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http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/news-views/international/stopping-africas-biggest-killer/ (Nov 2007)
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=780596&k=uganda (Oct 2007)
Healthy Child Uganda Presented with Two Awards
The last few weeks have been very exciting for the Healthy Child Uganda project! The project has recently been presented with both national and international awards!
On June 25, 2008, Healthy Child Uganda was presented with the second place award in the National Civil Society Capacity Building Programme, Best Practice Competition. Project Director, Dr. Kabakyenga was very pleased to be presented with a plaque and a cash award, which will be used to support community activities.
On July 15, 2008, Doreen Akello, a representative of Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), travelled to Durban, South Africa to attend the The Association of Commonwealth Universities, global conference of the PR, Marketing and Communications Network. At the conference, Mrs. Akello accepted the first place award, on behalf of Healthy Child Uganda in the category of Outreach and Community Relations. As part of the award, Doreen received a bursary to help cover conference and accomodation costs in Durban.
Congratulations to the Healthy Child Uganda team and MUST for their hard work, which has been recognized with these two prestigious awards!
Bed nets Update, June 2008
As of June 2008 HCU has distributed over 12,000 bed nets to pregnant mothers and children under five. The few remaining nets will be used to net beds in HCU area health centres and for children over five years who are at risk due to chronic illness, malnutrition, disability or are orphaned. Any remaining nets from this initiative will be given to newly pregnant mothers and families who were unable to attend a net distribution event.
None of this would have been possible without the generous donation of nets from BUY-A-NET Malaria Prevention group and private donors who responded to HCU's holiday net-raiser campaign. HCU will continue to monitor net use in the year to come.
Research shows that in children under five who sleep under insecticide treated nets, child mortality rates are lower by 17%!
Bed nets: Hang a Net, Save a Life
In 2007, HCU fundraised enough to purchase 836 mosquito bed nets for children and pregnant mothers. Thanks so much to those who donated as a part of our holiday net campaign! So far, Ugandan staff, CORPs and volunteers have distributed nets to three parishes. These net distribution days are no small feat! In each parish there are two to three distribution locations. This is necessary because our parishes are often spread out over large areas. At every distribution day parents walk many kilometres to reach the central point that our CORPs have chosen as the distriubtion spot. Most of the villagers are mothers toting several small children! The parents battle the hot sun and dust or if they are unlucky a torrential downpour and muddy roads before they reach the distribution event. Once there, they will find that hundreds of other familes from local villages already have gathered. Each distribution event starts with an introduction and welcome from the local councillor and Healthy Child Uganda. The CORPs then reward those who made the trip with entertaining puppet shows, drama and songs that teach about malaria prevention and how to seek treatment at the local health centre when a child does become
CORPs drama: Don't delay, when your child has Malaria take him to the health centre right away!
Never to loose a good opportunity, the HCU team assembles Health workers who bring with them immunizations for deadly diseases such as Measles. They also bring vitamin A drops and de-worming pills. Healthy Child Uganda has brought scales and growth charts and enough Health Cards that no child will leave without one. These health cards are used to monitor growth and record immunizations received. Many children do not have them and sometimes health centres run out so HCU went to the District Health Services to procure a ready supply.
MUST medical student filling in a Child Health Card
Weighing Station
New arrivals are directed to the weighing station where their infants and young children are checked to make sure they are growing properly. Parents with children who are malnourished or sick are given advice by health workers and CORPs.
Richard, a health centre HCU trainer giving an immunization
Once through the weighing station parents are directed to the immunization station. Some children have recently been immunized at recent child health days so this is an optional step. However, there are always some parents with children who are three, four and even five years of age who have never been immunized. This is when the multiple advantages of bed net distribution are apparent. The incentive of receiving a free net has brought out parents who in the past have never gone to the health centre and have never brought their children to a child health day. Once there, very few parents pass up the opportunity to get the needed vaccines, vitamins and de-worming pills. 
Next step is the bed net distribution station which is organized by villages. The parent proceeds through the line and signs a register that he or she has already filled in during the previous weeks.
These registers are necessary in order to estimate how many bed nets are needed, who receives them and who has been trained in proper bed net use and malaria prevention.
The volunteers ask the parent a couple of questions to make sure they have indeed been trained and then direct the parent to the final stage-receiving their net! The person distributing the net gives a final short reminder of how to put up the net before relinquishing the life saving device.
For those who have brought food, a snack is in order or maybe a little socializing before commencing their long walk back home where there is work to be done. Dinner must be prepared, firewood and water collected, clothes to hand wash and animals to care for. It was a long process, but it was worth it as their child now has a much better chance of survival.
Before leaving many villagers opt to sign a thank you card to generous Canadian donors. Those who can't write mark the card with their finger dipped in ink. This is Ugandan tradition.
Buy-A-Net Malaria Prevention Group has generously provided us with more than 12,000 nets, to distribute to our communities. Without this donation and contributions from private donors, HCU would not have been able to undertake this important initiative. Malaria causes one third of all under five deaths in Uganda. Nets save lives the night they are hung!