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CEHURD is hiring 2 Program Officers and 4 long term Volunteers.

CEHURD is recruiting two Program Officers and four long-term Volunteers to support its Research, Documentation and Advocacy (RDA), Strategic Litigation (SL), Community Empowerment (CEP) Programs and the Communications department.

For the volunteer-ship arrangement, the selected candidates bring their professional skill sets and work with one of CEHURD’s programs for a period of between 6 – 12 months.
The arrangement involves mentorship opportunities for the candidates to gain valuable experience and advice for career development in research, advocacy, litigation and communications in the field of health, law and human rights.

Below are the links to the FULL JOB Descriptions:

JOB DESCRIPTION FOR A VOLUNTEER UNDER RESEARCH, DOCUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY.

JOB DESCRIPTION FOR A VOLUNTEER UNDER STRATEGIC LITIGATION

JOB DESCRIPTION FOR A VOLUNTEER UNDER COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM

JOB DESCRIPTION FOR A VOLUNTEER UNDER COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT

Please see the job advert below for details.

World Population Day 2017: Promote Access to Safe and Voluntary Family Planning for Ugandans.

Today, Uganda joins the rest of the world to commemorate World Population Day under the theme “Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations.”

Out of 7.5 billion people in the world, 34,634,650 million are Ugandans according to the Uganda National Population and Housing Census 2014. The country’s average annual population growth rate of 3% is attributed to the high fertility rate caused by inadequate access to safe and voluntary family planning for the people.

The high fertility rate in Uganda is thus evident of inadequate availability of a range of contraceptive methods, married with insufficient support from partners or communities, making it difficult for women to attain methods appropriate to their needs. A study by Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) on the status of the 13 UN Lifesaving Commodities in Uganda (2015-2016) indicated that while some of the reproductive health commodities (female condom, contraceptive implants such as Implanon Jadelle and the emergency contraceptive pills) were most available, others such as the female condom and the long term contraceptives were poorly available in less than 50% of the health facilities.

The high fertility rates in the country place emphasis on the need to increase provision and access to family planning commodities by scaling up efforts on provider training and consumer awareness about the commodities. This is in tandem with exerting price controls in the private sector to ensure family planning commodities are available, accessible, acceptable and are of good quality to all potential users.

Government should therefore invest in making family planning commodities and services readily available for those in need through developing programs that provide counselling, information and a wide range of contraceptive methods to yield economic growth and other gains that can boost sustainable development.

From Canada to Uganda – My Internship Experience at CEHURD

By Jillian Ohayon

My name is Jillian, I got an opportunity to work at CEHURD for the summer of 2017. I am a Law student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. While at CEHURD I have had the opportunity to participate in a variety of interesting meetings and projects.

On my first day here, I had the chance to attend a hearing at the Constitutional Court. After that, I spent a few weeks involved in preparatory work with the Community Empowerment Program before spending four days in the field in the district of Gomba. There, I had the chance to speak with adolescent girls and young women about their level of satisfaction with HIV-related services and their experiences with gender-based violence. I found this to be both challenging and rewarding. I also had the chance to speak with various stakeholders about these issues to try and evaluate where the capacity gaps lie and where CEHURD would be best placed to come in and help.

I also worked with RDA, looking at the National Health Insurance Scheme Bill, with a specific focus on reproductive sexual health rights working with another intern creating a document critically analysing the bill by highlighting potential challenges, as well as comparing its objectives and design for implementation to other jurisdictions.

Finally, during my internship period, I have had the opportunity to attend multiple meetings on a variety of topics. These have included meetings between advocates from CEHURD and Burkina Faso, a sensitization training on unsafe abortion for police representatives, and a stakeholders meeting on the Day of the African Child.

My time in Uganda has been great. My favourite part about being here has to be the greenery and the sunshine! I really love Kampala, and have met some amazing people and made some great friends. The city is so vibrant and exciting, and I never feel at a loss for something to do. I am so glad that I decided to come and spend my summer in Kampala working at CEHURD!

Different countries, similar health challenges: An exchange visit to Zimbabwe

Learning, re-learning and unlearning is what kept on my mind when I received an invite from the Community working group on Health (CWGH), Zimbabwe early this June for an exchange visit to one of their communities in Goromonzi. Zimbabwe is known for its advanced engagement of communities in health system governance. With the efforts and skills of CWGH, there is registered success in community participation. Anyone engaged in community work, would want to visit CWGH to learn from their experience. How treasured, I was to practically see what it means for communities to own processes- I should say, Uganda still has a long way to go and we have a lot to do to get closer to Zimbabwe, to see communities participate in health systems governance.

The team from Uganda, Malawi, South Africa and Zambia visited Mwanza Rural Health Center in Goromonzi. The community here is more than blessed; it’s more than happy for the works of CWGH. But did it do? CWGH worked with the Training and Research Support Center (TARSC) to initiate baby steps but progressively and strategically aimed at ensuring that health center committees (Uganda’s equivalent of Health Unit Management Committees (HUMCs) play their role in advancing the realization of the right to health in Zimbabwe.

“In 1980, the HCCs were present but for lack of guidelines, funds, skills among others etc they died a natural death. CWGH vowed to reactivate them” Itai Rusike Executive Director CWGH noted. But together with TARSC we developed guidelines and followed the process through its adoption by the Ministry of Health through the Public health advisory board.” He added.

