Japanese government constructs maternity ward in Kwania district
KWANIA – The Japanese government has constructed a maternity ward at Abedober health unit in Kwania district to improve access to health service delivery.
The development partner also put in place structures at Odokomac Primary School in Apac district.
The two projects worth Shs 633m is supported by grant assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGP), a scheme administered by the embassy to fund community development projects geared towards the improvement of people’s livelihood at the grassroots.
The school had an acute shortage of classroom and toilet facilities according to the Headteacher and the communities.
It had only 8 proper classrooms for 1,057 pupils so the classes were very congested which made it very difficult for the school to give quality lessons to the children.
The Japanese government as a development partner constructed two classrooms and two latrines.
Abedober, a non-profit facility located in Abongomola sub-county, had no maternity ward. It was a challenge providing safe maternity care to expectant mothers posing a risk of cross-infection.
According to the District Health Officer (DHO), Dr Moses Ebong, the Japanese Embassy gave them money in 2019 to construct a maternity ward, install solar power, and build a latrine and a placenta pit.
The district LC5 Chairman, Alex Ogwal said, shortage of health facilities and health workers is also affecting service delivery.
According to Ministry of Health, the country has 6,937 health facilities established under different administrative units. These include regions, districts and health sub-districts.
The government phased out health center IIs at the parish levels 10 years ago and upgraded some to health center IIIs to serve the new sub-counties.
“Like in my district, I have 11 sub-counties and three of them don’t have health centres. These causes a lot of burden to the communities because they need services,” Ogwal said.
Fukazawa Hidemoto, the Japanese Ambassador to Uganda, said they received 400 applications requesting them to fund development projects but they could only work on 7 to 10 projects.
Catharine Okello, a resident of Abongomola expressed excitement over the development saying, it would save them from travelling long distances to seek health services.
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