The Challenges and Triumphs Over the Years at The MOD Public Health Foundation, Uganda (Part I)
Part 1 Interview with Samuel Waliggo, MPH, Founder and Executive Director of the MOD Public Health Foundation, Uganda
Interviewer:
You are a Public Health Foundation in Uganda, tell me What have been some of the healing stories you can share with me? This interview will be done in three parts. So, please brace yourself.
Samuel Waliggo:
Waooo! Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you again. There are several healing stories. I like the term you are using. “Healing Stories.”
Interviewer:
Sure, there is another term, and it is “Stories rooted in resilience!”
Samuel Waliggo:
Now, that is relatable and putting it so well. I am glad we can share such stories originating from the aspirations and applicability of Public Health Principles. We are a local Organisation, registered as a Non-Profit with the mandate to operate county-wide as a public health growth and development Foundation. Due to our working style, the MOD Public Health Foundation was awarded the coveted NGO Quality Assurance Mechanisms Certification. There are several factors that were based upon to get this certification. Our biggest success is seeing our organization actively engaging local and rural communities to improve the quality of health outcomes for young people, adult and elderly men, and women in our catchment through health promotion services. Now, I know that when communities are strengthened and interventions are localized, it empowers communities and programme participants to engage in health-seeking practices which directly enables them to keep health standards and participate in health promotion at the primary level, a core principle of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
To give emphasis on our key milestones, the MOD Public Health Foundation has made seven years of experience in delivering integrated services to prevent diseases, prolong life and promote health. We have implemented several complex community HIV prevention and behaviour change projects. For instance, we were lucky that our organization was among the first implementing partners of the DREAMS (Determined, Resilience, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe Girls) project funded by PEPFAR/Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We successfully implemented this project which had over 50,000 programme beneficiaries (Adolescent Girls and Young Women-AGYW and their male partners) for four years between 2017-2020. Our Organisation was being sub-granted by Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP) and Mildmay Uganda as a lead implementing partner and supported the quality of implementation for Seven (7) grass root Community-Based Organisations usually called CBOs in Masaka, Ssembabule, Mityana, Kassanda, Mubende and Luwero Districts. Approximately $834,715 was invested to programme participants through the MOD Public Health Foundation. I remember all our stakeholders categorized us as a very reliable, efficient, innovative and passionate implementing partner. For instance, some of the unique contributions the MOD Public Health Foundation has made to its funding and collaborating partners is the ability to quickly mobilize communities and add numbers of programme participants (beneficiaries) to the programme, deliver results at the lowest cost per unit deliverable, foster efficient and timely accountability of funds, strong programme quality management systems, with particular focus on strong monitoring and evaluation systems as well as timely and flexible reporting. There are events that matter to me: Menstrual hygiene consciousness in schools, communities, and households. There are several memories that bring a smile to me. But some stick out far more. These include girls who participated in the programmes and the sessions we facilitated in communities that popularised delayed sexual debut; delaying drug, substance, alcohol, and smoking among adolescents and young persons; we initiated systems and structures that averted unwanted pregnancies, that broke the progression of TB, Malaria and HIV infection, leveraged contexts where gender-inclusion and lenses were used to analyze and develop evidence-based interventions. We have been involved in empowering communities to address climate change and developing gendered methodologies through which such aspects as gender-based violence, and patriarchal tendencies that uphold male chauvinism at the expense of female wellness are questioned. We promoted household-level child care, nurturing, and support for several households with Child-parents. We witnessed young babies thriving because their parents have now learned good parenting models, men supporting their wives to access family planning services from health facilities, families with improved household incomes and health outcomes, and many rural health facilities strengthened with a capacity to deliver quality Malaria/HIV/TB Prevention, Care and Elimination services. That is what I call the triumph of the MOD Public Health Foundation.
Lastly about our achievements, in the past years, the Organisation has turned so many years of staff experience into community organizing sessions and provided training to health facility workers, and Village Health Teams (VHTs) from hard-to-reach rural areas to build the critical mass of health promoters who are needed to lead communities to better life outcome aspirations. We have pioneered and rolled out such principles as Communities of Practice (COP); Community Systems Strengthening (CSS); Communities of Practice (COP); and Public-Private Mix (PPM) to empower communities to establish themselves as resilient life-enhancing safe spaces. We have supported mainstreaming of HIV/TB/Malaria eradication mechanisms in line with UNAIDS 2030 goals; integrating COVID-19 response, recovery, and resilience plans; Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR), Reproduction, Mother, Neonatal, Children, Adolescents, and Nutrition (RMNCAHN+) and Voluntary Male Medical Circumcision (VMMC) projects in 7 districts of Greater Masaka and Mubende region, Uganda.
