Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau’s

Contributions to Family Planning

Dr. Tonny Tumwesigye

Executive Director

3 December 2013

Acts 1:7-8

UPMB Background • Founded in 1957 as an NGO to manage mission hospital

grants & serve as liaison between the facilities & government

• Currently a network of 278 health facilities affiliated with Protestant Churches

• Together with the Catholic, Muslim & Orthodox Medical Bureaus - account for around 45% of health care service delivery in Uganda

• Key Mandate as Technical Arm of the Protestant Churches :

– Institution Capacity Development

– Advocacy & Networking

– Coordination

– Patient Safety & Quality Assurance

– Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS

Reproductive Health- Past Experience

FHI Funded Project • To strengthen the capacity of

Ugandan health networks in integrated maternal health & sexual reproductive health services (SRH) in rural communities

• Duration: 2002 - 04

• 10 districts facility & community based

• Focused on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Information Education and Communications (IEC) & service provision, post-abortion care, treatment of STIs, FP counseling & provision of commodities

Funded by Big Lottery Fund (BLF)/Interact World Wide-UK • Reaching women & girls with

quality SRH education, counseling & services

• Duration: 2006-09

• 10 Districts

• Facility & community- based

Strategic Project on Maternal & Neonatal Health (MNH)

• Funded by Big Lottery Fund

• Duration: 2009-13

• 31 health facilities in 20 districts

• Facility and community-based

• Use of Village Health Teams (VHTs) & Community-Based Volunteers (CBVs)

• FP integration in nation-wide PMTCT roll out

• VHTs & CBVs are still active

Packard Foundation Funded FP Project

• Africa Christian Health Associations (ACHA) FP Project

– 2013 – 2015

– Facility and community-based

– 2 health facilities in 2 districts-low uptake of FP

– Objective: To strengthen capacity of church-run health facilities to develop & implement quality FP programs on a larger scale, serving difficult to reach clientele & improving rural health services

Packard Foundation Funded FP Project

• Capacity building of health workers & CBVs-community based volunteers

• Strengthening community referrals for FP services

• Community mobilization & sensitization

• Conduct integrated FP outreaches

• Development & printing of IEC materials

FP Integration

• A total 150 VHTs & CBVs trained in partnership with FHI 360 to give commodities

• Through this network, more than 1000 clients access FP services a month

• Integrates FP into HIV & postnatal clinics • Family Planning Camps –

• Hard to reach facilities, • Communities mobilized, • Share critical knowledge & skills. • Tubal ligation being utilized

Parents receiving education in FP, nutrition and general care after delivery

Lessons : FP Messaging

• Example of a message that works: “plan a small manageable family for a better life”

• Be simple, clear & easy to understand

• Local language most preferred for packaging information/messages

• Consistent messaging makes people appreciate messages better

• Involvement of local political leaders & community elders

Lessons: Working with Religious Leaders

• Using religious leaders as agents of change in Busoga-East Central Region around Lake Victoria, rural to semi urban, high fertility rate (about 8 percent), highly polygamous, poor communities

• Good uptake of natural methods by religious leaders

– Peer education a powerful tool for training religious leaders on FP

Success story – Peer Education for Religious Leaders of All Faiths

Lessons: Working with Men

• Husbands/men play a dominant role in decision making regarding Reproductive Health services

• Most available RH services are not male friendly

• Addressing the RH care of couples would increase male engagement in FP

Scale Up Strategies

• FP integration into existing RH services like

PMTCT & cancer screening

• Increased use of CBVs to increase access &

utilization for FP services at community level

• Use of religious leaders to promote & create

demand for services related to child spacing

Acts 1:7-8