THE WATSAN EYE

Is an email newsletter produced by UWASNET to share highlights and the contribution of CSOs in the Water and Sanitation sub-sector.

April 28th—May 8th, 2020 Volume 1, Issue 5

Editorial This is the 2nd Issue of The Amref Health Africa Covid-19 WATSAN Eye newsletter focusing on the contribution of WASH interventions at CSOs to the national Covid-19 response in . grass-root level In this issue, a total of fifteen (15) member organizations’ share their contribution to the national Covid-19 response plan. In the 1st Issue, thirteen (13) member organizations’ work was profiled and shared with partners. Since the confirmation of the first cases of Covid-19 in Ugan- da in early March 2020, the Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Health has and still is spearheading the Covid-19 national response. A number of partners including Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are contributing to the national response. We share Alex Ayok, a Health Assistant at Okungyedi Health Centre II in showing their contribution as part of residents how to use the tippy tap to frequently wash their hands with soap as a preventive reporting, and facilitating measure against Covid-19. Photo provided by Amref Health Africa UWASNET members’ visibil- ity, accountability and transpar- Amref Health Africa is supporting In , Amref Health ency to the mother sector— Ministry of Health in curbing Covid- Africa trained 136 VHTs and Ministry of Water and Environ- 19 in Uganda through the following provided hand washing facilities, ment. This newsletter also WASH interventions; soap and disinfectants to facilitate presents opportunities to learn hand washing with soap and water. from other CSOs and inform Amref Health Africa has provided Personal Protective Equipment Arua district is a porous border town your organizations' with a total of 120,000 refugees. development programs. (PPEs) to health workers in Arua district. It also trained the health Amref Health Africa partnered with If you want your work profiled workers on how protect themselves Arua and Amuru district leaders and in this newsletter, email a one- against Covid-19 infection. media to provide health messages pager & pictures to the Editor– At grass-root level, Amref Health that will enable communities Rehema Aanyu via Africa trained Village Health Teams understand what Covid-19 is and [email protected] by May (VHTs) in all its project areas. how they can protect themselves 8th, 2020. against infection. Continued on Pg. 2 THE WATSAN EYE Page 2

Amref Health Africa Covid-19 WASH interventions at grass-root level continued from Pg.1

Amref Health Africa provided connection to safe water Atiak Health Center, a selected isolation facility for Covid-19 patients. A total of other eight (08) health facilities in Amuru district were supported by Amref Health Africa with safe water connection to facilitate hand washing with soap. Additionally, Amref Health Africa also provides actual supplies to these health facilities including soap and disinfectants. In addition, Amref Health Africa supports community awareness on Covid-19 through radio. Amref Health Africa is supporting Covid-19 response in Kabarole, Bunyangabu and in all the 09 districts in Lango region. Amref Health Africa continues to support Ministry of Health by providing advise at district Covid-19 task- force meetings at both national and district level. A woman washing her hands before Amref Health Africa is a member of the national accessing the market. Phot provided by Partners Taskforce Response to Covid-19 and uses this Amref Health Africa platform to inform the national strategy on Covid-19 response in Uganda.

A health assistant ensures that patients wash their hands with soap and water. Photo by Amref

A VHT supervising hand washing at a boarder point in Arua. Photo provided by Amref Health Africa THE WATSAN EYE Page 3 Katosi Women Development Trust (KWDT)’s interventions on Covid-19

