Our Programs

ROLE OF UCBHCA IN PROMOTING NON PROFIT NGOs/PNFP HEALTH FACILITIES:

UCBHCA was formed in 9186 by UNICEF and WHO and NGOs to promote and advocate for primary health care Imprimentation in Uganda, therefor all our program cover all components of primary health care imprimentation at facility and community level at community level we use community health care approche to impriment PHC with full people perticipation and involvement. The key programs include MCH, Routine Immunisation, FP, malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB and others

Implementation methodology:

UCBHCA has adopted the concept of Primary Health Care which emphases community empowerment and participation in matters concerning their health and social economic development.
The strategy of Community Based Health Care (CBHC) was adopted to extend PHC services beyond the Health centers deep in rural and hard to reach areas to enable the community members including marginalized groups of people like women, children, youth and people with disabilities to fully participate and benefit from health services delivered in their communities and development services.

Community Based Health Care (CBHC) is a people centered approach which enables the community members to fully participate in identifying community problems, planning, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and sharing benefits, to sustain health and development interventions in their homes.
The UCBHCA Secretariat is responsible for building capacity of the organizations and their structures at different levels District, Sub County, Parish and Village level.

The nonprofit Health Centres are required to implement health services at facility and also go out to communities to open out Community based Outreach centre where to provide health services like routine immunization, family planning and treatment of malaria within easy reach to enable mothers and children to walk very short distances to access free health services within easy reach.

Community Based Health Workers

The Health centres work jointly with Community Based Health workers who help them to mobilize the community members and mothers to bring their children for routine immunization. The Community Based Health Workers or Village Health Teams trained by trainers from UCBHCA.

Promoting nonprofit Health Centres in Uganda:

The role of UCBHCA is to promote, protect, represent, advocate and develop the standards of nonprofit Health Centres located in rural and hard to reach communities to be able to provide quality health care services to the needy people including people with disabilities without discrimination, Ensure professional conduct and Ethical practice among Health Workers, Ensure patient safety during treatment in Health centres to avoid preventable errors and adverse effects caused to patients due to poor service delivery.

Supply Chain:

ATo strengthen the supply chain for medicines and commodities from Governmental National Medical stores to our Health centres, UCBHCA has established strong partnership with the Ministry of Health to enable its member nonprofit Health centres to easily access the supply chain of medicines and commodities particularly for the essential drugs from National Medical stores through Joint Medical Store at Nsambya. The drugs are supplied by Government of Uganda and Donors.

UCBHC has now secured a five year grant support from USAID Presidential Malaria Initiatives to support 270 nonprofit Health centres to provide free quality medicines to all poor needy people in Uganda including people with disabilities based in rural and hard to reach areas in Uganda. USAID has also contracted Joint Medical stores at Nsambya to deliver the drugs to our facilities where they are located in remote rural areas.

The package of drugs includes free ARVs, ACTs, RDTS, and HIV testing kits, Male circumcision testing kits, long lasting Insect Treated nets. The medicines are free to all the needy people are free to get free treatment from our PNFP health centres operating in all districts in Uganda.

We have also worked closely with the Ministry of Health to plan and budget for the PNFP Health Centres to get HMIS Tools to record patient data and report through District Health Information management system DHIS 2 monthly. Ministry of Health HMIS department to train Health centres in quality data recording and timely reporting through mTrac funded by Unicef. All data officers from each Health centre will be equipped with skills in quality data recording, analysis and DHIS 2 and access Codes. This is a web based data system. This will require each health centre to get a computer or use Smart phones. The Ministry of Health HMIS department has agreed to support our health centres. UCBHCA has been given an access code and rights to access data.

Reproductive Health:

Contraceptive prevalence rate is low 34% in Uganda. Only 24% of mothers are able to easily access family planning services and products within easy reach. 52% mothers in rural areas have no access to quality family planning services. Child bearing and motherhood starts early among 18% of adolescent women age 15-19 with short birth intervals occurring within 24 months of previous birth in about 25% which puts women and teen age girls at high risk. Teen age pregnancy and motherhood is a major health and social challenge in the country resulting into higher morbidity and mortality for both the mother and children.

To address the above challenge UCBHCA strategy is to improve delivery of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), Family planning services and Adolescent Health and Rights to enable women of reproductive age including women and girls with disabilities to easily access quality services within easy reach in rural and hard to reach areas in Uganda.

We strengthen capacity of health workers and equip them with modern quality contraceptives to increase access to users in the rural areas through our health centres. Create awareness of importance family planning to help women delay, space, and limit pregnancies. Family planning is a cost-effective intervention that saves the lives of mothers and their children and saves thousands of dollars in healthcare spending every year.

Maternal child health services:

Majority poor pregnant mothers in rural areas do not have access to health centres with appropriate commodities and delivery equipment and beds with skilled health works. Mother also delay to visit health centres due to poor services and cultural beliefs. This has resulted into many women delivering in villages attended by Traditional Birth attendants or relatives while others deliver in facilities not attended by any skilled health workers. The most effective way is to ensure that women have access to the care and commodities needed to ensure the safety of mother and child at birth.

UCBHCA aim is to improve Maternal Child Health Services to increase women’s access to quality MCH services through well equipped health centres to protect women from dying from preventable causes related to pregnancy and delivery. Strengthen capacity of Midwives and Nurses to equip health centres with more well trained and skilled Midwives, Nurses and Community Health Workers equipped with quality medical delivery equipment and commodities and friendly and affordable MCH health services within easy reach in Uganda

Prevention of Malaria:

Malaria poses a significant health challenge in many countries in the world particularly those from developing countries in Africa including Uganda affecting women and children. Among pregnant mother malaria causes miscarriage and premature deliveries and in children malaria causes anemia and mental disabilities and absenteeism at school and poor performance. At place work malaria affects the work force performance due to regular absent seems at work.

Given the above malaria challenges in the world, UCBHCA developed the concept of community based management of malaria and strategy aimed at reducing the high rates of morbidity, mortality and disability due to malaria in 1994. The research was designed and conducted in Uganda by Christopher Bakiika Ssengendo who initiated it. The research study findings proposed the new strategy to prevent, treat and Manage malaria. It was funded by WHO and Unicef. This new strategy also improved malaria drug doses and packaging of malaria drugs in right doses according to weight and age. It is now adopted by WHO. In 2002 UCBHCA launched a pilot project to implement the strategy in seven malaria endemic districts in Uganda up to 2006 when the project was evaluated it registered success in prevention and management of malaria. This concept and its strategy has been adopted by WHO and spread to other countries. The project was funded by WHO through Ministry of Health of Uganda.

Community Based nonprofit NGOs/CBOs

UCBHCA promotes nonprofit NGOs/CBOs. They have established grassroots strictures which are extended deep in the rural communities. The NGOs/CBOs mobilize communities to sensitize about Health, Agriculture, Water and Sanitation and other development initiatives. They work with communities to select Community Based Health Workers who are trained to go out to carry out home visiting. These structures are trained to implement Community Development interventions in their communities and sustain them. At District level all member organizations in each district come together to form a district association which coordinates the member activities in each district and report to national secretariat. All members are elected democratically.