The Target Group;

Currently the organization is implementing programs in five (5) districts namely Kampala, Luweero, Mubende, Mityana, Wakiso of Uganda concentrating on mobilizing peasants with special attention on children 0-5 years, youths and women. The programs endeavor to enhance their skills to create an alternative job/employment for the families especially in the areas where peasant-farming practices have failed to sustain livelihoods financially.

BUSO Foundation Guiding Principles;

To be able to appreciate the strategies chosen by BUSO Foundation, it is important to reflect on the guiding principles of the organization. We believe that:

·  That ordinary people provided with clear, simple information can prevent and treat most common health problems in their homes earlier, cheaper and often better than modern medical personnel located miles away at established centers.

·        That provision of primary health care within the community by trained CORPS provides a learning pr5ocess for the family and the entire community.

• That health care provided within the community releases the much needed human resources for the development of the community because if people or their family members are sick then they will not work and if people do not work their will be no development at the level of communities and the country at large.
• That the community should have the capacity to identify their needs/problems for today and tomorrow, prioritize them and make appropriate leveraged interventions to address these problems/needs in a participatory manner.
• BUSO Foundation believes that gone are the days when one or two people sat in a corner and came up with development projects on behalf of the community with or without consulting them. It is high time the community with or without consulting them. It is high time the communities are not consulted but that they do the planning themselves.
• Also gone are the days when planning was arbitrary based on “I think other than I know”. The community should have the capacity to collect, analyze  the community- based information to address needs that emanate through lobbying and advocacy at all levels.
• Our implementation strategy in programs is to start small and later make incremental expansion with the availability of resources and when capacity both at the Foundation and community levels gets strengthened. This is important as it enables us consolidate efforts without spreading resources over too thinly that critical minimum levels are not attained. This approach is also inline with the view that self-reliance/sustainability cannot be easily attained without sufficient capacity building which in itself takes time to occur.
• BUSO Foundation also embraces working and networking with other player to work towards optimal impact of interventions in a community.

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BUSO Foundation Experience in Community Development Interventions:

-Experience as Regards Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and HIV and AIDS

Since inception BUSO Foundation programs have addressed Reproductive Health including HIV and AIDS as a major component of Primary Health Care (PHC). Aspects addressed by the projects include family planning, prevention and mitigation of HIV and AIDS, safe motherhood, adolescent health and sex education among others. It has engaged in training Community’s Own Resource Persons (CORPS), who include Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) Peer Educators (PE), Community Based Vaccinators and Community Based Distributors (CBD) or Community Based Reproductive Health Workers (CBRHW), who were trained and supported to bring the health messages and basic services to the community where they live.

CORPs cut across all aspects of PHC with a view of ensuring a holistic approach to health promotion. As such, their roles include creation of awareness, influencing behavioral change on several aspects of PHC. Behavioral Change Communication (BCC) for young people with emphasis on HIV and AIDS  prevention/mitigation and SRHR and sex education, referral of complicated cases to specialized practitioners and facilitating the establishment of sanitary and other health structures, provision of family planning contraceptives including distribution and sale of condoms, as well as issues related to food security and women’s rights.

Food Security and Nutrition improvement

This program uses community-based approaches for nutrition improvement. However       in the poor communities it is not possible to talk about nutrition improvement without taking into account the need for adequate stocks of food as many households take a single or two light meals a day instead of the four recommended. This practice provides insufficient calories to the human body making it less energetic and prone to diseases. This is also done in cognizant of the relationship between Nutrition improvement, food security and HIV and AIDS. For the element of food security people are trained in sustainable agriculture methodologies. BUSO Foundation still uses the capacity building approach to train CORPS like Nutrition Educators, Vaccinators and animators who provide community based extension services for improvement of nutrition supported by increased food production. BUSO Foundation has also trained community trainer in various aspects of community development who in turn can train others. Demonstration farmers are at parish level are trained and facilitated as custodians of new technologies and practices and farmers from the neighboring communities are encouraged to visit to learn and share challenges from their own experiences. The aegis of this approach is that with the cycle broken, the communities will have their health improved and poverty reduced.

i) BUSO Foundation has been contracted by the Ministry of Agriculture – NAADS program e provider for Wakiso and Luweero districts

ii) BUSO Foundation was contracted by Plan International to initiate a nutrition project for Tororo District located in Kwapa, Moro and Merikit subcounties.

Below is an illustration of the Health and poverty cycle:  

The Capacity Building Strategy

Capacity building has been embarked on at two fronts; one front has involved working with communities to establish community structures, building their capacities and that of the local government leaders to identify needs and problems in a participatory manner. In a similar way the community has been facilitated to access factual information about each village status to aid the decision making process at Parish Development committee (PDC) level and later at sub county; the planning unit. The data is collected and analyzed by the communities themselves with minimum support from the BUSO staff. In this the village becomes familiar with its problems and can inform the PDC about its priorities and the PDC can in turn forward these needs to the sub county plan and likewise to the district. This system empowers communities to challenge irrelevant government programs/policies in relations to their priorities by providing this feed back.The other front has involved building the capacity of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in management of finances, planning, M&E, proposal writing, project management, main- streaming HIV and AIDS and gender in their development programs activities.

BUSO Foundation was contracted by ACTION AID- UGANDA to build capacity of potential recipients of the ACTION AID’s Strategy for Action (SFA) funding in the districts of Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono, Mpigi and Luweero.  Under this arrangement BUSO managed to organize 16 CBO’s administrative systems, facilitate preparation of project proposals, recommended funding and they were all funded by ACTION AID after which BUSO was responsible for monitoring progress preparation of timely periodical reports including monthly financial and narrative.

Access To Water And Sanitation:

The program objectives is to provide