Uganda: Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Project
Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Q4 Progress Report
May 19, 2016
Summary of Activities
Scholastic Support
- Provide funding to facilitate candidates taking their national exams in Masindi. This facilitation includes transportation there and back, accommodation, food, and an allowance for the teachers who take care of the students in Masindi.
- Provide school fees and scholastic materials for all Kenyan and South Sudanese refugee school children, at the beginning of the term.
- Provide funding to facilitate fieldwork for students studying geography.
- For the last intakes of students for the Panyadoli Vocational Training Institute, we increased the number of candidates for both tailoring and hair dressing. This has given a chance to more refugee youth and the host community to acquire livelihood skills. New courses— carpentry and bricklaying— were put in place through JICA funding; these courses are now continued by RMF.
Physical Upkeep and Maintenance
- Maintenance and repair of water taps at the health center, and repair of some boreholes at the camp
- Maintain adequate medicine and medical supplies at the Panyadoli Health Center. Research the upgrade of Panyadoli Health Centre III to hospital level.
- Support renovation of the classrooms for hair dressing and tailoring through rebuilding and painting.
- The RMF office in Uganda recently received a new computer for proper reporting and record keeping.
- Consistent supply of fuel for running the generator to support gadgets in the hair dressing class and sewing machines in tailoring class
Program Support
- Contributing funds towards celebration of important events within the settlement, namely orientation of all IP and OP staffs. This has promoted solidarity between RMF and other partners within the settlement.
- Facilitation to attend UNHCR and partners’ coordinating meetings, both in the settlement and regional offices; this has helped to promote cohesiveness in operations.
Project Challenges and Obstacles
- Find funding to open up a hairdressing shop in Bweyale Trading Center. This will help students in training to do their field work, and it will help advertise the services RMF delivers to the young generation.
- Find funding to open up a carpentry shop in Bweyale Trading Center. This will help students in training to do their field work, advertise the services RMF delivers to the young generation, and generate income for the institute.
- Overwhelming needs and demands that communities at the camp bring to RMF remain a challenge because RMF does not have enough funds to resolve every problem presented.
- Structure for nursery classes is not enough. UNHCR has put some structure at primary schools, but nursery school was left out as by policy UNHCR does not support nursery schools.
- We also do not have enough teachers, due to the increasing number of new kids from South Sudan living in the camp.
- Classrooms for the vocational school are also becoming a problem, as the number of students seems to be increasing each intake.
Full Report
Results &
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
School Support
Primary School Children
A total of 5,282 school children were supported by RMF/WCF funding for the third term of 2015 in Nursery, Primary, and Secondary Schools; including Kenyans, South/Sudanese, Rwandan, Burundian, Ugandan IDPs, and Congolese children/students.The third term school fees in all sponsored schools were paid. Distributions of scholastic materials to all children in different schools were made.
Medicine Delivery
Supply and Demand
RMF/WCF, local government, and UNHCR equipped the health center with pharmaceuticals this reporting period. The last resupply was on December 12th, 2015. The number of patients remained high, and medicine demand continued at a high level because of the influx of South Sudanese refugees entering Kiryandongo as a result of the crisis in South Sudan that started mid-December 2013.
Vocational Training Institute
Applicants for the Fall
In this 2015 semester, 92 new students were accepted: 39 for tailoring, 25 for hairdressing, 12 for carpentry and joinery, and 16 for brick laying and concrete practice. Their semester started on September 7th, 2015, and ended on December 15th, 2015.
Team Growth
New Staffing to meet needs
New medical and non-medical staff members were recruited through collaboration with the Government of Uganda and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
- 1 Medical Doctor/Officer, 4 Nurses, and 3 Midwives
- 3 Clinical Officers, 1 Lab Technician and 2 Lab Assistants
- 1 Pharmacy Assistant, and 1 Community Health Assistant
- 1 Program Officer, 1 Head of Finance and Administrator, and 1 Finance and Administrator
- 1 Senior HIV/AIDS Counselor, 1 HIV/AIDS Counselor, and 1 Pediatric HIV/AIDS Counselor
- 2 Data Clerks, 2 Ward Cleaners, 3 Compound Cleaners, 3 Guards, and 2 Drivers
Celebrations
Events for the quarter
Several meetings were attended and functions celebrated with the contribution of RMF, like the
- 16 Days of Activism, which included days like
- World Aids Day
- Human Rights Day
- Peace Day
- Day of the Disabled
HIV/AIDS Outreach
Education and Care
Recruitment of new HIV/AIDS staff in May 2015 has boosted HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counseling and Testing have been conducted every Wednesday, condoms have been distributed, and opportunistic infections properly managed with survivors having been assisted and supported. Communities have been educated on prevention and care, and how to guard against discrimination and stigma, and resist engaging in risky lifestyles that lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS. The recruitment of the HIV/AIDS counselor has helped build confidence among the community. With the availability of skilled midwives mothers are now seeing hope in institutional childbirth.
