12th May, 2008
29 Apr 2008
Members of the Katine community and local administration joined the AMREF project team and management in a meeting to discuss the Katine Community Partnering Project (KCCP) and get an update on the project so far.
Speaking at the event AMREF Deputy Director General Dr Florence Muli-Musiime said, “We are here as AMREF to report to you on our progress. As we begun this partnership you told us about your challenges and what we needed to do together, we are now here 6 months since the project begun with our report card.”
At the meeting the AMREF team presented results of the Baseline Survey which highlighted the situation in the community in key areas that the KCCP will target over the next 3 years. The project team also highlighted key achievements over the period in review in the areas of education, water & sanitation, health, livelihoods and community empowerment.
Speaking after the presentations the District Chairperson, Mr. Stephen Ochola said, “It is good that the people of Katine are getting this opportunity. The local government is very happy that we can get accelerated development over the next 3 years in this community.” He added, “I am so glad that the Guardian and Barclays chose AMREF to implement this project, they have the support of the community and I hope we all understand just how fundamental that is, without it, no project can succeed”
After the presentations the different community members gave their comments and offered their feedback to ensure the KCCP succeeds in improving the lives of the residents of Katine.
“I challenge the team to concentrate on improving the quality of education to ensure that our children can read, write and do simple arithmetic. These will be the skills they and their families need if we are to improve the lives and economic activity of our people,” commented Mr Charles Asomun a community member and head teacher, “I hope that we can set one of our objectives to be that we will ensure that we send a certain number of children per year to University by the third year of this project.”
According to the survey, Katine sub county’s education levels are some of the lowest in the country. In fact on all the key indicators Katine lags behind the rural average across Uganda, with almost all residents not getting enough food and lacking decent access to clean drinking water. Hygiene, sanitation and child health in the Katine sub-county are also "uniformly poor", with high levels of malaria and diarrhoea in children.
Upon seeing the information on Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) use, Hellen Alajo a community representative said, “Our little children are always sick. They get malaria all the time. Now I know it is because our husbands are the ones using the nets in the homes. We must talk to our men to protect the children with us. The must know that if we only have one net in the house then the babies should sleep under it, not the man.”
“Katine is a special case,” said AMREF in Uganda Country Director Joshua Kyallo, “The lack of basic facilities in Katine is largely a legacy of the devastating raids by the rebel Lords Resistance Army (LRA) in 2003. The entire community was forced to relocate from the area.”
At the meeting the local leaders also indicated the need to involve their representatives at all levels of governance of the project. ‘We like working together with AMREF as you listen to our views at all levels and we expect this project to be different from others because we have a chance to tell you how we think you are doing,” said Mr William Omuge the Soroti Chief Administration Officer.
The meeting brought together over 60 participants. They included community members, local leaders, other organisations working in Katine, Ugandan media and Barclays who are one of the key partners in the project.
The Katine project is run in partnership with The Guardian, AMREF and Barclays. To find out how you can support the Katine project go to www.guardian.co.uk/katine/
For further information please contact: Betty Muriuki – AMREF Writing Manager, on +254 20 6993327, Cell: +254 726 261495, email: betty.muriuki@amref.org Bob Kioko – AMREF Corporate Communications Manager, on +254 20 6993111 or Cell: +254 735 546440, email: bob.kioko@amref.org |
