Programme’s development goal:
Improving families’ living standards through improving gender relations at household and community levels, improving families’ health status, and also improving the families’ income availability.
Main problems addressed
The programme strives to address the following major problems affecting the communities as identified at baseline.
- A high level of social injustice in the community manifested in gender-based violence mainly against women and children, unfair gender division of labour, discrimination against women both at home and community levels and a wide scope of intra-community human rights violation.
- Low child care that prevails in majority of the homes
- Acute shortage of water mainly in Buseruka Sub County which particularly affects women and children
- A remarkable level of food insecurity and unfair food distribution in some homes
- The appallingly bad general hygiene with many households lacking basic sanitary facilities leading to a high prevalence of preventable diseases
General activities
Facilitate beneficiaries to form action oriented groups with constitutions and train them in leadership skills, gender issues, hygiene and sanitation, demonstrations on the construction of the basic sanitary facilities and energy saving stoves, nutrition, HIV/AIDS and kitchen gardening. Other trainings cover human rights awareness, formation and management of savings and credit schemes, business management, and alterative IGAs. Other activities will include loan appraisals, disbursement and recovery, and procurement and distribution of vegetable seeds and pineapple suckers
Target group
The programme targets households of rural poor farmers, couples, widows, widowers and single parents or unmarried adult men and women committed to using a gender justice approach to improve their families’ living standards. Beneficiaries are also required to be permanent residents of the target villages, fulltime small-scale farmers, predominantly earning their living from land and committed to attending the training programme. The target group is further characterized by: low income, food insecurity, poor housing conditions, vulnerability to preventable diseases, conservatism on cultural and traditional gender stereo-types and low literacy levels.
Progress to date: Achievements
From the implementation of the above activities, positive results have been realized like Iimprovement in gender relations and reduced incidences of preventable diseases like malaria and diarrhoea due to improvement in hygiene and sanitation as well as improved nutritional practices. There is also a marked reduction in the time spent in collecting firewood by many women due to the fuel saving stoves constructed in most homes which use less fuel wood.
All the members, particularly women, have gained self-confidence proved by the fact that all are able to express their views in the groups and have acquired group leadership positions in different committees. A spirit of solidarity has developed among the group members as they help one another in doing such work as cultivation and construction of sanitary facilities. The saving culture has greatly improved among the groups, enabling families to start alternative income generating activities.
