Save Life & CSRP - Nzirambi Orphans Talent Development Center

Save Life and Promotion Of Community Social Responsibility Programme

NOTDEC is a Non Profit Making Organization that is founded on the passion to care for the most vulnerable children as result of maternal mortality and those abandoned on rubbish pits and thrown in bushes and Pit latrines due to social economic pressures in life This care aims at Providing safe and secure environment to the vulnerable children through holistic care and developing abilities and skills for self-sustainability and community development In achieving the above, NOTDEC Uganda provides support through three programs namely;

Provision of safe and secure environment to the vulnerable at the centre for 1000 days a crucial time of child development.
Provision of basic school and health needs to those vulnerable children that have been resettled with wide family members (care givers) and
Save life program in which we provide nutrition milk for a maximum period of 8 months to the children whose mothers die at giving birth and the baby is left in the hands of the vulnerable/devastated families.

This program has been embarked on because of having limited space at the Centre as per government policy of every Centre to have not more than 70 residential children. The number of children as result of maternal mortality is overwhelming in the community hence a need to focus more strategically in boasting the Save Life program in the community by promoting community social responsibility.

Problem Statement

Currently the mortality rate in Uganda is 336 maternal death per 1000 live births, Infant mortality is 43% deaths per 1000 live births with 42 % of the mortality occurring during neonatal period ref. Annual health sector performance report 2020 Kasese district is one of the districts that has high rate of maternal mortality despite of various intervention that has been put in place for the health services.

Despite of all the effort provided by NOTDEC, our vulnerable children in these three programs, Save Life Program suffer a Long-Term Effect immediately after the eight months of Nutrition and Health support. Children’s right to protection continues to be a critical challenge as all the caregivers are always pre occupied with other home activities and with no follow-up from NOTDEC staff after eight months, inadequate nutrition remains a significant concern which has resulted some children to get deformities.

This comes immediately when NOTDEC leaves its support to these children, health related issues have been sighted as another significant problem due to lack of information on health education and promotion by NOTDEC Staff. The communities experience lack of adequate basic needs to live on and hence the circumstances in which children who have lost their mothers at birth puts them to high risk of not to survive. e.g some community areas like Busongora North do not access clean water and ] some household ‘s state of houses is not conducive.

Effects of bereavement in the families that have lost a mother at giving birth amidst such hard situations and with no support and guidance have led to some of the children we support for eight months and we leave out the follow ups have died. A case in point among other is a child called Musoki from Nyamirangara in Muhokya Sub County.

It is upon these gaps in the Life Saving Program that NOTDEC would like to deliberately intensify to support children who loss their mothers at birth with nutrition milk and engage the communities to embrace the social responsibility of effective caring for the most vulnerable children who finds themselves in the hands of a different person not a mother at birth.

Project Implementation

In order to address the plight of these vulnerable children NOTDEC would like to do the following if supported. 1. NOTDEC in general should establish and fully implement an integrated early Childhood development program by working and engaging the families where such vulnerable child is identified. This would involve:

Support the children who may not be accommodated at the Centre with nutrition milk for a period of 12 months.

Support the children after 8 months with nutrition foodstuff (soya, millet, maize flour) for a period of more 24 months.

Sensitize and empower the caregivers (guardians) on the income generating projects to be able to sustainably care for the vulnerable child and other siblings.

Care givers should be sensitized on child protection issues and this should be done in liaise with the local council authorities of the given areas where the children are situated.

A deliberate plan to sensitize the communities on social responsibility towards children who are left at birth by their mother and other categories of vulnerable children using radios talk shows, dialogues in liaise with community leadership.

Follow-ups of the care givers should be intensified by NOTDEC staff to be reminded of their duties and responsibilities in parenting.

Duration for the intervention

This intervention can be piloted for 3 years targeting a specific number of beneficiaries as a start and there after impact evaluation the program continues with set targets.