West Nile districts get health project
Sep 15, 2023
The project targets 400 households and 2,600 market actors from Terego and Madi Okollo in 20 villages.
Participants attending the project inception meeting in Arua City. (Photos by Robert Adiga)
Robert Adiga
Journalist @New Vision
______________________ Richard Bayo, the regional epidemiologist Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) Westnile
Residents of the districts of Terego and Madi Okollo are set to benefit from a health project.
The project dubbed One Health, is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals, and the environment.
The pilot project aimed at strengthening the One Health approach in Terego and Madi-Okollo Districts for the refugee and host populations.
The two-year and nine-month project worth euros 361,000 (about shillings 1.5 billion), which was launched on Wednesday in Arua City, will be implemented by Kulika Uganda with funding from BMZ Germany government and Malteser International.
The project targets 400 households and 2,600 market actors from Terego and Madi Okollo in 20 villages.
Kulika Uganda executive director Magdalene Amujal said the project looks into establishing different components and creating a holistic relationship between the environment, human health, and the health of animals.
Meanwhile, Julius Kijali, the partner project manager of Malteser International, said the intervention aims at addressing the missing structural gaps in Terego and Madi-Okollo as well as the lack of knowledge of the One Health approach among the population and Village Health Teams.
Richard Bayo, the regional epidemiologist at Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) West Nile confirmed that for the last six years, the two districts have been hotspots for zoonotic diseases.
He says through the project, there is a need to enhance information-sharing and pledged support in terms of availing the necessary data and statistics regarding the health of animals in the region.
Jenna Toma, the deputy refugee desk officer in Arua, said if all partners were to implement such critical health-related interventions, the region and community members including animals would have been free from sickness.
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