Katosi Women Development Trust two decades. It (KWDT) works with rural fisher has encouraged communities in . It all the water works through established women’s user commit- groups and supports their economic tees to ensure empowerment, improvement of that all com- health through increasing their munity mem- access to clean safe water, improved bers can access standards of sanitation and hygiene. clean water at all times re- Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated gardless of the the vulnerability of disadvantaged monthly user rural fisher communities. fee payments. KWDT response includes; KWDT has emphasized Awareness creation on Covid-19: that commit- KWDT translated a guide shared by A community member using a loud speaker arche noVa (partner), to disseminate tees ensure wa- to disseminate preventive messages on Covid- ter sources re- information against the spread of main functional at this 19. Photo provided by KWDT Covid-19. The water user commit- ties: critical time. tees, toilet committees, waste man- Alt- hough farming has continued under agement committees, and WASH Promotion of good hygiene the lockdown, fishing and fishing committees in the groups are chan- practices in fisher communities: related activities were suspended. nels through which KWDT is KWDT established permanent hand Fisher communities depend on fish disseminating information on Covid washing stations in 8 landing sites for income and food, with fishing -19. KWDT is also ensuring that the at toilet facilities and promoted suspended hunger is widespread, guidelines and directives passed by construction of hand washing facili- many women are requesting the Ministry of Health and the ties at household in 8 communities. President of Uganda are observed. KWDT to intervene with food KWDT also supports income gen- relief. Community radios present, in each eration in communities fo- of the 11 landing sites have been cusing on enterprises that are engaged to disseminate information responsive to Covid-19 like on Covid-19. soap production. KWDT observed social distancing KWDT had trained 250 wom- and handwashing with soap for all en in 10 women’s groups in training participants a day before soap production. Additional- the lockdown. In response, ly, 2 of the 11 new WASH restaurants in the trained landing committees had completed sites, established hand washing their training on local soap facilities for their clients as production so as to increase mobilized by the Local Council access to soap especially with (LC) Chairman. the outbreak of Covid-19. Increased access to clean water to KWDT has continued to sup- port 12 groups in production promote easy hand washing: Women learning to make soap. KWDT constructed 132 water of soap during this pandemic. points benefiting over 39,718 in the Hunger in fishing communi- Photo provided by KWDT THE WATSAN EYE Page 4

Link to Progress’ efforts to fight Covid-19 Link to Progress’ (LTP) efforts to- wards curbing Covid-19 include the following; Conducted radio talk-shows LTP conducted radio talk shows with leaders and fo- cused on what Covid-19 is, how it is spread, bad practices by the commu- nities that can accelerate the spread of Covid-19, protective measures against Covid-19, and called on the community members to abide by the directives shared by Ministry of LTP representatives and district officials during radio talk-shows on Covid-19 Health and the President of Uganda. prevention Production and airing of spot mes- sages on radio. A spot massage in the local language with information on prevention of Covid-19 was produced and were aired for a month by a local radio stations. Production of Information, Educa- tion and Communication (IEC) materials. Stickers

Link to Progress developed stickers A picture of the sticker that was produced and disseminated with Covid-19 with messages on Covid-19 preven- preventive messages. Photo by LTP tion emphasizing the need for good hygiene practices like handwashing follow up on the water sources to Contribution to the with soap and ensuring good opera- ensure that they were functional. tion and maintenance of water task force sources. The stickers are being dis- LTP staff also conducted home visits In an effort to enhance the efforts of tributed to communities so that they to educate people on Covid-19. Oyam district task force in fighting follow the messages. Oyam district task force gave LTP against Covid-19, Link to Progress two stickers for a car and a motorcy- also contributed Ugx2,000,000 to the T-shirts procured cle carry on the work on engaging task force to be used by the district to T-shirts with massages on preven- community members on Covid-19 implement the activities of the task tion of Covid-19 were produced and while following the guidelines pro- force. disseminated. vided by Ministry of Health and the

presidential directives on Covid-19. LTP is a member of the Oyam district Covid-19 taskforce LTP will also rehabilitate 20 bore- holes and construct 25 new bore- As a member of the district task- holes with support from Charity force, LTP was permitted to contin- Water to ensure that communities ue to work in Oyam but with Covid- have access to adequate water for 19 information dissemination and to hand washing. THE WATSAN EYE Page 5

