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PROJECT HISTORY

A combination of war, HIV/AIDS, EBOLA Hemorrhagic Fever and Natural Disasters have caused trauma to the populations of Bundibugyo District. Although the war in Bundibugyo effectively ended six years ago, households and communities are yet to fully recover from its impact, including a high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate. Available data from VCT sites puts HIV prevalence at 16.5% among people testing for HIV.

Further, it is estimated that 14.5% (source: Belgium Technical Services Survey in Bundibugyo) of children in Bundibugyo are Orphans (have lost one or both parents). The cause for Orphan hood has been brought about by many factors some of which are the said armed conflict which ravaged the land from 1997 to 2002, HIV/AIDS and EBOLA Hemorrhagic fever among others.

Further still, stigma has cropped into the communities to the extent that it is now difficult for people to mix or intermarry or even stay together freely. This has been majorly caused by the fact that EBOLA is a contagious viral disease which spreads very first and kills in a very short period of time. People who contracted the virus and survived are now like outcasts in the community every shying a way from them. One man by the names of Mpanga Godwin a habitat of Busaru Sub county in Bundibugyo District (Survivor) was recently attached by village mates who burnt his house and demanded that he should shift immediately from that area least he infect them with the EBOLA disease.

Many other people who belong to the families of the deceased or suffered the EBOLA Disease and survived narrowly are now stigmatized due to isolation and low self esteem. The District Administration is trying to intervene but the coverage and impact is still so mean to cause any reasonable change.

Further still, people living with HIV/AIDS are also stigmatized because every one around them pin points at them and are regarded as less important in the communities where they leave. An Assessment carried out by our field staffs revealed that in every ten households of people living with HIV/AIDS at lease there is a case of committing suicide every year. This gives a clear picture of what those people are going through.

On the side of the Orphans, little attention has been drawn to them. Most of them abandoned school due to lack of support. The girls are married off at a very tender age by their mature relatives who do not want to carry a burden of educating them and the boys who try to struggle to attain education on their own do not exceed lower primary which can not warrant them any position in society. Young Children have fled to streets where they live a life of vagabonds. Those who persist to look for survival else where are turned into Child laborers doing heavy work.

Young girls and boys have been exploited and sexually abused and there no voice raised to provide an intervention on the matter. If this situation is left to accelerate it will lead to worthlessness of traumatized/stigmatized people which will cause a very negative impact on the future generation of Bundibugyo District and Uganda as a whole as these people can easily be mobilized by people who have their own chaotic politic interests and plant rebellion.

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Schedule2008.pdf