Interviewer:
I'm so amazed by your passion for Public health interventions. However, we still need to go forward with other elements of the Interview. What were those principles that stimulated the founding, constitution, and subsequent propulsion at the MOD Public Health Foundation, Uganda?
Samuel Waliggo:
In my case, it is still the profound Public Health knowledge that I need to translate into action on a regular basis. It can be about those first principles that we now take for granted but are so important and necessary for community Organisers. Public health is about individual and population-wide interventions, habits, practices, cultures, and norms. These are broken or sustained in a context where there are existing operational systems and structures. The operational systems and structures can be one’s personal habits, a household, a village, a community around a school, a community around a health facility, or a community in a given urban setting. It can also be an Organisation, the Organisation vision, mission, objective, human resource to carry out the activities, room to provide education for the staff, holidays or paid time off, health coverage, logistical support for the Organisation to conduct her work, regularised in-house checks to maintain quality, Information, Education and Communication opportunities in all media formats, staff development in form of building workspace relations, network building and maintenance. The list is long and I can go on and on.
Interviewer:
You raised an important scenario and it made me wax philosophical or even theological. What exactly can you call the triumph of MOD Public Health Foundation Uganda?
Samuel Waliggo:
That is an interesting question and I thank you for asking it. I am going to provide a variety of scenarios. Allow me, please, to be extra sincere about this, and let me fuse in our own experiences as professionals, passionate people, and a productive team. Public Health outcomes are heavily dependent on triggers that affect broad populations. A death of a single human being, or animal somewhere, or depletion of soil nutrients, or climate change or an increase in the heat affect us at different levels. We have to approach life-threatening issues as a collective mind, in solidarity with those who may be more vulnerable and who need to be empowered to contribute to finding and maintaining solutions. We need to invest in building resilient systems and structures. This is a triumph unlike when jubilant crowds celebrate a victory in a highly visible manner. We need these seemingly imperceptible triumphant steps, that are soft, humanely bear life outcome-driven actions that we need in critical numbers, that are people and community-centered.
By people-centered I mean that all actions are mindful and representative of the character of the people in the form of numbers, age, physical abilities, or inabilities.
By community-centered I mean that all actions are influenced by the physical, economic, biodiversity, social, cultural, political, medical, behavioral, civic, structural, non-physical, biological, and gender-related enabling and responsive contexts. It may not cause benefit for a Public Health product to be provided as an intervention when it does not break the progression of vulnerabilities and risks.
Interviewer:
Interesting indeed. How do you align or reconcile the MOD Public Health Uganda values work with the local needs and international aspirations?
Samuel Waliggo:
Wonderful! That is a brilliant idea. One day, we were to conduct an outreach programme in three different places in the same County. It rained so hard, we had to drive through mud and near washed-away-invisible roads because the raindrops were so thick. But surprisingly there was no rain where we would set up camps. It is both surprising and explainable. Climate change affects how people live and how we do our work. Back to the story, we arrived at the different venues and fortunately found the programme participants waiting. We performed our tasks which we completed by nightfall. On the way back, our car broke down beyond repair. I remember that event so vividly. It took us an entire night up to the wee hours of the morning to return everything back to our office. Community outreaches and health camps are a mainstay of community penetration and demand-creation tactics. We still face vehicular mechanical breakdowns, and transportation-related costs because we are forced to use privately hired vehicles amidst climate-related interruptions. Most times then the cost of doing business becomes expensive. To manage costs, we usually use boda-boda motorcycles to penetrate rural communities and to transport logistics for outreaches; medical supplies, and equipment for sexual reproductive health services such as Voluntary Male Medical Circumcision (VMMC) and family planning. Despite these constraints, our staff are motivated, and we have seen the impact of our work for instance in providing opportunities for over 100,000 young people to access sexual and reproductive health services, engaging local communities to improve their health outcomes through health promotion strategies that are geared towards ending TB and HIV epidemic by 2030. We have worked in 12 districts of Masaka, Ssembabule, Bukomansimbi, Rakai, Kalungu, Lwengo, Lwantonde, Kalangala of the greater Masaka region, and Mityana, Kassanda, Luwero, Nakasongola, of the greater Mubende region. We have documented testimonies about behaviour change for the better health of all our communities.
