Primary school childern say hello from the classroom window. Water, sanitation and hygiene in schools are a challenge. The Pageya Primary School in northern Uganda have started to build new and child-friendly latrines. © UNICEF/Azar
This is Northern, rural Uganda. We are driving away from Gulu, which hosted thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) during the rebel Lord of Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency that raved in different areas of the country for two decades from 1987.
The LRA conducted attacks and raids on villages, schools and health centres, killing, maiming, raping, and abducting over 20,000 children. At the height of the conflict, children known as “night commuters” or “night dwellers” would walk up to 20 kilometres (12 miles) each night from camps to Gulu and other larger towns to avoid being abducted by the rebels. Albeit the arrest warrants against top LRA commanders by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the LRA is still in the bushes, still conducting raids, pillaging villages, raping, and abducting children in neighboring countries, most recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR).
Indicative of the fear that the LRA installed on the Ugandan population, a taxi driver in Kampala grimaced as he told me he would never set foot in Gulu because of what happened during the war. And while the people here survived the war and atrocities, they still face daily challenges.
As we drive from Gulu into the rural areas down a seemingly never-ending dusty, reddish, unpaved road, I see young girls and boys walking barefoot in their school uniforms. Another half an hour goes by while we sit in our air-conditioned vehicle, and we pass more children and women balancing stained 20-litre heavy jerry-cans filled with drinking water on their heads. I realize how far these children and women have to walk without shoes under the blazing sun to get to school, home, or the nearest water point. They must be dedicated, but they also do not have a choice.
Lack of infrastructure and transportation are certainly major issues affecting children and women’s well-being and rights to basic services such as water, health services, and education in rural areas in Uganda.
Clean, drinking water has to be fetched at an average distance of one kilometer and another kilometer walking back from the nearest water point. Although the average access to an improved source of water has increased from 68% in 2005/6 to 74% in 2009/2010, there remain significant disparities: urban access is 92%, while access in rural areas is 70%.
In a country with high under-five year old and maternal mortality rates, and where malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia are top infant killers, getting to a health facility is a significant challenge. Three quarters (75%) of the population travel by foot to health facilities at an average distance of 4.7 kilometers – it is no wonder that pregnant women often do not even attempt to make it on foot to a health centre to give birth or get emergency obstetrical care.
An overlapping, serious challenge which affects girls’ education, dignity, sanitation, hygiene and health is the appalling sanitation and hygiene conditions. Having seen – and smelt – the conditions of pit latrines, which are the most common form of toilets (85%), in two rural schools, I can better understand why girls drop out or stay away from school during menstruation.
Another issue is the gaps in the system and the irregular payment of salaries. When our team discussed with the headmaster of one of the village schools, I can also understand why teacher absenteeism is at 21% given the irregular or absence of payment of salaries and real need for teachers to support their own families. In addition, the value of education has eroded in the face of poverty and lack of employment opportunities.
Given this context, how do you bring in innovative approaches for development issues?
Cleopatra and Moses from the Uganda Scout Association stand in front of UNICEF-built “Information Access Points”, which contain several rugged computers with free multi-media content and internet connection as an information source for youth. © UNICEF/Azar
Both in Kampala and Gulu, our UNICEF Finland-Aalto Design Factory team has come across an abundance of ideas to apply innovative design, technology, and business through collaboration with academia.
UNICEF and Uganda Telcom are already supporting the Uganda Registration Services Bureau to develop a community birth registration system using low-tech mobile phones that completes birth registration procedures in minutes - as opposed to a few months through paper work. Currently, only one fifth of children in Uganda are registered; the aim is to increase registration from 21% to 80% by the year 2014.
We have been lucky to actually meet with inspiring individuals and groups using basic mobile phones and technology: Local men and women (Village Health Teams) in rural areas who volunteer to travel by foot in their districts areas monitoring and reporting on health issues using a UNICEF-supported RapidSMS system. Committed Scouts in Uganda have been trained and are actively using UNICEF’s uReport system to report on youth issues via SMS across the country. Youth that provide ICT facilities and learning materials for children and youth at the BOSCO youth centre near Gulu using UNICEF-built rugged, solar-paneled computers made from local materials.
Young people and children use UNICEF’s rugged, solar-paneled computers at the BOSCO youth centre. © UNICEF/Azar
Improving the lives and opportunities of children and youth is critical in a country in which 15.5 million out of 32 million people are under the age of 15 years. This means reaching out to the poorest and often hardest-to-reach communities - technology can be a useful tool in this. Just as important is involving children, youth, and their communities in developing innovative initiatives to ensure sustainability and local ownership. How else can you ensure an innovative product or solution like household water purification filters will actually be used?
Innovation requires long-term investment – especially human capital from the private sector, academia, and national and local actors, the latter being especially important for sustainable development. Baby steps could turn into giant ones if innovative projects are designed with communities and with a novel approach. That is exactly what this partnership with Aalto University’s Design Factory is about. It is time for us to get bold and creative.
Miriam Azar
UNICEF Finland
Read also Miriams first blog from Uganda
