Presented By:Kato Ssekah AbduFounder/Programme DirectorIntegrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI)Po Box 557, Mbarara, Uganda .Website: http://www.icodi.orgMobile No: +256752801674 or +256701801674Email: millorskato@gmail.com

A Brief Background about ICODI Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI) is a

Legally Registered non profit making organization with a REG No: 1094.

The organizations’ major aim is to reduce on the high levels of famine,

poverty, illiteracy and ill health among the rural and urban poor communities in Uganda.

Uganda:Uganda as one of the countries in Africa is faced

with high levels of famine, poverty, illiteracy and ill health ; The problems have affected both the rural and urban communities in the country.

In Uganda, much of the problems are seen in the rural poor communities where there are so many vulnerable populations, it is also noted that more than 65% of the Country’s population is staying or residing from the rural areas hence they have been vulnerable to these problems which have affected their standards of living.

Poverty:Poverty is a national problem to the country that has

contributed to peoples’ lack of access to basic education, health services and other basic necessities.

Most of the country’s rural and urban poor communities have less than a dollar per day per person to spend.

Poverty has caused violence in families.Poverty is a cause of a very high rate of illiteracy in

Uganda especially in children. Many children have not been able to attain any formal education.

Poverty has contributed to the spread of HIV in the country; Due to lack of what to eat and a need by nationals to have basic necessities, some of the women and youth girls have started engaging them selves in commercial sex which has contributed to the spread of HIV in many communities. They do this in order to get some small money to survive and this has contributed to the rate of HIV infection in the country.

As a challenge in the country, it has caused the practice of cross-generation sex, Young girls get involved in having commercial sex with old men which has also accelerated the spread of HIV among youths in the country.

Poverty has caused many families to force their young girls to get married at a young age in order for the families to get dowries.

Possible Solutions to the challenge of poverty:

Introducing projects that will train and support the rural and urban poor to start small sustainable household income generating activities in order to get small incomes.

Empower new farming and agriculture projects to help the rural communities to reduce on the high levels of famine and poverty.

Support the small scale farmers who are already so-engaged to cultivate big chunks of land by obtaining and using rototillers for cultivation, this will encourage mass production which will enable farmers to have produce for home consumption and for sell in order to earn some money.

There is a need to train and empower the youth both females and males to become small-scale entrepreneurs so that the future generations can experience little or no poverty and famine levels.

Train and empower small scale farmers to produce in groups such that they can have a good bargaining power .

There is also a need to form more cooperative societies, these can help the farmers to look for market for the farmers’ products.

These are some of the examples of rural poor families which faces the high levels of poverty.

Famine:Agriculture is the backbone of the Uganda’s

economy, however the country is still facing the high levels of famine.

Famine is another great challenge in the country that has killed many Ugandans due to hunger.

The challenge has affected both the rural and urban poor communities causing malnutrition in both adults and children.

Due to high levels of famine in the country, many children have died due to malnutrition that results from lacking what to eat and also having poor diets.

Some of the Solutions to the challenge of famine:

There is a need to support the people especially the rural poor people to start agricultural and farming activities.

Also, modernizing the agriculture in Uganda is another need, most of the farmers in Uganda are still using rudementally tools to practice agriculture, for example using hoes and pangas to cultivate do not allow farmers to cultivate big chunks of land in order to have mass production which can facilitate home consumption and commercial purposes.

Such families in the rural poor communities in Uganda face high levels of famine.

Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI) is involved in training and supporting such families to start small sustainable household income generating activities in order to avoid famine and poverty. These include small sustainable farming and agriculture.

The rural poor are supported by giving them seeds to start agriculture activities and they are also trained in modern agriculture technologies.

ill health:The status of health in Uganda is still

wanting ; the country is faced with challenges of major epidemics ie HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. These kill hundreds of Ugandans every day.

Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI) has been working hard to extend HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB awareness, prevention and control. However we are doing this on a very small scale due to lack of resources to extend our services.

HIV/AIDS Challenge:Uganda is facing a big challenge with HIV epidemic.According to the Ministry of Health (MOH) report

2011, The country had about 1.5 million people who were HIV positive , 150,000 children were also HIV positive where 65% of them were orphans.

About 55% of the HIV positive adults and children need to get started on Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) but drugs are not enough in the country and about 90% of the HIV treatment funds are donor funds.

