The major goal project remained to improve the quality of life of the people in the Lake Victoria basin, particularly for the most vulnerable, through the development of comprehensive programs addressing the poverty related areas of health care, disaster preparedness, risk reduction and self reliance.

 

The majority of the project activities took place at Kasensero Landing Site which is the main project area, but also some in Lyantonde sub branch.

 

The project activities continued to be implemented along the four thematic areas of health and care, disaster management, capacity building and humanitarian values.

 

The branch continued carrying out HIV/AIDS education sessions in schools and out of school communities. The information disseminated included messages on ART, positive living, positive prevention, condom promotion, the ABC strategy, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission and treatment of opportunistic infections.

 

In total 1,284 school-going children were reached with HIV/AIDS prevention messages.

 

For the out of school communities, about 8,784 residents were reached through music, dance and drama shows, community meetings, home visits by community volunteers, IEC materials and radio talk shows. All this work was possible with help of community volunteers who are trained and skilled in community work. During home visits, the community volunteers addressed issues like counseling& guidance, sanitation and hygiene promotion, drug adherence and use of insecticide treated nets.

 

1,800 pieces of condoms were secured from the District medical department and distributed at Kasensero Landing Site. Besides distribution, education on proper condom storage, application, and disposal after use was done.

 

The branch coordinator also supported the positive living club at Kasensero Landing Site with memory work. Memory books help orphans to trace information about their families and guide people to make Wills.

 

Other activities included identifying cases which need referral and refer them to health units for treatment, especially for treatment of opportunistic infections. In total 67 referrals were made during the period under review.  

 

The branch participated in the commemoration of the World AIDS Day. Rakai district jointly celebrated the day with the Millennium Development Goals Awareness Day. The event saw the launching of Bakka model village. Rakai branch participated through facilitated drama groups, provision of first aid, exhibition of Red Cross IEC materials, dissemination and blood donor recruitment exercises. As part of the event, 38 units of safe blood were collected.

 

 

One women positive living club was supported with a poultry project of 150 layers chicken.

 

Orphans and vulnerable children were supported with money to buy land and construction of a piggery.

 

The income generation activities will help to generate income for the beneficiaries to meet their basic needs and thus sustaining their projects.

 

 Blood donor recruitment (BDR)

During the period under review, the branch conducted BDR talk’s shows in both schools and out of school communities. The BDR activities included mobilization of potential donors through distribution of BDR posters, organizing community / school meetings, working with Masaka regional Blood bank team during bleeding sessions, organizing post donation counseling and returning of results/ donors cards. The BDR talks have been packed with messages on the importance of donating blood, HIV/AIDS, malaria, Red Cross information. In total 763 units of blood were collected. This was possible through recruitment of self motivated volunteers and good working relations with Masaka regional blood bank which partly facilitates our volunteers with transport.

 

For the period under review, the branch conducted one community based first aid training at Institute of Vocational Studies and accountancy. The training drew 27 volunteers from the institute. 16 of the participants were male and 11 were female. The reason for selecting this institute was that the volunteers are always active in providing first aid services at public functions and at other emergencies.

10 volunteers provided first aid services at 2 public functions. One event was a football match at Kalisizo and another one was at celebrations to mark the World AIDS Day and Millennium Development Goals awareness day.

 

One peer education was conducted. The training was attended by 20 youth, out of whom 12 were male and 8 female educators. These will ease the process of behavior change among youth as far as fighting against HIV/AIDS is concerned. So far 1431 youth have been reached.

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Two youth camps were held in the period under review. The camps were separated into one junior camp and one senior youth camp.  The senior youth camp was attended by 103 participants, 72 male and 31 male. The junior camp drew 48 members, out of whom 28 were male and 20 male participants.

 

 

The skills gained will help shape the youth into better citizens.

Three bicycles were purchased for the positive living club and the OVC School. Theses will help ease transport problems in areas of mobilization, information sharing, transportation of patients to health units, counseling etc.

 

 

The branch participated in a Red Cross Action Teams training which took place in Masaka. The branch was represented by 15 participants. The trained team will help the community in disaster prediction, mitigation and assessment in case of any. The team has been active in sensitizing fishermen on water safety, importance of using lifejackets, fire prevention and fighting.

 

 

By 6^th October 2009, Uganda had 205 lab confirmed cases of pandemic (H1N1). It is against such a background that URCS in conjunction with the Ministry of Health embarked on awareness creation among other intervention forms against the H1N1 pandemic. In Rakai branch, Mutukula border and Kasensero Landing Site were the areas of operation.

The activities done included;

 

 

Conducting community sensitization sessions and house to house sensitization was done in the hotspots identified during the training. Also this activity was done basing on the work plan drawn during the training.

 

 

Three parishes with 9 LCs were covered. One mosque and 7 churches were reached during their respective services. Two meetings for food vendors and transport operators at the border were conducted.

 

The rest of the sensitization took forms of house to house visits, street walks where different working groups were met at their respective workplaces.

 

 In total about 185 households, and 348 individuals were reached with information about the H1N1 pandemic.

 

 

 

The sensitization was backed up with the use of posters and leaflets bearing H1N1

information. The posters were fixed in strategic places for traveler to read and leaflets were given to literate residents and travelers to read themselves and take the information further to their homes, workplaces, neighbors, etc.

 

 

 

 

Monitoring and supervision were done the Branch Coordinator. This was basically to support the volunteers in ensuring good quality work especially in passing on the right information to the community.

The coordinator’s monitoring also sought to find out whether the volunteers were implementing the work according to the work plan.

 

 

 

 

 

Construction of first aid post: The branch has acquired land for construction of the branch first aid post at Kasensero Landing Site. The block will also double as the LVP field office. The post will act as a base for responding to emergencies before referral, storage of records, meeting place for volunteers and stakeholders, planning place etc.

As part of disaster preparedness, water safety campaigns were so crucial in the months of June, July and August. This is the period the lake is highly turbulent due to speedy winds caused by the movement of the sun towards the tropical of cancer, causing frequent drowning cases.

 

Therefore three water safety sessions were conducted in conjunction with Kasensero beach management unit. These covered areas like; optimum loading of boats, uses of life jackets, use of mechanically sound boats. In total the 3 sessions drew 58 fishermen, all of whom were male.

 

 

The branch received 9 Red Cross messages all of which were delivered and replied.

Other tracing activities were in form of dissemination about tracing activities.

The   BC attended two 2 national trainings organized by the Disaster Management department on disaster risk reduction and training of trainers in disaster management.

 

Dissemination of information about the Red Cross was carried out both in schools and out of schools. This activity was integrated in all talks organized by the branch. In total, about 159 people were reached. As result membership recruitment was as follows.

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

The branch has also made dissemination in form of sign posts, writings on the branch office walls, and wherever Red Cross supported projects are. Four big sign posts have been erected on roads and three on project site. The URCS core values, mission and vision have also been written on the office building. Their impact has been that more community members have known what Red Cross is and the branch hopes more community awareness. 

 

Capacity Building: To strengthen the branch for effective service delivery and programming  

 

 

 

During the 4^th quarter, 2009, the branch had one stakeholders meeting with sisters NGOs operating in Kyebe Sub County and the government extension workers. The meeting whose main objective was to seek integration of HIV/AIDS interventions in all community activities drew 54 participants.

 

Also 21 volunteers from Rakai paid an exchange visit to Mukono branch.

 

 

Participation in the district and other local partnership meetings enriches the branch planning ideas and maintains a good branch image with local leaders.