Background
& Objectives
Background
The Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Bweyale, Uganda, is a UNHCR managed refugee settlement that provides shelter, land, and support for more than 100,000 people. They are comprised of refugees from Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan. RMF has partnered with UNHCR in supporting Kiryandango Refugee Settlement, the surrounding community of Bweyale, and the greater Kiryandongo District (an additional 266,197 people) with health care, education, and vocational training since 2008.
Objectives
- To serve as a health care implementation partner with the UNHCR and Ugandan Government
- To provide health care services to over 100,000 refugees and persons in the community via the Panyadoli Health Centres
- To provide skills training for South Sudanese refugees to enable them to become self-reliant
More
Photos
Click to enlarge
Numbers
Served
86 graduates from the Vocational Training Institute
5,282 primary school children were supported
Success
Stories
Educational Support
- Students and pupils study safely and comfortably without stress because their school fees are paid and scholastic materials such as books, pens, and pencils were provided for the 2015 third term thanks to RMF/WCF.
- The financial and scholastic support to schools has helped to keep a huge number of children in schools. This helped to reduce the number of children that would have nowhere to go, many of them having lost their entire families in their home countries. It also reduces the number of children that would be loitering in the settlement.
- The vocational training is providing solutions for economic recovery for numerous refugee youth. Keeping the youth participating in the vocational training directly and indirectly helps to curb other social problems in the community as well, such as unplanned pregnancies, rape cases, substance abuse, etc. The vocational training is also providing quick solutions for economic recovery for some refugee youths who once finished their training can begin generating income.
- All the materials for Vocational School during the third semester of 2015 were bought in plenty.
- Training was organized by the Vocational Institute after assessment of our successful candidates who were given start up kits to educate business management, bookkeeping and accounting. We are also currently supporting 10 tailors as they begin and work in Uganda.
Health Systems Support
- The community feels safe having access to quality healthcare at Panyadoli Health Center, and now also has new hope and pride in its Vocational Training Institute, looking forward to expanding the program and finding new ways to generate income through graduates of the program. The health of refugees has greatly improved as we now even have a doctor in the health facilities. Mothers are also receiving better antenatal care services, which has reduced maternal mortality rates in the community.
- In addition to the above, because of the improved health care services that RMF/WCF has facilitated, the community is less sick and thus engages in productive activities, especially farming. A number of families are producing food, vegetables, to supplement the food rations provided by WFP.
- As a result of additional training of the community health promoters on disease surveillance and prevention, one of the trained promoters were able to detect a suspected case of polio in Magamaga. Samples were taken to Uganda Virus Institute for testing. These structures are also making patients change attitudes in seeking health services in various health facilities in the settlement.
- The community health promoters were trained on disease surveillance, prevention, and their roles, and an assessment of the Health Unit Management Committee’s training needs has been undertaken; the committee’s training will be conducted in the next quarter. A sensitization campaign was conducted at Can Rom Primary School (with topics on chicken pox and jigger prevention and response), as well as a community campaign on Ebola.
- Preventive, community based health services were enriched by conducting outreaches through permanent units and enhanced by outreach for communities with limited access to the existing health units or located over 5 km from the health facility as per the Ministry of Health access standard.
- RMF takes an integrated outreach approach with services covering immunization, HCT, ANC, deworming, condom distribution, and health education (including vital information on issues like gender based violence). Our new Health Assistant and university students doing internships at the settlement have also contributed greatly.
More Reports on: Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Project Archive
Country Page: Uganda
Initiative Page: Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Project
