This summer WMI's fabulous college interns took the lead in developing and launching two new initiatives that will provide much needed support services to women in the loan program.  The interns in Buyobo, Uganda: Noah Martin (Georgetown '17), Michael Chang (Princeton '18), Natalie Andrasko (Michigan '18), and Javier Eguiara (Deusto University '17) focused a significant amount of their time in the village on public health issues.

Village Health Team Support

Working with the Buyobo Village Health Teams (a total of nearly 100 local volunteers), which provide health/sanitation information and emergency logistical help to local residents, the interns set out to understand the most critical health problems facing the local community. Many of WMI's loan program members are VHT volunteers or live in rural areas that are served by the VHTs. With little regular access to medical care, the VHTs are frequently the only source of basic health training or emergency intervention for villagers living in rural areas: they are the m

	Noah demonstrating how to take blood pressure for VHTs

edical lifeline for many rural families in the Buyobo area.

With his health training background, Noah took the lead on organizing the interns to purchase basic first aid equipment for each of the 8 parishes (composed of a dozen villages each) that the VHTs oversee, including 8 stethoscopes, 8 sphygmomanometers, 8 thermometers, bandages, and disposable gloves. With these new supplies each parish will be able to perform basic check-ups for patients, recommend clinical referrals or hospitalization, and monitor current illnesses. The interns provided basic first aid and blood pressure training for the all of the VHTs. The community found the training and supplies to a huge asset which significantly improved the quality of health outreach services in the villagers.

Mental Health Counselling

The culture in Uganda values inner strength and determination, which can deter people from speaking out on topics as culturally taboo as rape or HIV. The women and girls in Buyobo especially struggle, with many young girls dropping out of school by sixth and seventh grade due to pressure to get married early or to take on more household chores. WMI has made great strides in creating community programs to address some of these problems, but there is much more that can be accomplished.

During her summer stay in Uganda (her second internship there!) Natalie observed an important problem in the community that women wanted to address: ongoing counseling for HIV positive community members and sexual assault survivors. There are no readily available services to help sexual assault and gender violence victims heal. Deciding to act on this problem, Natalie created a counselling program and support network for sexual assault, gender violence, and HIV positive survivors.

The project is called HEAR (Helping End Abusive Relationships), and it gives survivors in the Buyobo community who have been silenced a chance to feel like they have a voice again. There is no program like this currently in place, and very few programs like this exist in all of Uganda. WMI allocated a budget for the interns to spend on community project development and Natalie led the effort to hire the AIDS Information Center in Mbale to provide a three-day course in Buyobo for local 20 women leaders there to be trained as HEAR counsellors. The topics covered in the extensive three-day training course included skills for supporting rape victims and their families, understanding gender and sexual orientation issues, community strategies for preventing and reporting rape and sexual violence. 

 

Boda Ambulance

The Buyobo interns spearheaded the effort to purchase a motorcycle-powered ambulance to serve Buyobo and all of Sironko District. Why a boda ambulance? Research indicated that f or every 100,000 live births in Uganda, 343 women are expected to die (UNICEF). This number is 150% higher than the world average, and 2,450% higher than it is in the United States. A major factor contributing to the discrepancy is the inaccessibility of urgent medical treatment: the most critical factor in patient survival after severe trauma is time until medical care is received. To reach life-saving medical care, rural villagers and mothers in labor must walk or travel on the back of a motorcycle over long, bumpy roads, which extends the time until treatment or forces many to just wait it out in their homes. Almost all rural villages lack any on-call emergency transportation.

 

Joined by their counterparts in WMI's Bethesda office ( Devoe Arnold, Bowdoin '18),Sarah Barakso Martin (Penn 18), Marlee Grant (GWU '18) and Madeleine Scanio (GWU '18), they created and posted a gofundme project to raise the necessary funds. WMI pledged to cover 50% of the $7,500 total project cost. With the receipt of a $100 check this week from a supporter who does not like to give on line, the interns' project has officially surpassed the $3,750 funding minimum necessary to acquire the boda ambulance.

 

This is huge success for the interns and for the women and families WMI serves. The entire community is looking forward to the commencement of the boda ambulance service, which will be managed by the VHTs and WMI's local partner, the Buyobo Women's Association, which will provide dispatch services. This is a high impact project that is sustainable - ongoing operating overhead will be covered by loan program income.  Based on community surveys and meetings, we anticipate high demand for the service and additional training for the boda ambulance drivers would be a benefit. So if you would like to contribute to the project to help fund this additional training you can still do so at: gofundme boda ambulance