End of Part (1)
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Meanwhile, Enjoy our Pictorial Gallery for a visible Story of MOD Public Health Foundation improving health outcomes for 1000s of vulnerable populations.
1. Demand Creation and Awareness for Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (SRH) Services, Social Economic Strengthening.
Active Male Engagement is an important element of Community engagement if we are to achieve access to Universal Health Care (UHC) coverage and put an end to HIV/TB and Malaria by 20230
MOD Public Health Foundation has trained over 300 Family Planning Champions who also form the Girl Empowerment Forums (GEFs) for Sexual and Reproductive Health Service advocacy in the Greater Masaka and Mubende Region.
Through experiential sharing, our Girls Peer Champions increased opportunities for over 50,000 Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) aged 15-24 years to access Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) services in the rural communities of Ssembabule, Bukomansimbi, Mityana, Luwero, Kassanda, Ggombe, and Mubende Districts.
The MOD Public Health Foundation installed 1500 condom dispensers and has distributed over 15M condoms, and formed 180 Male Action Groups (MAGs) as part of a combination of HIV Testing and Prevention Services in Masaka and Mubende Region.
Samuel Waliggo, MPH
MOD Public Health Foundation, Uganda
P.O BOX 211, Plot 79, Bukoba Road,
Near Gaz, Masaka City,
Mobile: +256 772675563
Office: +256 485660637
E-mail: samuel.waliggo@mod.or.ug
samuel.waliggo@gmail.com
This is yet another interview that is not only empowering for those who read it but it is also a learning moment. Most people think of Public Health as an enforcement profession where one has to ensure food handlers have certification or schools have quality washrooms. This is may be true but Public Health is beyond just counting the number of latrines in a given community. Public Health is beneficial. Thanks for making that clear.
ReplyDeleteThank you AdNetA for your insights. Yesterday I received a Whatsup comment from a good friend of mine who is also Medical Doctor. He said "Thank u Sam. I like the interview and the pictorial. I especially like that you * protect and promote health by going to the people instead of waiting for the people to come to health facilities -often when it is too late. One question that I think was not addressed well is What exactly can you call the triumph of MOD Public Health Foundation Uganda?" Actually, expected this question from so many people. Again, putting on the public health lenses (Physical, Cultural, Economic, Gender, Social, and medical) contexts, determinants and responsiveness to our interventions. The MOD public Health Foundation’s Triumphs include; the initiated systems and structures that averted unwanted pregnancies, that broke the progression of TB, Malaria and HIV infection, leveraged contexts where gender-inclusion, Communities that are being empowered to address climate change and developing gendered methodologies, the young babies thriving because their parents have now learned good parenting models, men supporting their wives to access family planning services from health facilities, families with improved household incomes and health outcomes, and many rural health facilities strengthened with a capacity to deliver quality Malaria/HIV/TB Prevention, Care and Elimination services. That is what we call the triumph of the MOD Public Health Foundation. Not just the achievements in form of acquiring buildings, big cars etc. for the Organisation. These are important and will come with time when our interventions continues to cause social transformation.
ReplyDeleteYou put it so well: "public health lenses (Physical, Cultural, Economic, Gender, Social, and medical) contexts, determinants and responsiveness to our interventions. The MOD public Health Foundation’s Triumphs include; the initiated systems and structures that averted unwanted pregnancies, that broke the progression of TB, Malaria and HIV infection, leveraged contexts where gender-inclusion, Communities that are being empowered to address climate change and developing gendered methodologies, the young babies thriving because their parents have now learned good parenting models, men supporting their wives to access family planning services from health facilities, families with improved household incomes and health outcomes, and many rural health facilities strengthened with a capacity to deliver quality Malaria/HIV/TB Prevention, Care and Elimination services." We cannot agree any less.
ReplyDelete