Fruit growing for Nutrition and Income generating in Kamuli

PROJECT 

URICT UGANDA is a registered NGO founded 2005, focusing on rural women’s empowerment through skills training. URICT proposes to establish organic fruit farming (oranges and mangoes) in Bukyerimba village (pop. 7,567, 2010), Kamuli District, Eastern Uganda, and provide training for 180 farmers (75% women).

Only 50km from Jinja, Bukyerimba itself is poor and isolated, with an 89.7% illiteracy rate. Crops are plagued by pests and diseases (tristeza, wooly white flies, aphids), there is no health center or school, and the nearest clean water is 3km away.

Despite  such  setbacks,  participatory  rural  research  indicates  that  farmers  are  keen  to  increase  food security, and that the soil is suitable for fruit cultivation.

With startup support, and expertise from a US student in tropical pest and disease management, this community can produce fruit for home consumption and sales - ensuring economic self-sufficiency for the many women-headed households of Bukyerimba.

Although fruit and vegetable production is the main economic activity, farmers have received neither extension services nor training. However, URICT’s discussions with NAADS officials indicate that assistance will be forthcoming if the villagers start a self-help project. This will ensure sustainability after funding ends. The local NAADS Director has even agreed to be a project leader.

·    Establish organic fruit farming as viable means of employment, especially for women

·    Increase productivity and quality of fruit through superior varieties/ technology

·    Improve nutrition levels through supply of improved quality fruit

·    Reduce postharvest losses, and improve market access

·    To provide fruit seeds, farm inputs, and training in organic farming methods

·    To attract support of government agencies like NAADS

·    To establish a forum for collective farming and information sharing

·    To establish ongoing information exchanges with overseas partners

·    Training: In disease and pest control, agricultural best practice, record keeping, marketing

·    Creation of a stakeholders’ forum so farmers can jointly tackle problems. A committee of 11 farmers (nine will be women) will be meet monthly

·    Printing booklets for research and reference under guidance of the local Ugandan university student, who is from this village

·    Improved crop productivity and quality

·    Raised incomes, women will become self-supporting, and learn leadership and management skills

·    Learning new farming methods will increase yields

·    Collective bargaining power will ensure farmers can better access and compete on local markets, access research findings, and identify common problems

·    Improved nutrition, food security, more effective environmental management

·    Villagers will gain access to ongoing extension services, ensuring sustainability

Safe Motherhood/Fistula and Maternal Health in Buyende and Kamuli

Reaching the Forgotten Face of Women and Girls with Fistula: Adapting Culture to Prevention of Fistula and Maternal Health Among People in Busoga Districts

Over the last 5 years Fistulas in Uganda has stagnated at 6.4% among women between 14yrs – 44yrs, and in Kamuli, a slight rise in has been recorded in Buyende. Fistulas in Uganda among Rural women is growing fastest especially in villages where there is no nearby qualified health workers and medical services. The groups facing fistula includes women, teenage mothers and younger girls above/below 18 years. Currently Fistula has lead to break up of marriage or relationships, widowed, divorce or separated, orphans, single mothers and father’s home life style. Research has also shown that risky sexual behavior, lack of medical services supplies and treatment, women slavery home works, traditional thinking, poverty, early marriage and pregnancy causes fistula to be a recurring health problem. Moreover, these higher risk sexual practices are common in Kamuli and Buyende Districts, Eastern Uganda. For instance, Kamuli district has the highest number of single orphans without mothers, families cared by father without mother, high maternal death, high fertility rates, in
Uganda, which is a pointer to high death of women caused mainly by fistula and HIV/AIDS, because in Uganda’s situation, pregnancy is one of the most objective indicators of unsafe sex practices. 

Moreover, this particular group has hitherto been relatively underserved with anti-fistula and maternal health messages and services. Most anti-Fistula messages and health services have not focused on this particular group, consequently contributing to the increase in fistula among rural/villager women.

Additionally, only 12% of the population countrywide is aware of their Fistula status,. As a result, services to reach this particular group are still limited, and in need of scaling up. These gaps in service delivery provide challenges as well as opportunities to reach out to this underserved
rural/villager women and girls population. 

Using participatory, culturally adapted and gender sensitive approaches, this project will address these gaps by reaching out to this hitherto underserved group with culturally relevant and appropriately tailored Fistula and Maternal Health Problems (FMHP) messages and services. The
main approach will be to integrate Fistula as part of a comprehensive reproductive health package to the target population. URICT-Uganda in collaboration will carry out the interventions with its partners. They will include culturally sensitive information and behaviour change messages
on safer sex practices, services to address gaps in Fistula management/treatment, Refer women with 

Fistula to get treatment in Kamuli Mission Hospital, family planning. URICT is a proven leader in SRHR in Kamuli Eastern Uganda, and its static Rural Health Center in Kitayunjwa Sub-county, Busota Village, and Kamuli District will act as focal points for accessing care and delivering services to communities that are more distant. 

Project Goal

The goal is to contribute to a reduction in the of Fistula among rural/villager women and teenage mothers, by promoting Fistula and maternal health Education and Outreaches, Training Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) will change rural women health practices. It is expected that this intervention will contribute to Fistula reduction, increase Safe motherhood health method use and promote greater use of TBA’s services in the villages as immediate nearby medical health solution.

