Photograph: Richard M Kavuma
It has been six months since the Katine Community Partnership Project was launched. Over that time the Guardian has been tracking the work of Amref and Farm-Africa as they seek to improve the lives of the 25,000 inhabitants of the sub-county in northern Uganda.
So, what progress has been made since October last year? Richard M Kavuma, a Ugandan journalist who is reporting on the Katine project for the Guardian, and Mark King found visible signs of improvement, and Amref and Farm-Africa have reported their six-month highlights in the five key areas the project is targeting.
In education, for example, seven classrooms, an office block and two blocks of pit latrines are being built at Amorikot primary school. A second school, Kadinya-Katine primary, is also scheduled to get more classrooms and latrines.
Five boreholes have been rehabilitated and eight more drilled. Five water tanks have been installed in five schools to give pupils access to clean water.
Sanitation kits have been distributed to all 13 primary schools in Katine and six parishes to promote better healthcare. Water committees have been established and members trained in borehole maintenance and to monitor water supplies. Bicycles, crucial for transport around the sub-county, which covers 21,400 hectares (83 square miles), have been given to village health teams to allow them to better travel around Katine.
Clinical staff and healthcare workers have received training in a range of medical areas, such as malaria prevention and control, management of childhood illness, spotting dangers during pregnancy and in HIV/Aids prevention.
Farm-Africa is involved in on-going discussions with small farmers to assess training needs, look at how farming technology can be improved and at potential new markets for the sale of goods.
Much work has been done to set up committees, organise meetings and establish the structures needed to allow Katine to continue to develop when the project ends in 2010, says Jo Ensor, chief executive of Amref UK. Ensor wants to ensure residents take part in the process of change and are empowered to demand their rights to electricity, education, and decent healthcare.
She admits this will mean progress will be slow, but when results come they will be sustainable and not dependent on outside help. In turn, she believes this success will spill out to neighbouring communities and even the rest of the country.
But what do you think of the progress made so far? After six months do you think Amref and Farm-Africa are on the right track, or is it time to make changes?
