Disability Organisations in Uganda
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DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA A Directory of National And District Organisations of and for Persons With Disabilities Compiled by UGANDA SOCIETY FOR DISABLED CHILDREN A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 3 A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA A Directory of National And District Organisations of and for Persons With Disabilities Compiled by: Uganda Society for Disabled Children 3 DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Produced with support of Terre dses Hormes East Africa, Bread for the World - German, Able Child Africa - UK, A Publicity by the Disability Network Project, National Council for Children, Uganda Society for Disabled Children, Sign Health Uganda, National Unit for Disabled Persons in Uganda, Katalemwa Cheshire Homes, Kampala School for the Physically Handcaped and KCCC Probation Welfare Office. i A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Forward he mission of Uganda Society for Disabled Children is …….One of the ways we intend to fulfil this mission is to reach children with disabilities in Uganda with Tservices that will help them reach their full potential. We will reach some of these children through the services USDC initiates and supports in our target districts of Luwero, Masaka, Kampala, Jinja, Soroti, Hoima, Masindi, Arua, Nebbi, Adjumani, Moyo, Lira and we will reach others through the services of this directory. Children cannot be separated from their parents and caretakers who are our main partners and through whom we reach the disabled children. We found that family members, especially parents are committed and willing to do all that is possible within their means to help their children with disabilities. Most of the time they do not know where to go for services. Even if they do reach a services that is close to them, the service providers may not only be unable to help but may also not know where the child could be refered to for assistance. It was with this in mind that USDC developed the directory of disability organisations and services in Uganda. The directory will help PWDs, their families, various service providers and development partners identify the closest service to them and the various options that can be explored. The first chapter of the directory provides an overview of disabilty in Uganda, factors that limit participation of PWDs, what can be done and possible sources of services. The next chapters are a compilation of addresses of organisations of persons with disabilities and of service providers. They have been listed by district to ease the search. This directory, the first of its kind in Uganda will be updated annually. A form is available at the back of the directory for those who wish for their organisation to be included in the next issue. Please use the directory and let us know how it has been useful and any challenges that you may have found while using it. Susan Kisitu Executive Director Uganda Society for Disabled Children (USDC) www.usdc.org.ug Tel: Email Address i DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ii iii DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TABLE OF CONTENTS How to use this Directory Chapter 1: Disability and Development in Uganda ............................... 1 Chapter 2: Directory by District .......................................................... 13 Chapter 3: Directory by Disability .................................................... 135 Chapter 4: Directory for Children’s Services .................................... 225 Chapter 5: Directory for Women’s Organisations ........................... 255 ii iii DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA How to use this Directory he Directory of services for persons with disabilities in Uganda is designed to guide society on what services are available for physical, social, educational, rehabilitation Tand development of persons with disabilities in Uganda. It is therefore designed for easy use by all people who may need the services. It is arranged to address the needs of different categories of society considering mainly the aspects below: Background Information on Disability in Uganda: Chapter 1 describes the prevalence of disability, challenges faced by people with disabilities and possible ways these challenges could be overcome. Services by District: Chapter 2 endeavors to provide all disability development and rehabilitation services in each district as of 2009. Districts are arranged alphabetically. Services By Disability: You may want to know the organizations and rehabilitation services for different categories of disability. Chapter 3 provides lists of: • Organisations for all disabilities, • Organisations for the deaf and hard of hearing, • Organisations for the blind and low vision, • Organisations for mental illness and learning disabilities, • Organisations specific to Epilepsy, • Organisations specific to physical or mobility disabilities and the • Organisations for the deaf blind. Services and organisations for Children and for women are specified in Chapters 4 and 5 respectively. There are lists of branches, contacts or services that have been included next to their head organizations for ease of identification. These include NUDIPU district Unions, physiotherapy services, Vocational training institutions and Special Needs Educational schools. A soft copy of this Directory is available on CD. iv DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES Chapter 1 Disability and Development in Uganda 1.0 Overview of Uganda 1.1 Uganda is a tropical country with one third of its mass covered by water. 241,139 sq km of which is 43,938 sq km (17%) are swamps and water. The population is estimated at 31 million (UBOS 2008) with a growth rate of 3.6 per annum. The literacy rate is 61% female and 76%male. Fifty five% is composed of children under the age of 18 years. Uganda is among the HIPC and has a GDP of $420 with a gini –coefficient of 0.581. The maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate are at 435/100,000 and 75/1000 live births respectively. 1.2 The culture, economic and political development of Uganda has had significant influence on disability and access to services by persons with disabilities. Uganda became independent in 1962 and experienced rapid economic growth during the first two decades based on coffee, cotton, copper and tourism. This growth was interrupted by a series of conflicts that have directly and indirectly impacted on disability through war related injuries and breakdown of health services. 2.0 Brief History of disability movement in Uganda 2.1 Persons with disabilities have traditionally lived with their families. During the 50s and early 60s institutions were introduced based on the charity approach and in the case of physical disability, in response to the global polio epidemic. The most prominent of these was for the blind, for persons with polio and those with leprosy. Uganda Foundation for the Blind (UFB) was founded in 1952 and enacted 1954. Extremely few PWDs accessed these institutions and those who did tended to live permanently in them. 2.2 In the late 70s PWDs started to come together to form single and multi- disability groups such as the Invalid Salvation Stream (ISS) in 1976. Disability organisations met in 1987and founded the National Union of Persons with Disabilities in Uganda (NUDIPU), a national umbrella organisation for disabled peoples’ organisations. NUDIPU currently has 5 uni- disability member organisations, 56 district unions and 3 associate members. It has been providing the election framework for election of PWDs at district and parliament level. 2.3 One of the early strategies of NUDIPU that was of very great leverage to the disability movement was the successful lobby for inclusion of PWDs in the constitution assembly (1992) and constituent assembly (1994/95). PWDs joined voices with women and other marginalized groups, and successfully advocated for affirmative action of women and PWDs. A prominent outcome of this was the representation of PWDs in parliament and consequently in all local councils from village to district level. iv 1 DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS IN UGANDA A DIRECTORY OF NATIONAL AND DISTRICT ORGANISATIONS OF AND FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES 2.4 The self-representation of PWDs has greatly affected the legal arena in Uganda. Several laws and by –laws have been enacted at parliament and local (district) levels respectively. These are discussed in section 5.1 2.5 Parallel to the development of the disability movement was the formation of organisations for disabilities. An example of this is Uganda Society for Disabled Children which was formed in 1985 with the aim of supporting rehabilitation of children with disabilities and facilitating their inclusion in families, communities and schools. An important strength of the disability work in Uganda is the corporation between organisationof and organisations for persons with disabilities. 3.0 The profile of disability in Uganda 3.1 According to the 2002 census PWDs are 4.2% of the population. The 2005 Uganda National Household Survey found 7% and the Uganda Demographic Health Survey