Uganda

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Projects in Uganda

Agriculture

The Agribusiness and Economic Development Project aims to empower households especially youth, women and farmers to increase income, reduce malnutrition and poverty through improved money management practices, enhanced entrepreneurial skills, establish and strengthen income generating activities and improve household knowledge and skills on nutritious diets and food choices.

Agribusiness volunteers support households to achieve economic security. In the communities where volunteers work, household members often lack the skills to pursue available employment opportunities, the capacity to create their own employment and economic opportunities and the critical money management skills needed to manage household income and expenses. The Peace Corps Uganda Agribusiness project will strengthen the skills and capacity individuals need to contribute to the economic security and upward economic mobility of their households.

The project in collaboration with the Feed the Future helps people feed themselves by creating new economic opportunities to achieve improved security through the following objectives:

  1. Increase the capacity of women, youth and farmers (as individuals or groups) to apply improved money management practices
  2. Develop the entrepreneurial potential of women, youth (aged 15-29), in and out of school and farmers' groups.
  3. Increase capacity of women, youth and farmers (as individuals or groups) to implement income generating activities (IGAs).
  4. Increase households' adoption of nutritious diets and food choices.

To learn more about this project, check out our latest Annual Report.


Education

The Early Childhood Literacy Project supports the Ministry of Education and Sports to realize its strategic objectives by focusing on interventions to improve access to quality Early Childhood Literacy. The project goal is to support pupils to attain literacy skills to improve their learning outcomes.

Education Volunteers support teachers to increase their knowledge and application of effective techniques and methods for teaching early literacy skills. They work with pupils to increase literacy levels and support the development of materials and resources that teachers need to provide high-quality literacy instruction. Volunteers also engage parents and community members to encourage children's literacy development and promote a reading culture within the community.

To learn more about this project, check out our latest Annual Report.


Health

Guided by World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Uganda Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP), the Health Project aims at Ending preventable child deaths and achieving a resilient and healthy generation of youth by 2030 through the following four objectives:

  1. Increase the knowledge and skills of child caregivers to end preventable child (age 0-5) deaths and keep them healthy.
  2. Increase the knowledge and skills of people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS to improve their well-being and resilience including OVC (age 0-18) and their families.
  3. Increase the knowledge and skills of vulnerable youth (age 12-19) to remain HIV-free.
  4. Improve community health service providers’ and/or school staff’s skills to address health needs of children and youth.

Through Evidence based interventions, Volunteers together with their counterparts in their respective communities promote Maternal Child Health best practices and activities that include; immunization, nutrition, water sanitation and hygiene, malaria prevention and exclusive breastfeeding among others through care group model. They also use evidence base curricula and approved manuals like Journey’s plus, Grassroot soccer Men can, life skills, My pads to respond to country health needs and significantly contribute to HIV prevention, reduction of child morbidity and mortality and improve accelerated healthy behaviors.


President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

The HIV/AIDS Program in Peace Corps Uganda is implemented through an HIV/AIDS Committee, which is chaired by a Volunteer and supervised by the PEPFAR Coordinator. The core activity of this committee involve planning and designing training programs in areas such as HIV/AIDS basics, transmission, major drivers and prevention strategies. As part of HIV/AIDS care and support, Peace Corps, through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also provides small grants to support Volunteer projects that address economic needs of orphans and vulnerable children. Starting January 2016, Peace Corps enrolled district based HIV/AIDS trainings in 5 district reaching nearly 120 people.


President's Malaria Initiative

Malaria is implemented through the Malaria Think Tank and comprises of up to 6 members and chaired by a Peace Corps Volunteer. Their activities involve mobilizing Peace Corps Volunteers to implement malaria projects which include activities such as; Malaria bed net repair, distribution of bed nets and health education on malaria prevention. These activities are mainly and widely implemented across the three sectors during World Malaria Month. The Peace Corps Volunteers in the committee also support partnership and networking with different organizations including Presidents's Malaria Initiative in order to maximize impact at community level.

Read here some of the latest capacity building activities Peace Corps Volunteers have implemented in their communities.