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 Uganda. 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 Amuru district 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 Arua district, 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 Mukono district. 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 Kole district 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 Oyam district 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.