An outbreak of the Ebola virus, which has claimed the lives of at least 16 people in Uganda since late July, now appears to be under control, according to the World Health Organisation.
The epicentre of the outbreak is in Kibaale district, with more than 230 suspected cases being identified and monitored by the Ministry of Health. Although the bulk of these cases are in Kibaale and surrounding districts, a few are reported in three districts where ChildFund has operations: Kiboga, Amuria and Kampala. To date, there are no Ebola cases involving children and families in ChildFund’s program areas.
ChildFund Uganda, which has been monitoring the situation since the onset, mounted a response plan in Kiboga, which is closest to the epicentre. All other ChildFund programs are on alert, with preparedness plans in place, should the situation change.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a deadly disease caused by the Ebola virus first identified in Africa in the mid-1970s. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the incubation period for Ebola ranges from 2 to 21 days. The onset of illness is abrupt and is characterised by fever, headache, joint and muscle aches, sore throat and weakness, followed by diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach pain. A rash, red eyes, hiccups and internal and external bleeding may be seen in some patients. Up to 90 per cent of people who are infected with Ebola die from it, according to the National Institutes of Health.
ChildFund is collaborating with Uganda’s Ministry of Health in all of its preparedness and response activities that include:
- Launching a sensitisation campaign via radio talk shows and spot messages to help educate children and families in the affected districts on safe health practices.
- Working with the district health teams to develop a preparedness and response plan.
- Attending and participating in all district-level task force meetings.
- Contributing to the procurement of some protective gear and disinfection agents (eg gloves, disinfectants and face masks for village health teams).
Since the first cases were reported, Uganda’s Ministry of Health has helped the Kiboga district set up a surveillance and response team to quickly identify and isolate cases of the disease. The Ministry of Health is also providing continuous medical education sessions on Ebola for the Kiboga hospital staff.
Although the outbreak appears to be now traced to its source and contained, ChildFund Uganda remains on alert.
The Stop Kony campaign has garnered worldwide attention over the past week. If you haven’t already watched the video, you can do so at the end of this post.
Uganda is once again in the news, and the focus is on children. Overall, that’s a good thing. There can never be enough attention heaped on this nation’s children, who endured 20 years of civil war from the 1980s to the mid-2000s. Yet, it’s important to distinguish between the Uganda of the early years of this century and the Uganda of today.
It is estimated that as many as 26,000 children in northern and eastern Uganda were abducted, raped and forced into servitude and military combat during the war. During the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) crisis, ChildFund responded with programs in some of the worst-affected districts of Pader, Gulu, Lira and Soroti in northern Uganda. We provided child protection and psychosocial support to thousands of children in the large camps of internally displaced people (IDPs).
Joseph Kony, who led the LRA, fled the country. Widely believed to now be in hiding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kony remains a wanted man for the terrible atrocities committed on Uganda’s people and its children. And he continues to exploit children who come into his reach in central Africa.
“In the early years following the crisis, ChildFund Uganda focused on reintegrating formerly abducted children with their families and communities, as well as promoting the protection and psychosocial wellbeing of many other children who were not abducted but still were affected by the crisis,” says Martin Hayes, child protection specialist at ChildFund International. “By 2006, the northern Ugandan city of Gulu no longer had Ônight commuters’Ñ children on the run from the LRA abductors and who were afraid to sleep in their own rural homes. Today, Gulu is a bustling town.”
The last 10 years have also seen the return of tens of thousands of the IDPs from camps back to their homes and a gradual return to normalcy. “ChildFund’s work has shifted to helping the Ugandan people get on with their lives,” Hayes says. “We’re working with our community partners to promote children and youth’s protection and healthy development – tangible support that is making their lives better.”
Since 1980, ChildFund has worked with community-based partners across Uganda to support the needs of children. ChildFund’s programs currently benefit approximately 784,000 children and family members through the establishment of Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and parental outreach programs, school construction and teacher training, youth leadership and job training. “We also have been working with communities and families to support the needs of children affected by HIV/AIDS, which is a tremendous problem in Uganda,” Hayes notes.
“Child protection is at the forefront of all of our programs,” says Hayes. “ChildFund is working closely in partnership with the Ugandan government, the national university, international and national organisations and community residents to collectively improve the protective environments for children. Together, our goal is to strengthen Uganda’s national child protection system.”
