World AIDs Day, designated on 01st December every year since 1998, is an International day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDs pandemic caused by the spread HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. Family Medical Point works in fishing communities and hard-to-reach areas to increase access to health services where most communities we work in are artisanal in nature, involving a large number of unskilled workers, school going children working in the fisheries sub-sectors to earn a living and 90% of the fishermen are below the age of 40.
Guuda landing site is located on the shores of Lake Victoria in Katabi town council, a home to an estimated 1,000 people living in 4 Acre piece of land surrounded with water and a forest. The people in this landing site imminent from different walks of life engaging in a mix of commercial activities ranging from fish vending, lodging facilities, operating bars to sale of general merchandise. Most Fishing communities of Lake Victoria in East Africa have high HIV prevalence and incidence, including among women residents working in service outlets such as food kiosks, bars and recreational facilities who are often the most affected (UNFPA Report 2020).
The people in Guuda depend on health camps/outreaches and private drug shops, or have to walk through a forest to access health services from Katabi Grade A in Entebbe town which makes it difficult health services, especially for teenagers who may need to access SRHR and HIV related services and information. This is why Family Medical Point Abaita joined the Guuda community to address the inequalities aimed at ending HIV prevalence by increasing access to essential HIV services in fishing and hard-to-reach communities.
FMP mainly focused on reaching out to sexually active women by providing Family planning, an intervention purposed to break the cycle of repeat teen motherhood, Raised awareness among the high risk populations and encouraged preventive behaviors among the fishing folks of Guuda and supported positive living teen mothers with contraception to break the cycle of teen motherhood.
We were joined by partners and stakeholders from TASO Entebbe branch, Uganda Police Force, Political Party leaders and local council leaders in an organized outreach under the theme “Ending AIDS Transmission among Fishing Communities.”
Services offered included HIV testing and counselling, cervical cancer screening, family planning, guidance and counselling, ARVs registration and enrollment to TASO for positive cases.
The successful outreach covered communities within a 5km reach of the landing site that hardly accessed testing and counselling opportunities where 1200 people were tested for HIV, Urinalysis, syphillis, malaria and typhoid, at least 58 young women and girls received family planning, 10 women were screened for cervical cancer whereas the rest were educated on preventive behavior.
