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.
as a servic
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 |