CIDI launches media campaign to fight Covid-19 As Uganda endeavors to curb the spread of Covid-19, it should be noted that this fight is generally surrounded by a great deal of widespread misinformation. With support from the Democrat- ic Governance Facility (DGF) and Danish People’s Aid (DPA), CIDI launched a media cam- paign to create public aware- ness and sensitization on Covid- 19. The media campaign aimed at giving the public effective, timely and factual information on staying safe and free. The media campaign also pro- vides a good platform to advocate to duty bearers mainly govern- ment and National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) Communal handwashing facility in Kasubi market: Regular handwashing with water to allocate more resources to and soap is the first line of defense in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo ensure access to clean and safe water during these hard times provided by CIDI and after. Local leaders were called upon to from CIDI. Focus of on radio programs liaise with CIDI and National Wa- The provision of safe water, sanita- Talk-shows on Radio One (Akaboozi ter and Sewerage Corporation tion and adequate hygiene (WASH) ku biri) and aired in Luganda (a (NWSC) to repair non-functional is essential to protecting human widely spoken local language) tar- water sources in their communities. health during all infectious disease geting the audience of people living In addition, a request was made to outbreaks. Government should in ’s informal (urban poor) NWSC not to disconnect any water therefore step in to provide the settlements. During the radio talk points but rather to ensure that all needed resources and put in place show, CIDI called upon communi- non-functional water sources are an overall enabling environment for ties to adhere to government repaired. improving access to WASH since it measures put in place measures to Government: make WASH sector helps to prevent human-to-human contain the spread of Covid-19 transmission of the Covid-19. through regular handwashing with your funding priority soap to reduce its spread. “As CIDI we are also using our me- The messages developed also in- cluded; “We also used the radio talk show dia campaign to call on the Uganda government and donor community to call upon Water User Committee “Stay safe, stay home, wash your hands to increase investment in WASH members to ensure the cleanliness regularly with water and soap.” of their water sources and also ad- sector. The World Health Organiza- here to the social distancing recom- tion has already revealed that hand- mendation of at least one meter washing with soap is the first line of defense in tackling the Covid-19 while collecting water,” said Rose Mwambazi from CIDI. pandemic,” said Helena Kasujja THE WATSAN EYE Page 6

Save the Children Apolou Response to

Covid-19 in Karamoja continued to Pg.7 Well as there are no Covid-19 fatali- ties recorded in Uganda since the pandemic was confirmed in March 2020, there is concern of what might happen in light of the weak health care systems, inadequate surveil- lance and lab capacity, scarcity of necessary human resources and limited financial means to address a global pandemic of this nature. In addition, Uganda is current- ly dealing with a number of com- plex challenges with populations that are especially vulnerable to disease and further economic uncertainty. The Government of Uganda contin- ues to implement national measures to limit the spread of the disease including banning public and pri- vate transport, no gatherings of more than five people, closure of non-food shops, curfew and physi- cal distancing, among others. Save the Children Response through Apolou Activity Hand pump mechanics open broken down water source While there have not been any cases during assessment of Kalukalet borehole in Kalukalet confirmed in the Karamoja sub village,pupu parish, Rupa sub county, region, the 310,000 community par- ticipants Apolou aims to reach are Photo provided by Save the Children als, fam- vulnerable individuals in vulnerable ilies and

households all at the risk of corona- commu- virus infection. Apolou activity nities plans to rollout Covid-19 prevention should adopt personally and com- Covid-19 Radio Spot: The Apolou activities within existing Apolou munally. The spot is also translated SBCC support to districts includes communities plus messaging at a in the local languages to make it development and broadcasting of population level. Proposed response applicable to the Karimojong com- the coronavirus prevention radio to Covid-19 Apolou Activity in- munity in the districts of Moroto, spot, adapted from the Ministry of cludes a package to help contain Kotido, Kaabong and Karenga as Health Covid-19 strategy and cam- and mitigate the impact of Covid-19 well as to the Pokot community in paign known as Tonsemberera (don’t within targeted vulnerable commu- . nities, adapted from current pro- come close), which primarily stress- Apolou will air the Pokot spot on gramming. The area of response for es the aspect of social distancing. Kalya Radio (broadcasting from Apolou includes: The spot outlines key Covid-19 pre- vention actions which individu- across the border in Kenya) THE WATSAN EYE Page 7 Save the Children Apolou Response to

