The Ministry of Health 2010 -2014 Uganda National Health Policy states “The focus of NHP II shall be on health promotion, disease prevention and early diagnosis and treatment of disease ‘’ a call that we have lived by since we launched the Gaba program in 2005.
Having run out of startup donations and medical supplies, the clinic introduced fee for services that the poorest of our community could not afford, it would be a lot cheaper for them to go for self-medication or ‘’drug shop” treatments than pay 3000/= (1.5 dollars US) consultation fees for the professional services we offer, in this dilemma the idea of keeping them healthy and getting them to appreciate professional services the community health outreach was born with these objectives;
- Strengthen the capacity communities to prevent and manage illness through continued health education and support supervision
- To reduce the incidence of malaria through proper and consistent use of mosquito bed nets
- To increase the percentage of children with complete Immunization in the community.
- To contribute to the reduction of health inequalities by reaching out to the needy with health promoting initiatives.
To date the program has given at least one bed net each to over 6000 homes in the ‘’Stop the Bite-Stop Malaria’’ initiative and has a team of 18 CORPS (Community Owned Resource Persons) receiving monthly trainings and passing this on to their homesteads.
The program currently operates in 6 communities of Ggaba; these are located in Kisenegal, Kawuku, Bunga, Katoogo, Ggaba Trading, and Ggaba Mission.
We plan to continue with health promotion for all our clientele at a higher level than before, covering also non-communicable diseases as well in line with our National Health Policy, 2010-2014.