Background History

WHO WE ARE

Organization Background

Todate, Kitovu Mobile remains an ambitious, transparent, inspiring, innovating and outstanding health and development organization with a wide-ranging set of goals and strategies to improve health and wellbeing marginalized communities in greater Masaka districts.

  • HIV Prevention Care & Treatment
  • Children & Women's Rights
  • Hospice & Palliative Care
  • Friendly Staff

our timelines

From a Humble Beginning

maura

Kitovu Mobile, a faith-based organization, was started by the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) as a response to the needs of HIV and AIDS patients who were opting to be cared for within the confines of their home areas.  The Home-Based Care (HBC) was the first programme established. Originally, the program visited patients in their homes to provide care services and later formed centres so that many patients could be seen in one place. There were 111 outreach centers providing treatment for 5,500 clients for opportunistic infections, counseling, HIV Testing, medical and social support.

The training program was created; and support for orphans and their families started (education, housing, necessities, IGAs etc.). Starting with 250 orphans, the number rose to 8000 orphans by 1997. This comprehensive orphans’ support ended after the Universal Primary Education (UPE) was introduced.

KM also opened the four-year Mobile Farm Schools for school dropouts. To date 31 sub counties have been covered.

Palliative care, using the WHO Pain Relief ladder, was introduced as a component of Home-based care for many PLHIV and Cancer patients and their families

Trauma counselling was started to alleviate the suffering of traumatized children and to enable AIDS orphans and their guardians to express grief. In 2006 the project was scaled up until 2017 when it phased out

Kitovu Mobile partnered with the Ministry of Health, Uganda Cares, and MRC to provide free antiretroviral treatment (ART) to eligible clients.

Project targeting grandmothers who experience multiple sufferings as a result of many external factors such as, HIV and AIDS pandemic, grief, isolation, trauma and burden of caring for many grandchildren/orphans was initiated.

The Beyond ART, agricultural component was integrated into the Home-based Care to encourage clients to look for creative ways of empowering themselves for economic independence.

KM transferred 1500 PLHIV who were in 111 outreaches to the already accredited government health facilities for continued HIV care. Today, Kitovu Mobile maintains a static medical static centre III, providing HIV and AIDS/TB services, palliative care services, Cancer prevention and screening services and general health care services at its premises.

The number of years the Mobile farm school course runs reduced from 4 to 3 years which was found to be relatively enough for the vulnerable youth to become self-reliant and this has enabled a wider reach.

The counselling and training Program, moved from direct implementation of the trauma project to capacity building of 720 teachers, 180 community leaders, child rights advocates providing psychosocial support, education for life skills.

The donor funding priorities changed significantly; long term funding partners - CAFOD, partner for over 30 years, and KNH phased out the Trauma counselling and psychosocial support project (after 15 years).

KNH funded a Child and Women’s Rights Situation Analysis and provided a 5-year commitment to fund Kitovu Mobile Farms schools project targeting improved children and women’s rights, a significant shift from needs-based to rights-based approach to programing. 

Kitovu Mobile Health center was accredited as a COVID-19 vaccination site by Government of Uganda and received Segal Family Foundation (SFF) award to increase equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine in Central Uganda specially for underserved communities and vulnerable populations.

Kitovu Mobile with funding from BMZ Germany, through the Grandmothers’ Consortium(GC) started implementing a 4-year project aimed at strengthening government and non-governmental monitoring and accountability mechanisms for implementation of Uganda’s social policies targeting older people and community leaders in Kyotera district to improve accessibility to national social protection programmes and other social services.

The CDC DREAMS project annual funding and Implementation moved from Masaka district to Kyotera and Rakai districts due to a shift in geographical risk profile, while maintaining its focus on the HIV most at risk subpopulation of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW).

 

X