TeamUp Uganda Partners supports youth and local government in Mityana during Covid19
TeamUp is a new multi – sectoral approach to development cooperation initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and managed as well as co-financed through the three foundations of Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW), Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung (HRNS) and Siemens Stiftung that aims at improving livelihood prospects of young people in rural parts of the country. The program unites the expertise, networks and resources of three local organizations, namely; Action 4 Health Uganda (A4HU), Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung Africa (HRNS) and Whave Solutions implementing in the multi sectors of Health, Agriculture as well as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
In the middle of implementing a 3-year pilot that tackled the complex challenges faced by young people in rural areas, with the aim of benefiting not only the 50,000 in school and out of school youth but local government and the wider communities in Mityana, Covid19 became a real time game changer across the world. In Uganda, the impact of Covid19 cannot yet be quantified, business as usual had to be left at the wayside as new modalities of work were not only enforced on populations that were already strained but also on programming and implementation.
The strict lockdown measures that were put in place by the government to contain the spread of the virus, left the local population especially the youth concerned about how this would impact their health, livelihoods and service delivery in key sectors that TeamUp tackled in its holistic approach integrating socio-economic, health, educational and infrastructural aspects.
Within TeamUp Uganda’s 15-30 age group and their communities, lock down limitations meant that they couldn’t access agriculture inputs, health commodities and communicate easily with the youths in the groups that had been formed.
If they resided far from trading centers, they were not able to take their harvests to their Cooperatives for the upcoming harvest season which was fast approaching. Closed markets also threatened incomes and food security. Access to safe and clean water was also in jeopardy as field officers and water pump mechanics were also unable to reach communities.
In the face of the national lockdown, the local implementing partners (A4HU, HRNS and Whave Solutions) got special permission to return to its project sites because in essence, they were working in the essential sectors that government had deemed necessary for the country to remain functional i.e. Agriculture, Water and Health. In Mityana, a limited number of field staff were allowed to travel on their motorbikes, doing individual farm visits, water sources maintenance checks, and health centers to provide households with much needed farming support and advice, keep water sources functional and the youth to keep their SRHR needs met.
Realizing immediately how important and critical access to water and sanitation would be to the control and spread of Covid19 the local implementing partners led by Whave Solutions embarked on ensuring reliable and functional water supply in the communities that had signed preventive maintenance agreements, waivers on any charges on the water source maintenance were also put in place to further support the communities. Training on the observance of the SOPs was also available to the water source users.
Additionally, the program realized that it was important that the knowledge gap was closed as swiftly as possible, youth and communities needed to know about how to prevent the spread of the virus, they needed to know how to access and use their SRHR commodities and services, how and where to access their agricultural inputs etc. To do this, the TeamUp Hour was developed and aired on SUN FM radio station in Mityana. The innovative remotely produced radio show featured head teachers, nurses, DCDOs to mention but a few talking about menstrual health management, access to land, WASH, climate conscious agriculture, water source maintenance etc. The program partners handed out over 14.000 masks to the youth in Mityana to control the spread, 7,000 leaflets in Luganda advising communities on how to execute the SOPs as advised by WHO and the government. Numbers of meetings were cut down in accordance with the SOPs, communities were encouraged to wash their hands regularly and to wear masks outdoors.
TeamUp also supported the district in its quest to prevent and control the spread of Covi19 in Mityana, by handing over support supplies to the District Covid19 Task Force which included Sanitizers, masks, detergent, liquid soap and fuel to supply these items to the hospital, offices that were sorely in need of these supplies. The District worked with TeamUp and other development partners worked hand in hand in both the first and second lock down, to spread the necessity of people in communities to observe standard operation procedures, using both the radio talk show, information education and communication items that talked about how to prevent the spread of the virus, and where to go once you developed symptoms. The teams understood right away that it was through working together that the spread could be controlled.
Furthermore, in partnership with Mityana District Local Government, the TeamUp partners integrated the need to get vaccinated once the vaccines arrived in the country to all the communities both remotely and in instances where they were in the field, alongside the crucial talks on teenage pregnancy, mitigating the potential high number of school drops outs expected especially among young girls due to the lock down and SGBV two of the effects of the lockdown which were running rampant in the communities.
We at TeamUp Uganda must say that all this was only possible with the partnerships that occurred between the foundation bodies in Germany headed by the BMZ, the local implementing partners here in Uganda, the youth who buckled down and did the work, the Local Government in Mityana that supported program, and the field teams on the ground, work before and throughout the pandemic. And because of this, TeamUp Uganda would therefore like to say thank to the German Public and happy German Day today.
Program is Financed by;
Written by: Monica Basemera. monica.basemera@a4huganda.org