Area of Coverage

The coverage area is in Kamuli and Buyinda districts respectively. In Kamuli the area of coverage will include 3 sub counties, namely Mbulamuti near banks of lake Kyoga, Butansi and Kitayunjwa. In Buyinda the area of coverage will be Nkondo and Bukungu and Irundo sub counties all near
lake Kyoga. The secondary target will be the opinion leaders and political leadership in the area to know the urgent need for opening a fistula hospital in Busoga Region to save mothers of the world dying every day in big number.

Strategic Partnerships

Strategic partnerships has been already established with Kamuli General Hospital and the respective district/local Health Leaders, The AFYA American Foundation, Uganda Injure Birth Project UK (Dr. Brian Hancock, Dr. Glyn Constantine and Nurse Brenda U.K) TASO-Jinja to cater for HIV affected women needs, and the St. Francis Hospital Njeru Jinja (SFH) to  provide care and support women with Fistula and Maternal Problems

URICT - Joy Orphanage Home & Educational Center

URICT – Joy Orphanage Children’s Home & Educational Center

The Government of Uganda officially issued us with a registration certificate as Charity Organization in the name of URICT - Uganda. As a registered Organization, the government further gave us a permission to open up a fully operational Orphanage Children’s Home for HIV/AIDS Orphans. The Orphanage owns 283 acres of land. Currently, URICT is looking after 50 HIV/AIDS Orphans and we have 8 volunteers who help me on the daily basis. Our Orphanage is supported through charitable donations from people like you. Through the Sponsorship Program you can touch the life of a child forever. Without the funding from sponsors, URICT will not be possible. The Sponsorship Program gives you an opportunity to make a life long impact on the life of a child. 100% of your sponsorship dollars go toward your child's education & care through the General Operating Fund. There are no administrative fees deducted from your donation. Be assured that your child will receive not only an education but, most importantly, an excellent education foundation.

We are accountable to every person who donates whatever they can. The Books of accounts are accessible and available to anyone. The financial statements are published annually and sent to all our friends and partners. Our books of account are kept by a certified accountant. These books of accounts are audited by CLAYTON & Company (Certified Public Accountants)

Ending Child and Human Sacrifice in Busoga

Ending Child and Human Sacrifice in Busoga Eastern Uganda

URICT was formed to assist the rural people and villagers get access to information, fight the digital age, advocate for their fundamental rights and improve their health and socio-economic status and lives using an integrated approach especially through Information and Communication and Education

URICT ‘s vision is “A Uganda with informed and educated rural people/villagers accessing quality, adequate and equitable Information and Communication and Education services at the same time seeing that their rights as disadvantaged peopled are respected by state of Uganda” while URICT Mission is “To contribute towards raising the level, Quality & Equity of Information and Communication and Education Services and advocate for the rights of rural people and villagers in Uganda through increasing access, advocacy, economic empowerment and working with other development actors”

URICT would like to introduce you to her 10years program to end Child Human Sacrifice. Child Human sacrifice is the act of killing human beings as part of a religious ritual (ritual killing). Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals (animal sacrifice) and of religious sacrifice in general. Child Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history. Victims were typically ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease gods, spirits or the deceased, for example as a propitiatory offering, or as a retainer sacrifice when the King servants die in order to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting.

The idea of human sacrifice has its roots in deep prehistory, in the evolution of human behaviour. Mythologically, it is closely connected, or even fundamentally identical with animal sacrifice. Walter Burkert has argued for such a fundamental identity of animal and human sacrifice in the connection of a hunting hypothesis which traces the emergence of human religious behaviour to the beginning of behavioral modernity in the Upper Paleolithic.

Unlike in the past where parents could just buy a doll for their children and they could appreciate them. Today, this is not the case in Uganda following the rampant child abduction, reportedly for sacrifice. Children in Uganda now adore their parents full time protection than gifts.

Busoga Eastern Uganda leads in the act of Child Human Sacrifice, with over 2-3 children sacrificed every week. The Ugandan police and the authorities have not properly responded to end Child Human Sacrifice, because many of the rich, wealth and corrupt government officials are directly involved in sacrificing children in Uganda.

URICT has opened up a program to take information to the people, and tell them that Child Human Sacrifice should end and a new era has come. That way the witch doctors and all the parents involved in Child sacrifice will hear the call.

Vocational and Life Skills Training Program

About URICT Uganda

Uganda Rural Information and Communication Technology/Education Center (URICT-Uganda) was founded in 2005 by two professional and developmentally oriented youths (Gabula Waiswa and Dr. Monica Mukyala, Victoria Namukasa)

Initially, the organization was formed to assist the rural people and villagers get access to information, fight the digital age, advocate for their fundamental rights and improve their health and socio-economic status and lives using an integrated approach especially through Information and Communication Technology. 

Almost 8years down the road however, the organization is trying to win and work with a cross-section of individuals and organizations at different stages, gender, educational level, faith, ethnicity, settings and professions, who share its vision and mission, justifying a participatory refocus this time around.

As URICT - UGANDA continues to grow, and due to changing needs of the various categories of interest groups with a bearing on the organization, like all growing and learning organizations, URICT - UGANDA is metamorphosing into an organization that serves a broad range of specific interests, with a focus on particular aspects as reflected in its new vision, mission, purpose, objectives and values (August 2013)

Societal vision.

“A Uganda with informed and educated rural people/villagers accessing quality, adequate and equitable Information and Communication Technology services at the same time seeing that their rights as disadvantaged peopled are respected by state of Uganda”

“To contribute towards raising the level, Quality & Equity of Information and Communication Technology Services and advocate for the rights of rural people and villagers in Uganda through increasing access, advocacy, economic empowerment and working with other development actors”