Kyosiga Community Christian Association for Development (KACCAD) is currently operating a clinic and a drug store at Lusaze in Rubaga Division, Kampala district. The organization, in partnership with Johnny Thronsson and Sofia Graflund Tronsson of Sweden, intends to establish and sustainably operate a maternity facility which can be readily accessed by and which will be providing free maternity services to the underprivileged women in the program area. This facility will initially be a rented housing structure which will be partitioned and relevant fittings made to tailor it to the needs of the project. Later on, if and when resources become available, the organization will procure land and construct the facility there.
KACCAD bought the clinic and the drug store in order to operate them for three years with donor support, after which they will be expected to be able to sustainably finance the maternity center. This maternity facility will be providing free medical services and only to the underprivileged persons.
Kyosiga Community Christian Association for Development is a registered Non Governmental Organization operating various programs in Wakiso district for purposes of causing socio-economic development in the area. Its vision is to ensure that vulnerable communities in Wakiso District are empowered and self-sufficient with their health, education and income generation needs met. Its mission is to raise the standard of living of underprivileged people in Wakiso District through the provision of HIV/AIDS interventions, education support, vocational skills development and start-up resources for income generation.
To date the organization has accomplished a number of initiatives in its area of operation and these have caused considerable socio-economic advancement to the target communities. The strategic focus on this particular initiative of a maternity facility for the underprivileged women is a concern which has been realized during the implementation of the organization’s various activities.
Rationale of the project
KACCAD runs a health services delivery support program whose strategic objective is to increase access to quality health services by communities, especially the underprivileged persons. The available public health facilities in the program area lack adequate resources to cater for all people. This in most cases leaves the public with the option of visiting privately owned and operated health facilities in order to access and obtain the required health services. Among the public there are many underprivileged people who don’t have the capacity to pay for their medical treatment elsewhere in private health facilities. Also, the target area is a typical slum where sexual and reproductive health and more specifically the maternal health care are minimal.
The working solution to this type of challenge then is to have in place a modern maternity facility that is readily accessible by the underprivileged women. This maternity will be financed by the income generated from the clinic and the drug store. In essence this means that financially able clients will be accessing clinical and drugstore services at reasonable fees and the accruing profits will then be used to finance health services offered to the underprivileged people at the maternity center.
Overall objective
The overall aim of the project is to improve accessibility to quality maternal health care services by the underprivileged people in the program area
Specific objectives
- To establish a maternity facility in the target area
- To increase access to quality maternal health care services by the underprivileged people
- To increase access to quality medicine by the underprivileged people
- To sustainably operate the health facility to the benefit of underprivileged people in the target area
Services to be offered
The organization will continue providing the usual clinical and drug store services to the public. These include among others the treatment against various illnesses and the sale of drugs. However the establishment of the intended maternity facility will enable the organization to provide the following services:
- Reproductive health education
- Maternal and children immunization
- Handling child deliveries
- Treatment against various antenatal and post natal illnesses
- Referrals to hospitals for emergency obstetric care and other emergency related cases
Target groups and how to determine them
The project is targeting the underprivileged people who therefore are deemed incapable of paying for their medical treatment needs. These people include the following among others:
- PHAs in their terminal stages of illness (and therefore no longer economically active to obtain income)
- Pregnant girls belonging to households upon which they are the heads, or where the household head is incapacitated or a terminally sick PHA or highly disabled or with any other condition that makes him or her to be unable to pay for medical treatment
- OVCs of child headed families/households
- Highly disabled persons of single-member families
- The elderly persons who by careful investigation are found to be economically inactive
- Widows whose spouses left them helpless without any supportive income generating initiative
Those underprivileged people will be determined by making careful appraisals during home visits we make when conducting our program activities. Also, because we work among these communities we have a long term follow up system upon our clients in which case we are able to determine those people who are in most need and are unable to pay for their health services. Furthermore, we run an orphanage and we sponsor OVCs to acquire quality education. In this way we are able to objectively identify who needs what and we act appropriately. The determining factor in this case will be the ‘inability to pay for one’s medical treatment’ and we consider issues which make someone incapable of paying money for the treatment.
Sustainability strategies
The sustainability of the project will arise out of the following strategies among other things:
a) The income generated from fees collected from the paying clients will be used to finance project operations and some portion to be used in procuring medicine used upon the underprivileged people. In this case the fees of the services will be determined in such a way that for every paying client four (4) underprivileged persons are able to access similar health care services.
b) The project’s initiative of building strong partnerships will enable it to run sustainably because some of the expenses involved in service provision will be covered by the partners. Potential partners in this case include the following among others:
- Sexual and Reproductive Health Uganda Chapter (for provision of sexual and reproductive health education to target clients)
- Rotary Club of Kampala (for maternity and medicine support to the organization)
- Private companies (for various forms of support as a way of fulfilling their corporate social responsibility to the public especially the most underprivileged people)
- The Government, through its various structures (for facilitating mobilization exercises, community involvement in project activities like immunizations and general health education)
- Non Governmental Organizations working on health improvement programs (for provision of health program support to the organization-in form of capacity building, volunteering, material support, financial support or otherwise as may be deemed appropriate)
Expected results
The following are the expected results from implementing the project:
- Increased access to quality maternal health care by the underprivileged people especially the mothers
- Reduced maternal and child morbidity rates
- Reduced maternal and child mortality rates
- Increased impact and health benefits of the KACCAD’s health services delivery program among the target communities
- Strengthened partnerships and networking between KACCAD and its development partners
Projected outputs
The following are the projected outputs expected to arise out of implementing the proposed project:
- At least each underprivileged pregnant woman (whether already a mother or a starter) that visits the maternity facility is able to access required health care services and on delivering a baby, to obtain a Mama Kit free of charge
- For every three paying clients at least one underprivileged person is able to receive free health care services financed by profits accruing from fees collected from the paying clients
- At least 60% of the available maternity health care resources are being committed to addressing maternal health concerns of the underprivileged mothers
- At least 4 immunization exercises being carried out annually at the maternity facility premises
- At least 8 maternal and child health care sensitization sessions conducted annually at the maternity facility premises
Resource Center Completion
This project aims at completing the Resource Center so that KACCAD itself can use it for its capacity building interventions and other program aspects. Also, when completed, this facility will have 8 self contained rooms which will be rented out to willing clients in order to generate income from rental fees. Furthermore, the facility will be hired out to willing clients to hold capacity building and other legal functions in order to generate income for the organization. Therefore, any support rendered towards the completion of this facility is highly welcome.