While countries like Uganda have such guidelines that explicitly state the roles and responsibilities of HUMCs, composition etc we still lack the experience Zimbabwe has. The functionality of HUMCs in Uganda is affected by so many challenges yet they would play a critical role in monitoring provision of services if the governance structure was supportive. There is fissure between operationalization of the HUMCS guidelines and the decentralized system of governance leading to non-functionality of this structure. This may be attributed to lack of a legislation to enforce their functionality- given that policies are not law in the country. Limited community knowledge on roles of HUMCs as strategy for their involvement, leaving a gap for communities to hold them accountable.

The availability of guidelines is sometimes not enough if its not followed by practical implementation of the same. Ideally this would necessitate tools development, hands on trainings, facilitation of such structures to be able to accomplish their roles. “Having guidelines wasn’t enough so a standard training manual for HCC was developed and adopted by the Ministry of Health through the Public Health Advisory Board. These have since become documents for recognition and used by everyone. HCC are now recognized by the Ministry, Local Governments and partners” Itai Added.

The Health Center Committees in Mwanza demonstrated what a community owned process means, the value, roles and responsibilities of communities were all laid out- this to me was a lesson to bring back home. The availability of clear guidelines, followed by trainings and facilitation of HCCs empowered them to realize and fulfil their roles and responsibilities. They managed to mobilize communities to build a waiting mothers ward at this health facility, why? In the past the facility and District as a whole registered many maternal deaths and this was majorly because of the long distance mothers had to trek to the nearest health facility, Makumbe District Hospital, which is 90km away from Mwanza. The solution?, with CWGH’s interventions and trainings of HCCs on their roles, there have been significant changes. Today mothers wait from this ward 3 weeks before delivery with food to mothers, electrify, water, name it provided by the communities.

“When the community realized that we had the power to advocate for our own rights, the HCC, to which I am the Vice chairperson, opted to look out for resources to put up a waiting ward for mothers. From household meetings, village level, crying out to members of parliament, the army, the ministries and to CWGH, we managed to build a waiting home for mothers.” Mr. Munyongani Augustine.

Listening to these stories and how committed communities are to own processes, makes me think that its possible for us to engage the communities further especially where the state has failed. Many of the cases for instance that Center for Health, Human Rights and Development has litigated have a bearing of long distances to health facilities. This however does not mean that the state sits back but rather works with communities to ensure universal access to health for all.

This exchange visit was wound up with an Annual meeting for the CWGH. This event displayed what it means for the people to participate in health systems. With a room full of thousands of people, Mr Itai Rusike the Executive Director of CWGH was not seen on the floor to speak- wow- but people that are faced with the challenges or those having the power to change for the betterment of the right to health and the communities!

While giving his key note address, Mr. Mulumba Moses the Executive Director of CEHURD (Uganda) left a strong message for us to critically think through and analyze from country perspectives. “Health is political and anything political is about power and resources. When engaging on power and resources, it means dialogue or descent. CSOs over dialogue and are taken for granted for the diplomatic approach they use. Sometimes we need to go beyond the dialogues and descent for change” Mr. Mulumba noted.

The voices of the speakers almost pointed to the same things. The challenges faced by the health system in Zimbabwe. At one point I wondered whether some of these were literature written about Uganda and were just being selected and placed onto Zimbabwe by the speakers- but it’s the truth. Some of these messages are:

No woman should die while giving birth, People are dying , children are dying while in hospital, on the way to hospital etc. Collective efforts are very key here- Executive, Legislator and Judiciary” Senator Anna Shiri (parliament of Zimbabwe)

There are areas of serious concern in our health systems. Some facilities lack basic medicines, equipment’s, understaffed while nursing students from colleges are not employed and as result people are dying of preventable diseases”. Mr Elasto Mugwadi- Chairperson Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission.

“We are neglecting to demand what is a right to us. Health is our right and therefore we don’t have to get a mercy of a politician on our health. It is time that citizens are mobilized to demand that our health be paid for just like they are paying for their own health (the VIPS)- Politicians shouldn’t use public resources to seek for health outside this country, they should get from their pensions. Doesn’t government have money to pay to our health sector? We have the money, it’s a matter of citizens beginning to demand that government prioritizes our health not their health” – Hon P. Sibanda Parliament portfolio committee on health , Zimbabwe.

Indeed we are different countries facing similar health challenges right from the community level to national level. The time is now for us to stand up and advocate for our rights. Remember “Anything for us, without our involvement is not for us” Together we can.

Engaging Parliament to clarify the legal and policy frame work of Abortion in Uganda

CEHURD within the Coalition to Stop Maternal Mortality Due to Unsafe Abortion (CSMMUA) held a meeting with Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) to clarify on the legal and policy framework on sexual and reproductive health.

The meeting was also used as an avenue to discuss evidence based approaches explored in addressing the sexual and reproductive health dilemma of unsafe abortion even where the law is restrictive.

In Uganda, unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality, contributing to approximately 26% of the estimated 6,000 maternal deaths every year and an estimated 40% of admissions for emergency obstetric care.

The meeting was motivated by a conviction that as policy makers, Members of Parliament (MPs) have a role to play in advancing Sexual and Reproductive Health issues in the development of laws around the subject and also interact with communities in their various constituencies.

The meeting paved a way for an open discussion on unsafe abortions that are a public health issue suggesting the different stakeholders’ roles, policy makers inclusive, in reducing abortion related deaths in Uganda.

Discussions at the meeting were centered on the law and politics of maternal health and sexual reproductive health in Uganda, the question of reproductive justice, reproductive oppression, and the status of 5 A annex ward at Mulago hospital.