Katine – it starts with a village
Katine is one of the poorest villages in the deprived district of Soroti in north-eastern Uganda. The poverty that exists is beyond the control of the hard-working resilient, warm and friendly people who live there.
AMREF is partnering with the Guardian and Observer newspapers, Barclays and 25,000 people living in Katine sub-county to help improve their lives.
Life has always been difficult in Katine but, but the 20-year conflict between the government and the Lords Resistance Army, has exacerbated the problems. Rebel insurgencies in 2003 displaced the whole sub-county, killing people and cattle and razing whole villages to the ground. Mass displacement from the north, as a result of the conflict, has also placed a major strain on the already weak health and education facilities.
The three-year project will improve access to good quality health care, clean water and sanitation and education, as well as improve people’s ability to earn a decent living and give them a voice in local-decision making.
To find out more about this project visit the Guardian Unlimited Katine website.
As with all AMREF projects, the Katine project will work closely with the community to make sure that the activities are relevant to people’s needs and specific culture. See below for some examples of these projects.
AMREF in Kenya
In Turkana in northern Kenya for example, we are improving health care for nomadic pastoralists. Nomadic pastoralists migrate in search of pasture for their cattle, so AMREF provides mobile clinics along the migratory routes and also trains at least one member of each nomadic group in basic health care.
AMREF in South Africa
In rural South Africa, over 60% of the population seek health advice and treatment from traditional healers before visiting a medical doctor. As such, AMREF believes that partnering with traditional healers and bringing them into the formal health system is vital to improving health in South Africa. This is particularly important for HIV/AIDS, which affects 40% of the population in some districts. AMREF is training traditional healers to recognise the symptoms of AIDS-related diseases, encourage people to get themselves tested and to refer people to formal heath clinics and hospitals.
