As Uganda contributes towards reducing mortability and morbidity rates. 75% of the disease burden in Uganda is preventable. Good health is inborn. Health is made at home but repaired in the health facilities when it breaks down. Most of the children under five that die succumb to preventable causes, such as diarrhea, pneumonia, childbirth complications and malaria. MAFOC works predominantly in the communities hardest hit by poverty, recognizing that the health of the mother and the child cannot be separated.
MAFOC focuses on Provision of newborns with optimal nutrition education and awareness on recommended child nutrition practices, management of extreme cases, nutrition assessments and screening, Improving access to quality health care, through supporting ANC in hard to reach areas, immunization support. Water, sanitation and hygiene improvements through provision of safe water sources such as borehole constructions and repairs in communities with water scarcity.
All the interventions are conducted through support of the community health workers (VHTs) who are trained in order to integrate maternal and child heath interventions in their day to day work. These Community health workers (VHT) are given basic training of health promotion and disease prevention, these play key role in health systems strengthening by increasing demand for health services, strengthening community facility linkage by supporting effective referrals and follow ups and providing basic sexual reproductive health care, routine household visits, provide counseling on healthy behavior for household members including bed net usage, hygiene, sanitation and proper nutrition, counseling on ANC, new born care, exclusive breast feeding follow up for all pregnant women and mothers, collect and report household data by tracking all the new pregnancies, deaths and births, track and monitor health outcomes such as malnutrition, case management.
Early Childhood Development (ECD) is critical in the well-being of a child. There is a positive link between early childhood learning and future holistic development of a child which, however, has not been clearly understood as revealed by Uganda’s National Integrated policy on ECD. Communities still need a lot of sensitization regarding ECD because many still believe school before primary is a total waste of time.
In response to the above, MAFOC therefore targets children aged 0-5 and their caregivers by Promoting home based child stimulation through better parenting practices Such as proper nutrition, growth monitoring and immunization, exclusive breast feeding, and promotion of Pre-school quality learning outside home through improved quality of center based ECD services such as de-worming, provision of indoor and outdoor play materials, capacity building for caregivers, promotion of stakeholder involvement in activities, and training of parents and caregivers on importance of ECD. These interventions offer opportunities for creative experiences, mental stimulation, and cognitive development for children and promotes responsive communities supportive of child development.
