Spotlight on Africa
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Mission Statement
Harpenden Spotlight on Africa (HSOA) is a development charity currently working in the urban and rural slums in Eastern Uganda. It is a local charity founded in the town of Harpenden, UK. We provide access to basic services that many of us take for granted - EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE, CLEAN WATER AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. We believe that a sustainable impact can only be achieved by integrating these four key areas. We only fund initiatives that are identified and owned by the ultimate beneficiaries. We do not duplicate aid efforts with government or other NGOs in the area: we collaborate, not complete. We are run ENTIRELY BY VOLUNTEERS in the UK. This means that over 95% of all donations go to our projects in Uganda.
About This Cause
WHO WE ARE Harpenden Spotlight on Africa (HSOA) is a non-denominational charity with very low overheads. Since September 2013 it has been run entirely by volunteers in the UK. We work through a fully accredited NGO in Uganda, Spotlight on Africa - Uganda Foundation (SOA-UF), which has strong delivery capabilities in the Mbale area. They manage the projects that HSOA funds. WHERE WE WORK Uganda is one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita GDP at purchasing power parity in the bottom 15% of countries on both the World Bank and IMF lists. Within Uganda there are considerable variations in income levels; we work in the Mbale district, in Eastern Uganda. Our primary focus is on Bukasakya subcounty to the south of Mbale. The sub-county is 20 sq kms, with a population of 30,000 – 53% women, 47% men; over half the population is under the age of 17. Only 43% of households are dependent on subsistence farming (national average 64%) partly because population density is high in the area (1,491 persons per square km of land vs an average of 943 in Mbale District) and farming land is scarce. HSOA’s activities are focused on these villages, which includes many people displaced from their homes in northern Uganda by decades of conflict. Not only are these people impoverished by losing their land and their livelihoods, but the basic infrastructure we take for granted - education, health care, and clean water - is largely absent. Because of the influx of displaced people, the local authorities responsible for education, health provision and water supply have found their budgets overstretched. Meanwhile the needs of people for education, health and economic empowerment continue and this is where HSOA makes an impact. OUR PHILOSOPHY We believe in empowering local people to improve their own and their neighbours’ lives, and we seek to help the whole community regardless of ethnicity, religion, or gender through programmes of integrated development. We also believe strongly in putting the funding of the sustainability of completed projects as a first priority, before embarking on new projects. We work closely with local officials in the Mbale District, and look for partnerships to work with wherever possible in order to benefit the people of the community HSOA’s resources can best be utilised by focusing on inter-related projects in a small number of very deprived villages in close proximity to each other, ensuring that each project is able to enhance and support the others, and allowing the local management team at SOA-UF to maximise the potential benefits offered by their capabilities and the financial resources available. WHAT WE DO Through SOA-UF, we seek to improve the lives of families in these impoverished communities in four ways: • providing access to education • improving healthcare by facilitating the training of volunteer Community Health Promoters to bring basic health and hygiene knowledge into their communities; and constructing a health clinic • funding and organising the drilling and maintenance of boreholes to provide clean water • establishing economic development projects to improve the income of those most in need. These four aspects combine to form a holistic strategy to deliver real change in people’s lives. EDUCATION HSOA began its life in late 2006 by supporting a small primary school with around 60 pupils in the slum village of Musoto, near Mbale. We then agreed to build new nursery and primary school buildings on a plot of land purchased by HSOA, and in the process the SOA Uganda team came together. The school now educates nearly 1300 children, who previously had limited educational opportunity. The school is run by a Management Committee with elected representatives from Musoto village in partnership with local government and SOA-UF nominees. HEALTHCARE The areas in which we work suffer from considerable excess morbidity and mortality from diseases related to the absence of clean water, poor hygiene and lack of access to basic health care. Leading causes of death and serious illness include cholera, dysentery and malaria, as well as HIV/AIDS. There is no meaningful primary health care provision in the villages in which HSOA works. HSOA pays for training courses for over 250 Community Health Promoters (CHPs) developed by the Ugandan Ministry of Health. CHPs are also referred to as Village Health Teams). The program focuses on domestic hygiene and elementary health care, enabling volunteers to educate their neighbours about disease prevention and to be a first point of contact for sick