Millennium Villages Blog

Katine team members sampling banana leaf beads in Ruhiira

Ruhiira and Katine. The former is located in the southeast of Uganda, the latter in the northwest. One is a stable village, the other a post-conflict community. Many things set them apart, but both villages are striving towards better lives, sheltered from poverty and hunger.

At the end of April 2009, Ruhiira and Katine were brought a little close together, despite the geographical distance. The Katine project was initiated in 2007 by the Guardian newspaper and Barclays Bank, with the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) being the implementing arm. A year older, Ruhiira is one of several Millennium Villages in Africa. Delegations from both projects visited the two sites, in the first such attempt to trade views.

MVP team with visitors from the Katine project

At first sight, the two communities are at opposite ends of the development scale. With 25,000 people, Katine’s community includes many Ugandans displaced by the conflict between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an armed rebel group notorious for its brutality and enrolling child soldiers. "We aim to target vulnerable groups whose development issues are far greater than other groups," said Joshua Kyallo, country director for Amref Uganda. The three year project focuses on "developing skills, changing attitudes and encouraging participation in decision making," explains Oscar Okech, the Katine manager.

On the other hand, Ruhiira is set in a quiet, lush hilly area, covered with banana farms. The rich landscape conceals great poverty with more than 40% of the population, which is twice as big as Katine’s, living below the poverty line. Due to this monoculture, the local community was suffering from higher malnutrition levels than in Katine, where agriculture is more diversified. The Millennium Villages project’s (MVP) scope of work is wider and covers the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while Katine works on five areas: education, health, water, governance and livelihoods.

But beyond these planning and implementation disparities, Katine and Ruhiira share a common target and face most of the same challenges, such as how to sustain the development trend once the projects end. This question was intensely debated on the aforementioned trip. The answer was approached sector by sector, with one common thread: community involvement.

Zero-grazing goats in Ruhiira

On a visit to a farm in Ruhiira, Madeleine Bunting, a Guardian columnist and associate editor, noted the improved goats introduced by the MVP. "Katine’s population is asking for cows but we are debating it," she said. The project is hesitant for two main reasons: cattle rustling, a problem in the area, and scarce pastures. While the first is not an issue in Ruhiira, John Okorio, Ruhiira manager, offered a solution to the second obstacle: zero grazing animals, like the ones being reared in Ruhiira. Fodder for the zero grazing goats is grown in banana plantations with the double aim of feeding the animals and stopping soil erosion: an advantageous solution for both the farmer and the environment.

Another stop in Ruhiira was at the Omwicwamba primary school, where energy saving stoves were installed to boost the school feeding program, an initiative that raised the interest of Jesca Anguyo, advocacy manager at Amref. More than 11,000 children enrolled in 21 primary schools are served a daily hot lunch with the community’s in kind contribution. Back in Katine, both teams sat down with the headmaster of Oimai primary school and discussed it. According to him, school enrolment increased in Katine thanks to improved classrooms and supplied text books, but the free meal idea remains out of reach. "Parents don’t want to contribute to anything," he said. John Okorio advised, "The school feeding program had a major impact on performance in Ruhiira and I think Katine should implement it." The parents’ involvement in the scheme and the encouraging school results ensuing are a guarantee for sustainability.

A lab technician in a Ruhiira health clinic

On the health front, Ruhiira registered outstanding results thanks to the community health workers (CHW) who are helping villagers access better care. All of the village’s 48 CHWs receive a salary, which is unusual in Uganda, where their colleagues are volunteers. "Amref toyed with the idea, but what happens when the project is over?" asked Kyallo. Instead, Katine is providing incentives to its CHW like bikes, gumboots and free lunches. For the MVP, the answer lays with the community and the government, a close partner in the project. If the government keeps up with its promise to maintain results achieved within the village and the community demands it vocally, health care in Ruhiira should not regress once the project comes to an end.

In their own ways, both villages are anchoring development in their respective regions and fostering hope of a better future across the country.

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