Train 150 AGYW (10-24 Years) on Menstrual Hygiene

Summary:

The African Child and Youth Development Initiative (ACYDI) in partnership with OVCEG-CSO, have co-implemented the Community Led Monitoring (CLM) aimed to implement a Community-Led Monitoring (CLM) approach to enhance HIV prevention efforts in Buvuma district. The CLM activities aimed to capacitate community engagement in health service delivery by empowering affected populations to monitor, analyze, and advocate for improved HIV, TB, and Malaria services.

The activity of Orientation Meeting with Health facilities, AGYW and Service providers was conducted, held in Nkata Health centre III, Lubya Health Centre III and Mainland in (Busamuzi Health centre III, Buwooya Health Centre III and Lukale Health Centre III) and aimed to introduce the CLM Monitors to the health facilities, provided a structured orientation to all the relevant stakeholders at the catchment areas (5 health facilities) and partners, these included health workers and stakeholders from the start of the CLM project that encouraged participation, ownership and proper accountability for the project.

The orientation meeting identified roles of health workers and stakeholders towards CLM project implementation to ensure its success at the health facility level and in the district and how the various activities will be implemented to align with the district health priorities and systems.
The participants included the health facility staff, Biostatistician/HMIS focal person, AGYW, Women, VHTs, and CSOs were oriented on community led monitoring and the monitoring process, including the roles of health facility and other players in CLM implementation. In the orientation meetings, the biostatistician who is also the HMIS focal person shared the facility level performance indicators to appreciate and embrace the contribution of CLM.

Achievements:

• The orientation meeting identified the key indicators for the improvement of the CLM project (Lwajje Health Center III, Namatale Health Center III and Bugaya Health Center III)
• The meeting highlighted the roles of the health facilities and key stakeholders of the CLM project  stakeholders participated in the orientation meeting on at Busamuzi health facility.
• In Nkata Health Centre III, stakeholders participated in the orientation meeting.
• The CLM project introduced the steering committee, 2 CLM Monitors to cover/collect data from the five health facilities (Nkata H/C III, Lubya H/C III, Lukale H/C III, Busamuzi H/C III and Buwooya H/C III)
• The health workers and other stakeholders welcomed the CLM project and promised to support the project and CLM Monitors during the implementation.
• The CLM monitors have been trained for 6 days in data collection, data analysis and conducting feedback.
• The M & E Officer of OVCEG and Buvuma district Biostatistician/HMIS focal person have been trained in CLM, data collection and analysis.
• The project uses a multi stakeholder approach of involving all the stakeholders at the different levels like districts, affected communities, health facilities, AGYW, Biostatistician/HMIS team, DHTs, CSOs networks, people living with disabilities, community monitors at the community level, and steering communities from the affected communities.
• The project is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected by the CLM Monitors.

Challenges encountered during implementation:

• Lack of digital cameras to capture photos for documentation.
• Lack of enough resources i.e insufficient IEC materials
• Insufficient funds to run the activities
• Lack of life jackets while using boat transport on Lake Victoria
• Mobile populations of people in island communities
• High increase of female sex workers in bar hotspots
• Insufficient training/capacity building materials
• Insufficient laptops for report writing and databases
• Poor lighting in the meeting room and thus affected the quality of pictures that were taken during the meeting.
• Insufficient transport refund given to the participants who were coming from far places in the islands.

Recommendations for improvement:

• Recommended to conduct stakeholder mapping for the CLM activities representing different communities, for example AGYW, PLHIV, PWDs, KPs TB networks, CSO networks etc.
• Availability of the IEC materials to improve the visibility and accessibility of the CLM program
• The meeting recommended that the CLM be implemented in eight health facilities instead of five and the proposed additional facilities are: Bugaya health center III, Namatale Health center III and Lwajje health center III because they are non-preforming as identified by the key stakeholders and biostatistician/HMIS data during the orientation meeting.
• Recommended to conduct community dialogues meetings with stakeholders representing affected communities mapped.
• Recommended to conduct stakeholder mapping for the affected communities (not diseased specific)
• Recommended to identify advocates and monitors that will represent the district level, the national level and beyond.
• The meeting recommended that the CLM implementation be in eight health facilities because they are non-preforming as identified by the key stakeholders and biostatistician data during the meeting.