people, who can then be referred to a health centre in a neighbouring sub-county or the hospital in Mbale if necessary. \Working with local government and the Mbale District Health Officer SOA-UF intends to build a level III clinic to provide primary health care to this deprived community. It will act as a hub for the CHPs and deliver antenatal care, simple birthing facilities, sexual health provision including HIV/AIDS treatment and awareness, and disease prevention and management for the common preventable tropical diseases. In addition, community health research into common health conditions will be conducted. It is hoped this clinic will start in 2017. CLEAN WATER The typical sources of water in these communities have been shallow and polluted wells. Water supplies from these wells are unreliable and unhealthy, with human and animal faeces running into them and insect and microbial pests multiplying. Through SOA-UF and Jenga Community Development Outreach we have delivered over 25 boreholes and water points and raised the standard of other existing wells and natural springs to a safe level. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The local economy is hampered by the loss of many of the younger adults to conflict and disease, especially cholera, malaria, diarrhoea and HIV/Aids, leaving many families headed by widows, grandparents or the children themselves. The main sources of income in the villages are subsistence agriculture and illicit ’waragi’ distillation. Waragi is a spirit that can be distilled from millet, corn, bananas or pineapples using oil drums heated over open fires.Our economic development activities aim to increase output from subsistence farming to improve nutrition and if possible generate modest cash incomes, the first step in the process of reducing dependency on waragi distillation. Our first of these projects was a goat-breeding scheme, in which nanny goats are distributed to families in need, and then bred from using a stud billy goat brought in from outside the area to broaden the genetic mix. Other projects in this category include tilapia fish farming, improving agricultural yields using “push-pull” techniques, and micro savings schemes. In 2014 we joined forces with Rothamsted Research, one of the longest-established crop research establishments in the world, and ICIPE, (Internal Centre for Insect and Pest Ecology) - a Kenyan scientific research institution - to bring “push-pull” agricultural techniques to the Mbale area. These techniques involve companion planting of desmodium, a legume, between rows of maize, sorghum or millet, to repel stem-boring beetles (“push”) and control striga weed, and Napier or other grasses around the plots to attract the beetles (‘pull”). There has been huge interest in this methodology, which can materially increase crop yields. ICIPE have trained over 2,000 farmers have been trained in the area. We also are encouraging and supporting vocational programmes such as carpentry, garment making and craftwork and village savings schemes. FUTURE PLANS HSOA has a prioritised plan for a large number of projects in place covering all its major areas of activity in Uganda, with a heightened focus on health and economic development. Given the breadth of our integrated approach, more funds are required for essential sustainability of programmes which restrains the capability for undertaking new projects. We will continue to work closely with the local authorities to ensure that our projects do not duplicate or undermine their work or that of other NGOs operating in the area where possible. Our plans in the medium term are: • A continuing reduction in financial dependency by the primary school in Musoto as the School Management Committee secure more fee paying children, and as revenue earning opportunities increase. Economic development schemes will also provide funds • As the school has grown to its current level of nearly 1300 there are urgent needs to renew and/or extend some of the infrastructure • The construction of a clinic near Musoto which is underway. It is a public - private partnership with the government. The clinic will be established in phases. Phase 1 will be completed during 2017 and will provide basic care and immunisation to the local people. It will be integrated with our Community Health Promoters program and the site will serve as a focal point for the CHPs completing Stage 3 training, bringing basic primary health care to Musoto and surrounding villages • Extending the planting of fruit trees at Musoto and also on the Namatala land • Continuing the development of economic empowerment programmes leveraging expertise from the UK team where we can and establishing viable “businesses” • Setting up a volunteer programme from the UK Longer term our ambitions include: • The construction of a secondary school in Namatala • The gradual extension of the Clinic, maybe with mobile facilities also • The establishment of new economic development programmes • The exploitation of solar power in kitchens and rain water harvesting These are ambitious plans for what has been up until now a small, community-based charity run entirely by UK volunteers, and our ability to deliver them is highly dependent on successful fund raising. We have a strong profile in the town of Harpenden and the surrounding area and have made good progress in attracting funding from donor trusts and other funding bodies where we meet the criteria.