social status and cannot afford to go to hospitals that offer good services.

Teaching these communities and raising awareness of how best they can deal with and treat communicable and non-communicable diseases is one of the major roles of medical camps.

The medical personnel conducting these camps always act in the best interest of the patients. As they inform them the whole truth about the sickness. And the treatment that is required for it since healthcare is a basic human right that should be available for everyone. And shouldn’t be treated as a commodity for only those that can spend money to buy the service.

In slum areas.

When we say that free medical camps are important in slums areas. It’s because of the kind of life that they live in. Life in the slums is very hard to predict, they can never tell what tomorrow has in custody for them. They tend to face a lot of challenges among which poverty becomes a major one. Therefore it becomes very hard for them to even afford a test in the hospital. Once they fall sick hence resort to self-medication and this one it finds the worst situation. It escalates it putting them at the risk of losing their lives.

Because slums are among the least places that the government cares for. In most cases, they are considered criminals because of the nature of life they live in. In most cases, nonprofit organizations strive to take the services to them though it’s not enough. Therefore this qualifies them to get free medical camps.

A medical camp is solely serving humanity by taking care of sick children and adults. And giving them healthcare services for free. When the majority of hospitals and clinics close doors for the poor people, leaving them to die from conditions that could be managed. Trauma, and other health conditions, free medical camps step in as their biggest hope.

Even the poorest among us deserve the dignity of human rights which cannot be declined. They should not be underlooked because of their status; we are all one before God.

Teaching in Uganda
Webmasters November 2, 2020 120 Comments

TEACHING GOES BEYOND THE PROFESSION.

Teaching in Uganda

Teaching goes beyond the profession

A lot of attention has been put on education and not much on the educator or teacher. Education is both systematic and progressive and without education or learning, an individual is bound to become a public nuisance. Nelson Mandela once said that ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ And truly for the world to change, much more emphasis needs to be put on education and teaching.

For education to take place, there must be a teacher, and sometimes life is our teacher and other times it is individuals. We must learn that teaching goes beyond the profession. A teacher has been defined as a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence or virtue. So it`s not about the profession as much as it is about the person. It has been discovered that the first teacher any child has is his/her mother. Right from the womb, the fetus begins to pick signals from their mother and these signals are translated to affect their development. It’s the individuals that we meet on a daily that become teachers to us because from our various interactions with them, we learn to deal with many stresses and how to relate with people.

Teaching goes beyond the profession because, for a teacher to have a long-lasting impact, there must be passion, love, vision, a dream and the game-changer attitude within a person. A true teacher looks beyond what they will benefit from the service that they give and focus on what the learner has to gain. The beauty of it is that we don`t need to sit in classrooms for us to be teachers or learners because every day we meet potential teachers and students. It is our attitude towards them that determines what they will at the end of the interaction, walk away with.

Love and hatred, morality and ethics, good and bad, kindness and mercy; all these are not taught and learnt in a classroom. Some of these are learnt on the streets, others in market places and others from inconvenient places.

It means that we are all students and we are all teachers. We will always be teachers because it is our experiences that we teach and impart into others. Our interactions with others, the places we have been to and the events that take place in our lives make us teachers.

Some people choose to take up the teaching profession so that they can mentor, guide and impart skills into others as a way of changing them. Then some people are teachers at heart, and they go out of their way to make it possible for other people to become better. They source out for information that will empower others, and they look beyond the situations and limitations they might face and adopt better means of engaging their learners.

Many of these teachers fall under the informal education sector and they teach tremendously well. They teach soft skills, vocational skills, morals, ethics and values in society that group the emotional and psychological being of many individuals.

Now that you know that you are a teacher and the world is full of your students, you must build upon yourself and your interaction with the world. Become intentional about everything that you do because like it or not, the world is watching. And even though not everyone may care, there is a high probability that many people are picking the signals that you give off and these inform their world views. Be kind.

Sometimes we want to share our skills and are passionate about making an impact on hearts that are ready and willing to receive from us but we are limited by whom to contact. Look and believe, then you will see those grounds. And if it so happens that you are not a teacher by profession, find a community to volunteer. Talk to the local leaders in a particular region, let them know what your passion is and the motivation behind it and set it rolling.

If your passion stirs the desire to travel in order to do so, don`t hesitate, take a bus or a plane and travel to the grounds that will receive the seed you want to sow. We are sure that there are many people with a desire to learn but have limited access to teachers.  These will gladly receive you with open hands.

You could visit Volunteering in Uganda and let us give you the opportunity to teach under our community Development Program . Be it a skill, a story, a song or any lesson that is valuable and relevant for the social, mental and spiritual development of the child and other community members; we will avail the learners to you.

We are all teachers because it is much more than the profession. So let`s teach and forever learn.

disabled woman in Uganda
Webmasters October 9, 2018 2 Comments

LIFE OF A DISABLED WOMAN IN UGANDA.

Life of a disabled woman in Uganda.

Disability is just one word to mean “not able” meaning that anyone who is not able to do anything is disabled.  Disability is both physical and mental and some can be congenital or acquired. The most forms of disabilities are difficulties with walking, hearing, seeing, talking and perhaps reasoning.

Though the government of Uganda has put up several policies to ensure the just treatment of disabled people, from children to adults, males and females, but they have not been implemented and these people have continuously lacked support.

Therefore, there is need for everyone to rise up, take part and play a role towards the well-being of people with physical or mental impairments.

Truthfully, living a disabled life is a hard task on its own. Being vulnerable to almost everything, having to ask out for help all the time just because your nature doesn’t enable you to help yourself. It’s a life that is unimaginable.

For children, it could be easier as they have parents who are obliged to take care of them, for men, they are naturally born stronger and they can maneuver the daily struggles. But what about the disabled woman?

Her being a weaker sex, she has faced more challenges than any other group of the disabled persons in Uganda. She regularly suffers the pain of sexual abuse as she can’t defend herself. Ugandan men being merciless and shameless, they have raped her and she has innocently faced the consequences of these rude acts. Now imagine a woman who couldn’t even help herself, how she will support the two lives, both hers and the baby’s!

She faces daily rejection from her society. According to the African myths and superstitions, disabled are taken as bad omen. Poor her only experiences rude stares and people sitting far away from her all day along just because she is disabled. Some people don’t even call her by name, but rather by her physical disability like the deaf, the lame or the blind, something that is so breaking that she has chosen to leave her house. How miserable such a lonely life is!

The disabled woman in Uganda has been denied a chance to go to school. She is living an illiterate life and the world is also comfortable with this. Parents of disabled girls have deliberately refused to sponsor their children to school, they feel it’s a waste of money to educate a disabled child.

This lack of education has made her unemployed for the rest of her life. The fact that she doesn’t meet minimum qualifications, the disabled woman has been rejected in almost all job interviews. Also the society’s perception that she can’t do anything has made her lose out on all jobs since employers think she won’t meet the job demands.

Her failure to find a job has made the Ugandan disabled woman live a poor life, a life of lacking all the time, putting her in a double disability state, both physically and financially. Now she cannot support herself in any way, she is simply living a vulnerable life.

More depressingly, this woman is a mother, who breastfeeds, one who doesn’t have what to feed on or give to her child, a mother who doesn’t have what to put on or the child’s cloths, and probably a homeless mother. That’s her, she is a disabled woman in Uganda.

We can help her, we can support her, we can give her new hope, and yes, we rebuild her life again. Just support the non-government organizations that stretch a helping hand to the disabled, widows, girl children, orphans, street children and poor communities. Let’s send her back to school, start up a business for her, send her child to school too and resettle her life. She is human too.