More Information on GlobeMed's Projects at HAU

Hey All!

More blog posts will be underway, but for now here is a more detailed look at GlobeMed's projects, courtesy of fellow GROW Intern, Clara Williams. 

GlobeMed sponsored projects currently include goat lending and seed lending, PMTCT Mama kits, and vocational school scholarships. In the past, we've also purchased fuel to allow workers to travel to clients at their homes, and internet connection, Microsoft Office and a projector to help the office run at top efficiency. 

Currently we believe that the goat lending project and the seed lending project will be cut from the budget. Originally these programs were intended to provide nutritional and economic support to the HIV/AIDS affected families and communities to which they were given, however, both were intended to be self-sustaining, and not require any further financial support from GlobeMed or Health Alert. In the case of the goats, it was the intention to give one family a fertile female goat, which would then become pregnant. The family would keep the young goat, and give the mother goat to another family in the community, so that others could continue to benefit. However, in practice, the female goat gave birth at a much slower rate than had been expected. As a result, the families were reluctant to give the goats to the next household, the rate of goat loss (though death or misplacement) was high, and the benefits the families received from the goats were minimal. We see this project as a disappointment and should cut our losses during the trip. 

Seed lending was implemented in two HIV affected groups living in the Alero and Olwal sub-counties of Uganda in the hopes that crops would be grown to supplement the diets of the infected youth, enough seeds would be kept to grow a new crop next season, and the remainder would be sold for profit. There was mixed success with this. The group in Olwal failed to save their seeds for two years in a row, despite being reminded and warned that we could not continue to buy seeds for them. However, in Alero, with the exception of the failure of the onion crop, have been successfully maintaining their garden, saving some seeds, and selling the rest as planned. As of yet, the GROW team has not been able to visit the community in Alero, but it is hoped that they have had continued to benefit from the seed lending program and require no further funding. 

As far as the other projects go, though, we're hoping to get a better understanding of what HAU needs before we make any hard and fast decisions. We are planning on continuing the Mama kits without a doubt, and are currently gauging interest for technology seminars around the office.  If you have any questions concerning our current work plan or past or ongoing projects, feel free to comment!