Covid-19 in Karamoja continued from Pg.6 and the Ngakarimojong spot on Ateker Moroto FM, Voice of Karamoja and Radio Maria Moroto FM. Provision of critical WASH NFIs: Save the Children-Apolou procured 10,000 twenty litre jerry cans, 10,000 five litre jerry cans, 408 cartons of soap and 185 twenty litre handwashing stations for public places and institutions. The above WASH NFIs will support commu- nities observe proper handwashing practices and will also ensure that in public places such as health facili- ties, market places and public eating places observe handwashing in order to prevent infection spread Access to water: During the Truck delivers 5 litre handwashing facility, 20 litre jerry cans for safe water current Covid-19 crisis, water access storage and soap to Amudat district taskforce support community practice in communities is key to ensure handwashing during Covid-19 period . Photo by Save the Children communities practice proper hand- washing practice. In Moroto and rehabilitation. Through the Save the with Whave Solutions and the Amudat some communities are Children partnership, borehole District. through the above indeed water stressed and Save the rehabilitation will be expedited in activities, the rehabilitated water children has conducted assessment Amudat and Moroto Districts sources will provide 11,200 of 05 boreholes in Amudat and 05 through certified hand pump community members access to boreholes in Moroto earmarked for mechanics and in close consultation clean safe water. UEEF sending SMS to community members to wash their hands regularly with soap & water The Uganda Environmental teach communi- Ministry of Health in its guidelines Education Foundation (UEEF) ty members how and BCC messages on radio and started sending mobile SMS to construct / television and on flyers. messages to community groups they install and repair This was conducted on Nama sub- work with urging them to regularly tippy taps to county wash their hands with soap and facilitate hand water. washing with soap as directed In addition, the organization also by President of Uganda and facilitated its community groups to THE WATSAN EYE Page 8 Busoga Trust facilitating communities’ access to clean water Busoga Trust has responded to the fight against Covid-19 through provision of money, food items, WASH materials and raising awareness on local radio and television stations. Using these communication platforms, Busoga Trust re- emphasizes the messages communi- cated by Ministry of Health and the President of Uganda. Such messages promote hand washing with clean water and soap, promote the use of sanitizers to disinfect hands and contaminated surfaces. The messages also encourage social distancing, tracking, isolating and testing suspected people and lastly, treating the sick. Busoga Trust has focused on ensuring that; Hand Pump Mechanics repair a non-functional borehole in All water points constructed remain Photo by Busoga Trust functional. Busoga Trust facilitates the Hand Pump Mechanics and its staff to monitor the water points Buyende district to ensure and ensure that they are functional. communities have water The organization has also repaired to use during this period. and rehabilitated some non- So far 8 boreholes located functional water sources. in the sub counties of The institution has also provided Kidera, Buyende and hand washing facilities to every Kagulu have been water point repaired to ensure that repaired. whoever comes to collect water “Rusted Cylinders, GI washes hands with soap before pipes and rods were pumping removed and replaced Busoga Trust staff attend Buyende district Covid-19 The institution has also provided with new stainless parts taskforce meeting financial support of Ugx1,000,000 that are more durable and resistant to hard water, to the district Covid-19 task force as lack of proper local management which is common in this area. contribution towards fuel structures,” said Moses Mugabane, Most of these wells had been the Research and Development Busoga trust will repair twenty (20) dis-functional for over two years Officer at Busoga Trust. non-functional boreholes in due to high maintenance costs and THE WATSAN EYE Page 9 VAD distributes hand washing facilities In an effort to fight the Covid-19 information related to pandemic in Uganda, Voluntary hand washing at all times Action for Development (VAD) in and other dangers associ- partnership with Signpost Interna- ated with the Covid-19. tional has implemented a project The information was titled, Hand washing campaign to min- disseminated into local imize COVID19 in Uganda whose language and we were goal is to fight against Covid-19 in able to move to all sta- Central and North Eastern Uganda tions. and below are the achievements so iii. The team procured the far; Personal Protection i. Procured and distributed 20 Equipment (PPE) namely hand washing facilities (HWFs) face masks and gloves for each with 135 liters to 20 the staff and a few contact selected sites namely; Apeitolim people in the community. health center, Amaseniko health These PPEs helped to center, Apeitolim trading protect implement- center, Lomokori trading ers and they were also center, Oditel trading center, used for demonstration in Amaseniko trading center, the community for those Kotirai trading center, who can afford to buy Kaaingatuk trading center, them. Oditel Primary School, Amuria HWF installed at Amaseniko health center in iv. Facilitation of at least 3 Primary School, Agwara kuju enterprise groups; this Kapelebyong district. Photo by VAD Primary School, Amaseniko activity is still on a stand Primary School, Apeitolim still because we can not Primary School, Lomokori access the materials in the stores In conclusion, we can firmly say Primary School, Kotirai due to the lock down. By the that the project was to a larger Primary School, Nakakwa time the funds arrived the lock- extent successfully executed. Primary School, Kaaingatuk down was already effected. The RDC of Soroti, Amuria, Primary School, Narengekitoe However, we are set to move on CPS, Naberati CPS, St Noa Kapelebyong and Napak extended as soon as we get access be- their sincere gratitude to VAD & SI Mawaggali. Note that, from the cause the group members are initial plan of procuring 20liters for their support towards helping aware and are already mobi- each HWFs, we were advised their communities to overcome the lized. by the local leaders there that at Covid-19 pandemic. Major challenge encountered; least a big container serves the Similarly the communities that purpose better. The full package The abrupt total lock-down resulted received these HWFs were also of the HWFs comprised of a into delay in implementing project thrilled and they thanked the drum (135 liters) with a activities particularly in Wakiso. To organization. We therefore thank functioning tap, a stand, a basin successfully execute these WASH all people who have played a role in and liquid soap to be used. The activities you have to first secure executing this project including team managed to hire a bigger permission from the office of VAD staff, local leaders, communi- vehicle that safely transported Resident District Commissioner. ty, RDCs. the equipment to their For example; the service provider In a special way we thank Signpost respective destinations. for the stands could not move International for the financial forward until we secured permission ii. We were able to hire a public support. address system that was used to from RDC Soroti which was verbally disseminate granted hence work commenced. THE WATSAN EYE Page 10

