Our Program
PROGRAMS | PROJECTS
OUR PROJECTS
For about 15 years USDC has been supporting medical rehabilitation, including
corrective surgery of Children with Disabilities in Uganda . In the beginning USDC
transported children in need of such services to Mulago hospital in Kampala
because this was the only facility in the country that could offer the services.
But this was very costly and not sustainable. It was very difficult for many
children and their families to come to Kampala because of the long distances
involved and the poverty levels in most of our rural communities.
USDC implements smaller short term projects within the wider CBR programme.
These interventions within the wider programme, address individual disabilities
such as Mental Health, Hearing Impairment and Physical disabilities for effective
targeting of the affected groups. USDC also implements thematic projects like
Combating Exclusion of disabled children from accessing quality education,
HIV/AIDS and disability, and Vocational Training Centers for disabled youth.
In its earlier phases, USDC implemented a lot of work with a bias to addressing
physical disabilities and so invested heavily in the construction and equipping of
orthopedic workshops and physio units. This enabled USDC reach over 5000 children
every year giving corrective surgery, fitting assistive devices and getting CWDs
enrolled in schools. This was because there was a big demand for those kind of
services at the time.
In recent years, there has been a steady increase in children with mental health
problems and ear disease, prompting USDC to focus its response in this direction.
All these interventions are just a variation within the wider CBR programme.
Below are some of the successes and challenges in some of the interventions, both
for sensory and physical disabilities
Hearing Impairment project
USDC implements a project on hearing impairment aimed at prevention of child
hood hearing loss among children in the rural communities. This was in response
to the high figures of children presenting with ear disease and hearing loss
during the routine clinics conducted under the normal CBR programme. The
project kicked off after a comprehensive study undertaken by Mulago ENT
specialists and aimed at averting rampant ear infections and hearing problems
through the provision of better Ear- Nose -Throat (ENT) services in the project
districts. Among these were Arua, Yumbe, Masaka, Ssembabule, Nakasongola,
Luwero, Masindi, Adjumani and Moyo districts which in collaboration with the
Ministry of Health and Special Needs Education departments selected participants
to benefit from the USDC funded training in Ear care and audiology.
Specialists from Mulago ENT department trained clinical officers and school
teachers with a bias in caring for children with hearing loss. Most ear disease is
preventable conducted the confirmed that many children were prone to losing their
hearing ability if ear disease was not treated promptly
A total of 160 clinical officers in 8 districts of Nebbi, Arua, Yumbe, Masindi, Hoima,
Masaka, Sembabule and Luweero districts were trained and provided with
equipment for diagnosis and basic treatment of common ear infections and
removal of foreign bodies.
Mental health
Through community based mental health activities in Jinja, Soroti, Masaka and
Sembabule districts a total of 4,024 children were supported through this
Programme during the year. At the national level, we participated in the
development of the Mental Health policy and we are a key stakeholder in the
development of the mental health Programme.
Combating exclusion of CWDs in schools
Up to 5000 special needs teachers have been trained in managing special
needs of disabled children in 13 districts . We also distributed Braille equipment
to schools with annexes for the blind and train teachers to repair Braille machines.
USDC also manages two vocational training centers for youths with disabilities in
Masaka and Ocoko(Arua) in partnership with the local governments.
Vocational Training
One of the key exclusion issues for children with disabilities has been education.
Despite the inclusive approach adopted by Uganda Government and the policy
of Universal Primary Education (UPE) very few disabled children still have access
to quality education. The inclusive approach should, in principle, bring education
services nearer to the children with special needs because, despite the
challenges, they should be able to go to the schools nearest to their homes
instead of special schools which normally involve removing children away from
their home environment. Unfortunately there are still a number of barriers, physical,
human and other wise that make it impossible for many of them to access education
through this inclusive system. As part of our CBR program therefore, USDC has
been involved in supporting vocational training for children who, for one reason or
the other, are not able to continue with primary or secondary education.
USDC entered into arrangements with the local governments to build and renovate
buildings of the regional Vocational Training Centres in Masaka and Arua in order to
reactivate the training of youth with disabilities in various marketable skills to enable
them live self-reliant life. This has been done through establishment of 2 vocational
training centres namely:
The two regional centres have a combined capacity of no more than 120 trainees
at a time for traditional course like carpentry, tailoring, agriculture, metal work and
a few others and business management. The courses run for one year.
