It has been six months now since I started my quality improvement work with URC USAID-ASSIST project Uganda. I joined the project in August 2013 as a Global Health Corps fellow working under the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) program. The USAID –ASSIST OVC program aims to improve the quality of services offered to OVC by USAID funded Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s). The program also works hand in hand with the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development (MGLSD) – the Ministry charged with children and gender affairs in Uganda. Together, the MGLSD and the ASSIST OVC program aim to reduce vulnerability among the OVC through ensuring that quality services are provided by both the CSO’s and government programs directed to ASSISTOVC. The program is currently being piloted in the four districts of Rukungiri – Western Uganda, Mukono – Central Uganda, Busia – Eastern Uganda, and Amuru district in Northern Uganda.
There is a lot of work being done with the partners to improve the quality of services they provide, but my major interest is on how we have been able to work with the community and government structures to improve the quality of services provided to the OVC. When I joined the ASSIST project, the OVC program was at its inception. We were still trying to figure out how we could improve OVC service delivery and also ensure that the right services were given to the right children. After a couple of consultations, we realized that there was a Sub-county Orphans and Vulnerable Children Committee (SOVCC) at every sub-county which was charged with children issues. The problem was that this committee was too small to monitor OVC in the entire sub-county. We then realized that having other Child Protection Committees (CPC’s) at the village level would be more significant in impacting the community. We supported these communities to form CPC’s.
These committees were charged with:
- Identifying and registering OVC households
- Identifying OVC needs
- Mobilizing the community to vet the identified children
- Providing services to the vetted OVC for the needs they can meet
- Reporting to the SOVCC so it can match the vetted children with service providers like the government and other non- governmental organizations to assess the needs the community cannot handle.
We have since then been working with these committees to ensure that they come up with a comprehensive list of OVC and their needs in each village. This list is then shared with the Community Development Officer (CDO) at the sub county. We coach these committees every month, help them identify gaps, and also suggest solutions for the challenges they face.
A number of advantages have been realized as we work with these communities:
- Communities are now responsible for their children. They have come to appreciate that the children belong in the community and the community members have to work together to improve their children’s lives.
- We have also realized an increase in the number of children who are going back to school. This is partly because the CPC members have sensitized parents on the importance of education and have encouraged parents to take children back to school rather than sending them to farms and gardens to cultivate.
- Finally, there has been a shift in child protection. With the presence of the Child Protection Committees (CPC’s) in the villages, abused children have been able to find a safe haven in these committees and many of these cases are starting to move up to the sub- county level police to begin the justice process.
We keep seeing a lot of improvements happening in the communities where we operate, and we are working hand in hand with the government structures so improvement practices can take root and be spread to other communities.