Critics of sustainable development projects initiated by Westerners in Africa often raise a question: what happens when those Westerners pull out? The answer lies in an important concept: community ownership. When someone is lifted out of the poverty trap, given the opportunity to access health care and education, encouraged to develop an income-generating business, why… [ More ]
Sounds of laughter intermingled with thumping feet and clapping hands ring across the room as community health workers (CHWs) in Ruhiira perform a traditional Baciga dance. Out of breath and energized, they take their seats in a large room with rows of wooden benches as Alex Kakama, one of the health facilitators, hangs up large… [ More ]
The glitzy New York fashion scene and the muddy hills of a poor Ugandan village may seem worlds apart, but a backpack is bringing them closer. Lauren and Doreen walk side by side on a dirt road in Ruhiira, a Millennium Village in the South-East of the country, each carrying the exact same bag… [ More ]
The Community Based Management for Health program, currently being implemented across the Millennium Villages in East and Southern Africa, stopped recently in the pastoralist village of Dertu, Kenya which has 850 households (350 sedentary and 500 migratory). In this difficult, arid area where communities move in search of water and pasture, the role played… [ More ]
On December 1 of every year Tanzanians join other people in the world to mark World AIDS Day. Apart from speeches, testimonies, as well as voluntary counseling and testing, vitamin A supplementation and de-worming for children under the age of five are normally part of the events organized nation-wide. This is a national campaign… [ More ]
