Our work to combat HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS is a major problem in Uganda. In 2007, it became obvious that the number of families affected by HIV/AIDS was increasing so a three year programme was drawn up to challenge this worrying trend.

Our objectives were to provide care and social support for HIV/AIDS sufferers and protection for their families; to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS through education and awareness; to promote behaviour change; and to build and strengthen the village communities' response to the situation.

This three-year initiative was so successful that the programme has continued to this day.  Dan, a trained HIV/AIDS counsellor now lives and works in the village, thanks to fundraising initiatives in the UK.

Dan works with all sufferers. He provides an individual counselling service and suggests nutritional advice and coping mechanisms.  He runs seminars for the local community and children. 

He also heads a group for women who have tested HIV positive.   These women meet weekly and create traditional handicrafts such as baskets, which can be sold at market. This coming together provides the women with mutual support and the opportunity to discuss issues related to their illness.

But this vital work can only continue with your help

Two successes

Rose is a success story of the Kanyike Project. She was diagnosed as HIV positive in 2003.  Now, thanks to the help she has been given, she is restored to health. Each time Father Kakuba passes her house she rushes to greet him and thanks him for saving her life. Without the early diagnosis and the regular medical treatment she receives from the Kanyike Project, her story could be very different indeed.

She has gone on to run a shop from her house and, with the profits, built a new home.  In the pictures below, her old house is on the left, and she is standing at the doorway of her new one (on the right).

And Rose is a positive force for advocating better health care and lifestyle in the wider community.

In 2016, funds were raised for a privacy tent. In the past, a diagnosis had to be given in the open and the waiting queue could read the patient's reaction to the news through their body language (even though they couldn't hear what was said).

NO LONGER! The health workers can now take this tent with them when they visit the villages.

Thanks to this tent, test results can be given in private. This should make the fight against HIV/Aids easier. More people are coming forward for testing because they know the results are fully confidential

But the problems continue.

The number of HIV/AIDS sufferers is increasing due to an influx of people from outside the area.