By Alex Byakatonda
apearlnews.com
The Kabale District Principal Assistant Secretary, James Mugisha, is
rooting for the recommencement of health competitions in communities,
as one way of fighting against malnutrition in the District.
Mugisha, made the remarks yesterday while speaking during a two-day
training of Village Health Teams (VHTs), health center in-charges from
Kitumba and Kamuganzi sub-counties, organized by the Hunger Project
Uganda (THP-U), which is implementing the R2G project.
In May this year, Kabale District Local Government signed a
memorandum of Understanding-MOU, with The Hunger Project Uganda
(THP-U)- aimed at implementing the R2G project, which is intended to
provide support services for the improvement of livelihoods of
communities within the district.
The Right2Grow project is intended to improve nutrition services,
with more focus on community empowerment and advocacy, by
strengthening civil society to advocate for an enabling environment,
where government decision-makers and other key stakeholders jointly
and effectively address under-nutrition in a multi-sectoral gender
sensitive and inclusive manner.
Now, Mugisha says that health competitions can help households and
communities to get mobilized to adopt good nutrition and WASH
practices, through the use of various Community –Led development
approaches.
However, speaking during the training, the Kabale district Health
Inspector officer, Edmond Kabyemera, expressed dismay at some Village
Health Team members-(VHTs), who have failed to live as examples in
their villages and are living in deplorable health situations, like
lack of latrine facilities and poor wash services.
Sunday Mawa, a nutrition specialist with the Hunger project Uganda
(HTP-U), noted that the training was aimed at equipping the VHTs
with knowledge on how to fight malnutrition in households, through
building capacities of communities and collaborating with health
facilities and other Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and other
stakeholders to fight malnutrition and undernutrition.
Mawa added that the Right2Grow project is being implemented in
Kamuganguzi and Kitumba sub-counties. He added that the program is
also being implemented in eleven districts in the country including,
Malacha, Bugweri, and Nywoya districts.
Research conducted between 2013-2016, ranked Kabale District among
the districts with the highest cases of stunting among children aged
between 2-8 years at between 29-30 percent.
END
