Regions where we work

COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION FORUM has been working in the areas of Wakiso District since Feb.2009, helping orphans and vulnerable children  to access their rights to health, education and protection.

We have registered 43 children and their families in the communities of Nabweru Town Council.

Currently, we are implementing several programmes in HIV/AID’s awareness and prevention in relation to STD/STIs and related issues like sexual reproductive health and trainings in social life skills. These programmes aim to protect the most at risk populations from new infections of HIV including children, youth, young women/girls and their families affected and minimise its impact on people already infected by HIV/AID’s through various interventions that involve promotion of Routine HIV/AID’s Counseling and Testing-

FACTS ABOUT THE CHILDREN IN UGANDA

Uganda, notably in primary education and in the fight against HIV / AIDS. However, in the north, nearly two decades of conflict between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have Significant investments in children and women in recent years have led to developmental successes in rred a severe humanitarian crisis marked by widespread insecurity and massive displacement. Uganda has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in which the Children’s Act, based on the CRC, was passed in 1996.

 Nearly half of the estimated 2.3 million orphans are orphaned due to AIDS, with the total expected to rise to 3.5 million by 2010.

 More than 4 million children reached in twice-yearly national “Child Days” to accelerate Vitamin A supplementation, catch-up immunizations and de-worming.

90% of deaths due to malaria occur in Africa, south of the Sahara, and most deaths occur in children under the age of five.

 Challenges facing Children in Uganda

HIV/AIDS continues to be a significant challenge. Since the epidemic began, some 1 million Ugandans have died. There are an estimated 2.3 million orphans, mostly due to the disease. The country’s health indicators are also among the lowest in sub-Saharan African. Preventable diseases - including premarital and maternal illnesses, malaria and diarrhea  take a major toll. Close to 18 percent of school-aged children are not enrolled in school and the dropout rate averages 66 percent. Food security is also a major concern. Many families do not have enough food to last through the "hungry season" between harvests, and more than one in four children under age 5 is stunted.·        

Malaria  kills more than 3000 African children every day

Key facts

    * Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes.

    * In 2008, malaria caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among African children.

    * Malaria is preventable and curable.

    * Malaria can decrease gross domestic product by as much as 1.3% in countries with high disease rates.

    * Non-immune travelers from malaria-free areas are very vulnerable to the disease when they get infected.

There are four types of human malaria:

    * Plasmodium falciparum

    * Plasmodium vivax

    * Plasmodium malariae

    * Plasmodium ovale.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes, called "malaria vectors", which bite mainly between dusk and dawn.

WHO and UNICEF call for urgent increased effort fight malaria

Two African children are dying preventably from malaria every minute due to a lack of donations from rich countries to tackle the problem, according to the first ever study of the disease worldwide.

Efforts to reduce the worldwide death toll from malaria are being hampered by lack of funds, lack of drugs and lack of mosquito nets, the United Nations said today.

The Africa Malaria Report, released today by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), says the death toll from malaria remains outrageously high - with more than 3000 African children dying daily. It also stresses that new effective anti-malarial drugs are not yet accessible to the majority of those who need them and that only a small proportion of children at risk of malaria are protected by highly effective insecticide-treated nets (ITNs).“The Roll Back Malaria Initiative has made considerable progress since it was launched in 1998, but we need to increase efforts to combat a devastating disease which is holding back the development of many African countries,” states Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO. “Malaria continues to tighten its grip on Africa. By scaling up our efforts, we can reverse this trend.”

."An estimated 20 per cent of the world's population mostly those living in the world's poorest countries like Uganda is at risk of contracting malaria. Malaria causes more than three hundred million acute illnesses and kills at least one million people every year. Ninety per cent of deaths due to malaria occur in Africa, south of the Sahara, and most deaths occur in children under the age of five.

"Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds, and remains one of the most important threats to the health of pregnant women and their newborns,” said Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. “We have the knowledge and the potential to achieve our target of reducing the global burden of malaria by half by 2010, but we need much greater investment and political commitment.

"Malaria is treatable and largely preventable with the tools available now," said WHO director general Lee Jong-Wook.

Although financial support and commitment to malaria control have increased, most of this increase has occurred during the past two years and there remains a huge resource gap, especially in the countries most severely affected.

Part of the problem is that new drugs to treat the deadliest strain of malaria are more expensive than the previous mainstays. Shortages of raw materials for the new treatments are also hampering production.

Much more must be done, said Ann Veneman, the executive director of UNICEF and former American agriculture secretary. "At present malaria remains the infectious disease that takes more lives of children in Africa than any other - three times as many as HIV," she said.

The report praised efforts in some countries, including Nigeria, Ghana and Togo, where there was "clear evidence" that attempts were being made to control the disease’s spread by distributing insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

But many African countries had only recently increased access to treatment and prevention, making it "too soon" to say whether the global burden of malaria had increased or decreased since 2000, according to the report. "Not until several years after high coverage with malaria prevention and treatment has been achieved will the worldwide impact on mortality be measurable," it said.

Insecticide-treated nets, the protection of pregnant women and indoor spraying with products that leave residues have proved effective tools in combating the illness. Epidemics can be pre-empted by the use of technologies such as weather-forecasting and regular data collection.

The report emphasised that while some traditional drugs have lost their effectiveness, new combination therapies have been shown to work. Prompt treatment at home can save lives.