Pamo Volunteers fighting stigma against Covid-19 in

Pamo Volunteers in Kumi district is information about Covid-19. communities where we work on responding to the fight against Minimizing stigma and misinfor- ‘Eating right’ and this can best be Covid-19 with focus on the follow- mation about COVID-19 is very done by beginning to plant home ing intervention areas; important. People with HIV have gardens. A vegetable garden brings experience in dealing with stigma peace of mind in two ways: It is  Minimizing stigma and misin- and are good allies in preventing calming work to tend vegetable formation about Covid-19 Covid-19 stigma. The preventive crops and the knowledge that some  The health and safety of our measures for COVID- 19 is social fresh food will be available at home rural communities. distancing and personal hygiene can go a long way toward (stringent hand-washing with soap). alleviating anxiety about the  Creating healthier lives and more resilient livelihoods This is very important to every one reliability of the food supply,” he through greater diversity in of us,” said J.M.S Omagori, the added. These activities are imple- what we grow and eat. Executive Director of Pamo mented in Aojamorok community Volunteers. in Mukongoro sub-county, Kumi “We have involved people living district. with HIV/ AIDS in disseminating “We have also sensitized the rural Kyempapu distributes food & soap vulnerable communities in

Kyempapu tried and is still trying to and we reached out to intervene in our communities in 150 most vulnerable different modules during the lock- households with children down. We tried to pioneer the cam- in the villages of paigns of washing hands, staying Kirinda, Nakuusi, Kala- home, keeping social distance and ga, Busabala in Kitanda following the government directives sub-county in Buko- to our communities. mansimbi district. “We gave them a bar of soap, During the early days of the lock- 3 kilos of beans, packet down, this was challenging as most of salt, 6 kilos of rice, 6 people in our communities could kilos of maize flour, for not afford sanitizers, masks and every household,” said even soap . Worse still, there is Marvin Magambo, a water scarcity in most of the staff. communities. Additionally, most households lacked food and did not Kyempapu delivered have gardens where they could these items door to door grow food. And they have big fami- using a bicycle. lies ranging from 5—12 or even He said Kyempapu has a more individuals which made it A family that received the food and soap items . target of reaching 500 difficult for people to stay home Photo by Kyempapu households with food because they needed food. and soap items during Kyempapu mobilized some funds this lock-down.