There are very few HIV pediatric treatment centres in

Uganda and this has affected the HIV positive children mainly from rural communities where families can not afford to provide transport to their children to access treatment from urban centres.

Also, the HIV treatment centres for HIV positive adults are really not enough especially in rural areas and this has also affected the rural poor people to access HIV treatment in urban areas due to lack of transport.

Possible Solutions to HIV epidemic:

Extend HIV awareness, prevention and control activities in both rural and urban communities, however much emphasis now should be on rural poor communities due to their great vulnerability to the epidemic. Activities can include extending Home Based Voluntary Counseling and Testing (HBVCT) to the rural poor communities.

Increase on the number of HIV treatment centres (for both children and adults) and availability of ARVs in both urban and rural areas, however of now, more emphasis should be put on introducing more HIV treatment centres in rural poor communities in Uganda.

Introduce projects to extend Prevention of Mother to Child HIV Transmission (PMTC) services especially in rural communities to reduce on mother to-children HIV transmission.

Introduce projects to support the HIV positive children (moslty orphans) have access to HIV care and treatment, education, food and other basic necessities in their lives.

Integrated Community has been involved in extend ing HIV/AIDS awareness through community training .

Malaria Epidemic:Malaria is a “Killer disease” in Uganda, it is an

epidemic that kill hundreds of Ugandans perday.

According to the Ministry of Health (MOH) report 2011, Malaria was killing more than 200,000 people every day and about 75% of the hospital admissions were for malaria cases.

Malaria especially affects the rural poor families which can not manage to buy mosquito nets for their family members.

Malaria has contributed to the high infant mortality rate in Uganda.

Solutions to Malaria Epidemic:Introduce projects to train people how to avoid

malaria by sleeping under mosquito nets, cutting bushes around their homes, destroying the plastic bottles that acts as breeding ground for mosquitoes, clearing stagnant water bodies that also acts as breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Work hand in hand with the Government health centres in rural communities to provide the rural poor with Malaria treatment drugs.

Supporting the rural poor families with mosquito nets in order for them to avoid malaria in their homes.

Such rural poor families can not manage to buy mosquito nets to prevent their families members from getting malaria.

TB Epidemic:TB is also one of the killer diseases in Uganda,

the epidemic also claims hundreds of lives of people every day in the country.

It is noted that most of the TB cases in Uganda come from rural poor communities hence such communities have always been vulnerable to this epidemic.

Solutions to the Epidemic:Introduce projects to extend TB awareness,

prevention and control in especially rural communities which are more vulnerable to the epidemic

Work hand in hand with health centres to provide anti-Tb Drugs in the Health Centres

Other diseases:Though HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB are regarded as

the most epidemics, there are also other diseases that claims lives of people and these are related to poor nutrition and having no access to clean water especially in the rural poor communities.

Diseases such as Diarrhea, Dysentery, Typhoid, Bilharzia etc have been seen killing people in the country especially in rural communities.

Most of the rural communities don’t have access to clean water.

Solution to the problem of water scarcity:Introduce clean water projects in rural poor

communities including construction of bore holes, extending tap water, building community water tanks etc which could eliminate preventable diseases.

These are some of the water sources being used in the rural communities, such water sources have caused many diseases which have also claimed lives of the rural people.

Illiteracy:Illiteracy is a huge problem that has mostly

affected rural poor communities in Uganda.People experiencing very high levels of poverty

can not manage to provide scholastic materials like pens, pencils, uniforms, food to eat at school etc to their children.

Most children from rural poor families have not attained any level of education, they cannot even write nor read.

Among those who have started school, many have dropped out, with limited education, their present and/or their future job opportunities are very limited.

Possible Solutions to the challenge:

Introduce community and family income generating projects to help the rural poor families. Small income generating activities like small sustainable farming, agriculture projects can help such families to get money and pay for their children in schools.

Community programs that can bring people together to build more schools in some rural poor communities ;working together to build schools will help encourage the rural poor to send their children to school.

Such youths have not attained any level of education due to poverty in their families, they are suffering looking for what to survive on.

In this regard, Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI) is in need of your support to furtherance its activities of

reducing on the high levels of famine, poverty, illiteracy and ill health among the

rural poor communities in Uganda.

Thank you very much!