2019 Annual Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Founded on the premise that everyone has the right to a healthy life, the African Community Center for Social Sustainability (ACCESS) works with rural communities. Our mission is to work with vulnerable people in resource-limited settings through the provision of medical care, education, and economic empowerment to create long-lasting change that is owned by the entire community.

With continued support from our partners in 2019, we have been able to construct a 500-square-meter health facility that will accommodate ten beds and increase access to quality maternal and newborn care in Nakaseke. This year, we graduated our second and third cohorts of ninety-five nurses and midwives from the ACCESS School of Nursing and Midwifery (ASNM), as well as twenty-one students from our pre-school, which is currently attended by seventy children. We have embarked on the journey to construct a pre-school block that will accommodate about 200 children.

Meanwhile, we continue to support 450 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) to attain quality preschool, primary, secondary, and tertiary or university education. In the health sector, we have received 12,618 patient visits at our LifeCare Medical Center. We have implemented a community-based Community Health Worker (CHW) Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) screening program in three sub-counties in Nakaseke District. Through this program, over 4,000 Nakaseke residents were screened for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and chronic kidney disease while 770 NCD clients were recruited and received patient care in these three clinics. We have also continued providing family planning services. In fact, we distributed 107,767 free family planning services amounting to 42,634 Couple Years of Protection (CYP), a measure that estimates protection from pregnancy provided by contraceptive methods during a one-year period, making us the leading provider of quality family planning services in Nakaseke District.

Furthermore, we have set up numerous income-generating projects, among which include a goat farm and fish farm. These will be used as model farms for the Nakaseke community. We have also maintained our connection with the community through recruiting, training, supervising, and empowering 125 community health workers (CHW) who provide support to all ACCESS community projects. Our work continues to be recognized through both local and international awards.

This report brings to you our achievements and lessons learned in the areas of economic empowerment, medical care, and education in 2019.