Africa is a continent with dreadful poverty and problems of resource shortages. Estimates are that climate change and population pressure will see 85 million people migrate from that continent in the next 40 years. And yet there are people and organizations trying to do something about these problems and make a difference. In this Presentation we look at the work of ICODI a registered non-profit organization located in Mbarara District-South Western Uganda. Its mission is “To work with and through individuals and communities to improve on the economic, health and social wellbeing of the rural and urban poor communities in Uganda”. The goal is to reduce on the high levels of famine, poverty, ill health and illiteracy in the rural communities and urban poor communities in Uganda. You can find out more about ICODI at http://www.icodi.org

1. Presented By:
Kato Ssekah Abdu
Founder/Programme Director
Integrated Community Development Initiative
(ICODI)
Po Box 557, Mbarara, Uganda .
Website: http://www.icodi.org
Mobile No: +256752801674 or +256701801674
Email: millorskato@gmail.com

2. A Brief Background about ICODI
 Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI) is a Legally
Registered non profit making organization with a REG No: 1094.
 The organizations’ major aim is to reduce on the high levels of famine,
poverty, illiteracy and ill health among the rural and urban poor
communities in Uganda.

3. Uganda:
 Uganda as one of the countries in Africa is faced with
high levels of famine, poverty, illiteracy and ill health ;
The problems have affected both the rural and urban
communities in the country.
 In Uganda, much of the problems are seen in the rural
poor communities where there are so many
vulnerable populations, it is also noted that more
than 65% of the Country’s population is staying or
residing from the rural areas hence they have been
vulnerable to these problems which have affected
their standards of living.

4. Poverty:
 Poverty is a national problem to the country that has
contributed to peoples’ lack of access to basic education,
health services and other basic necessities.
 Most of the country’s rural and urban poor communities
have less than a dollar per day per person to spend.
 Poverty has caused violence in families.
 Poverty is a cause of a very high rate of illiteracy in
Uganda especially in children. Many children have not
been able to attain any formal education.
 Poverty has contributed to the spread of HIV in the
country; Due to lack of what to eat and a need by
nationals to have basic necessities, some of the women
and youth girls have started engaging them selves in
commercial sex which has contributed to the spread of
HIV in many communities. They do this in order to get
some small money to survive and this has contributed to
the rate of HIV infection in the country.

5.  As a challenge in the country, it has caused the
practice of cross-generation sex, Young girls get
involved in having commercial sex with old men
which has also accelerated the spread of HIV among
youths in the country.
 Poverty has caused many families to force their young
girls to get married at a young age in order for the
families to get dowries.

6. Possible Solutions to the challenge
of poverty:
 Introducing projects that will train and support the rural and
urban poor to start small sustainable household income
generating activities in order to get small incomes.
 Empower new farming and agriculture projects to help the rural
communities to reduce on the high levels of famine and
poverty.
 Support the small scale farmers who are already so-engaged to
cultivate big chunks of land by obtaining and using rototillers
for cultivation, this will encourage mass production which will
enable farmers to have produce for home consumption and for
sell in order to earn some money.
 There is a need to train and empower the youth both females
and males to become small-scale entrepreneurs so that the
future generations can experience little or no poverty and
famine levels.

7.  Train and empower small scale farmers to produce in
groups such that they can have a good bargaining
power .
 There is also a need to form more cooperative
societies, these can help the farmers to look for
market for the farmers’ products.

8.  These are some of the examples of rural poor families
which faces the high levels of poverty.

9. Famine:
 Agriculture is the backbone of the Uganda’s economy,
however the country is still facing the high levels of
famine.
 Famine is another great challenge in the country that
has killed many Ugandans due to hunger.
 The challenge has affected both the rural and urban
poor communities causing malnutrition in both
adults and children.
 Due to high levels of famine in the country, many
children have died due to malnutrition that results
from lacking what to eat and also having poor diets.

10. Some of the Solutions to the
challenge of famine:
 There is a need to support the people especially the
rural poor people to start agricultural and farming
activities.
 Also, modernizing the agriculture in Uganda is
another need, most of the farmers in Uganda are still
using rudementally tools to practice agriculture, for
example using hoes and pangas to cultivate do not
allow farmers to cultivate big chunks of land in order
to have mass production which can facilitate home
consumption and commercial purposes.

11.  Such families in the rural poor communities in
Uganda face high levels of famine.

12.  Integrated Community Development Initiative (ICODI) is
involved in training and supporting such families to start
small sustainable household income generating activities in
order to avoid famine and poverty. These include small
sustainable farming and agriculture.

13.  The rural poor are supported by giving them seeds to start
agriculture activities and they are also trained in modern
agriculture technologies.

14. ill health:
 The status of health in Uganda is still wanting ; the
country is faced with challenges of major epidemics
ie HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. These kill hundreds of
Ugandans every day.
Integrated Community Development Initiative
(ICODI) has been working hard to extend HIV/AIDS,
Malaria and TB awareness, prevention and control.
However we are doing this on a very small scale due
to lack of resources to extend our services.

