This article is part of our October 2024 spotlight on MCLD Uganda. Article by Namugerwa Joweria, Executive Director of Abomukwano Uganda.
About Abomukwano Uganda
We are a Community-Based Organization founded in December 2020 in Masaka City, Uganda. We are building a trusted group of older persons and matched youth in the community to live meaningful lives.
While caring for my ailing father as he battled cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure, a gap in society became clear to me. Through expensive trips to the hospital, juggling my work and his care, I realized that as much as we prioritize women, youth, and children, senior citizens are left behind.
As I went on to do my research in the communities, I realized that most families with older members encountered the same or even some had worse scenarios. Situations of dependency burden were even worse in rural areas, especially due to COVID-19.
These realizations led me to start a community-based organization called Abomukwano, which translates to “our loved ones.”
With our vision of “Better Ageing, Better Communities” we have programs ranging from:
- Health: free medical health camps every year. We recently organized a camp to commemorate the International Day of the Older Persons on October 1st. Held at the Masaka liberation grounds, it attracted over 1,000 people. We provided free eye checkups, diabetic and hypertensive tests, malaria, dental check-ups, and medications.
We have also offered trainings to retired nurses about respite care for the elderly in homes, sensitization training to communities about HIV and malaria, and nutritional assessments and care.
- Education: sensitization of communities in primary health care, gender-based violence, and outbreaks like COVID-19.
- Livelihoods: engaging our older persons in active age (60-69) livelihood programs like mitigations to implement with the changing weather patterns. This has helped them to continue practicing agriculture on a small scale.
We have started a recent partnership with a company willing to purchase items like beans and maize from our older persons. Knowing there is a market for their produce has made the older members of communities more enthusiastic about practicing agriculture.
MEMBERSHIP WITH MOVEMENT FOR COMMUNITY-LED DEVELOPMENT (MCLD)
As part of our program in Abomukwano, Uganda, we established partnerships and networking that allowed us to gain membership with MCLD in 2023. This membership has significantly impacted our community work. For example, thanks to training focused on empowering communities to take charge of their own development, farmers in Butale Sub County have come together as a team. This collaboration has made it easier for us to identify and secure trainers for farming lessons. We are also planning to provide them with seeds as startup capital, enabling them to fully engage in farming on their underutilized land.
Challenges
We are making progress in the communities we work in, but still face two main challenges.
- Citizens aged 60 to 69 who are still actively engaged in farming face the challenge of owning land but lacking the financial resources needed to expand their operations and meet the demand for marketable food crops.
- Most of our older persons rely on ambulances for transportation to our camps because of how far they live from community referral hospitals.
What is the way forward?
We are eager to establish stronger partnerships that can provide ambulances for emergencies involving older individuals. Additionally, we hope to form partnerships that can offer startup capital to help our farmers effectively utilize their land.
Namugerwa Joweria is Executive Director of Abomukwano Uganda.
Pictured to the left is Executive Director Joweria attending a meeting about locally led development consultations with USAID Uganda mission in Kampala.