From the field: stories from UVP interns and staff

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Twekembe  Working together for a healthier Iganga	August 2015
Striving to be exemplary: VHT commitment By Rachel Bridge, GHC Fellow "I want to show you my latrine," is one way to be welcomed into someone's home.  One of the best ways, that is. It was Friday morning in Nabirere B and Titus and I had just finished meeting with the Village Chairperson when Sulaina Mutesi, a Village Health Team (VHT) member greeted us warmly and led us to where her new, up-to-standard latrine was being constructed. Titus and I had come to Nabirere B to launch UVP's sanitation campaign, an initiative that mobilizes community members in our Healthy Villages to make sanitation improvements in their own homes. Without support, achieving these improvements is a long and challenging process. For subsistence farmer communities, finding the time, energy, and resources to construct a standard latrine, tippy tap, plate stand, cooking drainage system, and trash pit is a daunting task.  UVP's sanitation campaigns are designed to energize and sustain the community from within, with VHTs like Sulaina as the key champions of the campaign. Sulaina's power as a VHT does not necessarily fit into what a conventional idea of a successful VHT looks like. Before this campaign, Sulaina and her husband, Yakub Kadunga, had been using their neighbor's latrine because they lacked their own. Plans to begin constructing their own standard latrine were sparked by the pressure of their neighbors, who had begun to speak badly of them in the community, but it was during the preparation for the campaign that Sulaina and Yakub finally felt encouraged to complete their latrine. Sulaina saw the sanitation campaign as the perfect opportunity for her to both eliminate the bad reputation her neighbors were giving her and Yakub and to amplify her authority and impact as a VHT.  The pair is a force to be reckoned with. Yakub has finished all of the digging  for the latrine and they are now gathering the final supplies for its construction. With the help of UVP, a tippy tap was installed at their house the day before we visited. The momentum of this couple is clear and Sulaina is hopeful for her ability to empower her community now that she herself is implementing the sanitation improvements. "Now I will be exemplary in the community, and I will have the command and respect I need to inspire my community," she said.     Intern blog roundup All summer long, UVP interns are writing blog posts about their work in the villages. Read about Kasambika's crazy experience being thrown into a community event, how Buwoira is tackling malaria and sanitation, and some FAQs from Nabirere A. We've been posting several times a week all summer long and will continue for the next few weeks -- check them out at http://ugandavillageproject.blogspot.com/ A true partnership We love our Fistula Ambassadors, but we don't normally have a lot of interaction with the husbands or family members of the Fistula Ambassadors. That's not the case for Nyachwo Agnes and her husband. For eight years Agnes suffered from obstetric fistula, a child birth injury that caused her to leak urine constantly, after difficulties giving birth to her eighth child. Luckily, Agnes heard about Uganda Village Project and our fistula program from a former patient and together with her husband, she approach UVP's Fistula Coordinator Loy who arranged for her to have free repair surgery. When UVP started our Fistula Ambassador program two years ago, Agnes expressed interest in being part of the team so she could help other women in her village. She attended the training, and when she went home, her husband was so impressed with what Agnes learned that he asked her to teach him so they could work together in the community. He accompanied her to three of her outreaches where she taught her community about the cause, prevention, and identification of fistula, and now the two of them always work hand in hand to organize the outreaches. Her husband's job as a parish catechist gives him a lot of opportunities to meet communities, and so he takes those chances to talk about fistula as well. Together, they have brought 10 patients for surgery and educated more than 700 people. When asked what motivated him to join efforts to work on a fistula project, he said that "fistula wasn't only a woman's problem, because once one got it, it affected the entire family and it was the responsibility of both partners to seek a cure from this problem. My wife once heard about fistula treatment from another fistula patient and that good news changed our lives; I too want to spread the same good news to as many people as I can."	Improve health UVP relies on donations from people like you to improve health for rural villages. Your donation allows us to hold HIV testing days, sanitation campaigns, and more!   Donate today.            Join our board! We are recruiting for a Fundraising Chairperson to join UVP's Executive Board. This volunteer role supports other board members to raise funds to improve health in Iganga. Find out more here. Stay connected Learn more and stay in touch! Read about the latest projects on the UVP blog Get updates about Uganda, public health, and UVP on Facebook  Follow UVP's Twitter and Instagram for photos and updates from the field Watch videos on UVP's YouTube Channel  Or email us any time with questions or feedback

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