15. HIV/AIDS Challenge:
 Uganda is facing a big challenge with HIV epidemic.
 According to the Ministry of Health (MOH) report
2011, The country had about 1.5 million people who
were HIV positive , 150,000 children were also HIV
positive where 65% of them were orphans.
 About 55% of the HIV positive adults and children
need to get started on Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs)
but drugs are not enough in the country and about
90% of the HIV treatment funds are donor funds.
 There are very few HIV pediatric treatment centres in

16. Uganda and this has affected the HIV positive
children mainly from rural communities where
families can not afford to provide transport to their
children to access treatment from urban centres.
Also, the HIV treatment centres for HIV positive
adults are really not enough especially in rural areas
and this has also affected the rural poor people to
access HIV treatment in urban areas due to lack of
transport.

17. Possible Solutions to HIV
epidemic:
 Extend HIV awareness, prevention and control
activities in both rural and urban communities,
however much emphasis now should be on rural poor
communities due to their great vulnerability to the
epidemic. Activities can include extending Home
Based Voluntary Counseling and Testing (HBVCT) to
the rural poor communities.
 Increase on the number of HIV treatment centres (for
both children and adults) and availability of ARVs in
both urban and rural areas, however of now, more
emphasis should be put on introducing more HIV
treatment centres in rural poor communities in
Uganda.

18.  Introduce projects to extend Prevention of Mother to
Child HIV Transmission (PMTC) services especially
in rural communities to reduce on mother to-children
HIV transmission.
 Introduce projects to support the HIV positive
children (moslty orphans) have access to HIV care
and treatment, education, food and other basic
necessities in their lives.

19. Integrated Community has been involved in extend ing
HIV/AIDS awareness through community training .

20. Malaria Epidemic:
 Malaria is a “Killer disease” in Uganda, it is an
epidemic that kill hundreds of Ugandans perday.
 According to the Ministry of Health (MOH) report
2011, Malaria was killing more than 200,000 people
every day and about 75% of the hospital admissions
were for malaria cases.
 Malaria especially affects the rural poor families
which can not manage to buy mosquito nets for their
family members.
 Malaria has contributed to the high infant mortality
rate in Uganda.

21. Solutions to Malaria Epidemic:
 Introduce projects to train people how to avoid
malaria by sleeping under mosquito nets, cutting
bushes around their homes, destroying the plastic
bottles that acts as breeding ground for mosquitoes,
clearing stagnant water bodies that also acts as
breeding ground for mosquitoes.
 Work hand in hand with the Government health
centres in rural communities to provide the rural poor
with Malaria treatment drugs.
 Supporting the rural poor families with mosquito nets
in order for them to avoid malaria in their homes.

22.  Such rural poor families can not manage to buy mosquito
nets to prevent their families members from getting malaria.

23. TB Epidemic:
 TB is also one of the killer diseases in Uganda, the
epidemic also claims hundreds of lives of people every
day in the country.
 It is noted that most of the TB cases in Uganda come
from rural poor communities hence such
communities have always been vulnerable to this
epidemic.
Solutions to the Epidemic:
 Introduce projects to extend TB awareness,
prevention and control in especially rural
communities which are more vulnerable to the
epidemic
 Work hand in hand with health centres to provide
anti-Tb Drugs in the Health Centres

24. Other diseases:
 Though HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB are regarded as
the most epidemics, there are also other diseases that
claims lives of people and these are related to poor
nutrition and having no access to clean water
especially in the rural poor communities.
 Diseases such as Diarrhea, Dysentery, Typhoid,
Bilharzia etc have been seen killing people in the
country especially in rural communities.
 Most of the rural communities don’t have access to
clean water.
 Solution to the problem of water scarcity:
 Introduce clean water projects in rural poor
communities including construction of bore holes,
extending tap water, building community water tanks
etc which could eliminate preventable diseases.

25.  These are some of the water sources being used in the
rural communities, such water sources have caused
many diseases which have also claimed lives of the
rural people.

27. Illiteracy:
 Illiteracy is a huge problem that has mostly affected
rural poor communities in Uganda.
 People experiencing very high levels of poverty can
not manage to provide scholastic materials like pens,
pencils, uniforms, food to eat at school etc to their
children.
 Most children from rural poor families have not
attained any level of education, they cannot even
write nor read.
 Among those who have started school, many have
dropped out, with limited education, their present
and/or their future job opportunities are very limited.

28. Possible Solutions to the
challenge:
 Introduce community and family income generating
projects to help the rural poor families. Small income
generating activities like small sustainable farming,
agriculture projects can help such families to get
money and pay for their children in schools.
 Community programs that can bring people together
to build more schools in some rural poor
communities ;working together to build schools will
help encourage the rural poor to send their children
to school.

29.  Such youths have not attained any level of education due to
poverty in their families, they are suffering looking for what
to survive on.

30. In this regard, Integrated Community Development
Initiative (ICODI) is in need of your support to
furtherance its activities of reducing on the high
levels of famine, poverty, illiteracy and ill health
among the rural poor communities in Uganda.
Thank you very much!