RHU taking the lead in redefining the SRH landscape

Labora is one of four resettlement villages where RHU conducts its outreach work. The following data incorporates those four sites as well as the Gulu static clinic.

In April, 2008, during the course of just one month:

• Reproductive Health Uganda reached nearly 3000 clients through its Gulu project
• 194 people were tested for HIV/AIDS
• 125 received voluntary testing and counseling for sexually transmitted infections
• over 800 young people saw an RHU service provider

RHU provides vital services for the people of Labora.
Read more. 

Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), formerly the Family Planning Association of Uganda - FPAU), was established in 1957.

Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) provides services in 29 of the country’s districts, targeting young people and marginalized groups.

Services include:

• Family planning
• HIV/AIDS
• diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections
• advocacy against female genital mutilation (FGM)
• post-abortion care

to our constituency of:

• Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
• People at high risk of HIV/AIDS
• young women in conflict affected areas
• sex workers 
• hawkers
• saloonists
• bicycle taxis 
• maids

These SRH services are delivered through three models: clinics, outreach visits and community resources and referrals.

Over 618 people have been served through outreach visits at the workplace.

RHU also runs a Door to Door client mobilization strategy, spearheaded by peer educators and Community Based Reproductive Health Assistants (CBRHAs), who include sex workers and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Besides provision of services, RHU offers training to other non-governmental organizations and government health professionals.

Beyond Uganda, we continue to provide technical assistance to other Member Associations such as Swaziland, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Namibia and Rwanda.

In 2006 RHU provided SRH services to 749, 903 clients, of which 80 per cent were poor or marginalized persons.

Of these, over 50 per cent were young people.

We sit on the government’s SRH advisory board and have played a key role in the development of the Gender Policy, Adolescent Reproductive Health Policy, The Domestic Relations Bill, and Private Partnerships for Health Policy guidelines.

Recently we were selected to serve as the lead agency for Management of Global Fund fund’s on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, private sector component in 12 districts of Central and Eastern Uganda.

In collaboration with African Women Ministers and MPs, Uganda Chapter, RHU managed to develop a strategic plan to guide advocacy around safe motherhood.

Challenges include family planning unmet of 41 per cent; fertility rate of 6.7; a maternal mortality ratio of 435 deaths; over 300,000 unsafe abortions every year, and between 50,000 and 100,000 cases of fistula.

Partnerships
Government: Ministries of Health; Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS Committee; National Association of Women Members of Parliament; and Local District Administrations
Private Sector: Micro Uganda Limited, Population Services International
Media Houses: New vision, The Monitor, The Weekly Observer, Capital Radio, Radio Simba, Star FM, Supper FM, Top Radio, CBS, Impact FM, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation TV, Nation TV, Top TV
Donors: IPPF, UNFPA, NORAD through IPPF & UNFPA, DANIDA through IPPF (1997-98), Plan International, CIDA, DFID, Netherlands Trust Fund, IPPF Japan Trust Fund, Earnest Kleinworth Charitable Foundation, John Snow, inc, Research and Training Africa Youth Alliance, USAID, Korean Embassy/ KOICA, IPPF Korea Africa Fund, Chinese Embassy, Pathfinder International, Save The Children Uganda, WHO
Networks: Uganda Network for AIDS Services Organizations, Uganda Reproductive Health Adolescent Network, National forum for People having HIV/AIDS Networks in Uganda , National NGO Forum