Maternal and child nutrition are still big threat in Uganda, With 30% of children under 5 stunted, 4.5% wasted, only 40% having recommended number of meals per day the future of these children is brick without assistance. The situation is not different for women as 30% of women in their reproductive age are anemic, only 40% of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers have recommended number of meals per day most often limited in variety and micro. 13.1% and 18.8 % are in Northern and Western Uganda like Moroto, Amuru and isingiro (UBOS, 2011). In a base line evaluation and formative research conducted by pachedo in year 2018 at pabbo sub-county in Amuru district, the situation are not differs as 27.3% are stunted, 16.0% underweight, 22.7 % having recommended number of meal per day and global acute malnutrition stands at 9.0%. In refugee host districts like Lamwo and Moyo the situation is worse as In April 2020, World Food Programme (WFP) announced that there would be 30% reduction in the food ration for all refugees in Uganda. Couple together with government lock down this means many activities has been put to stand still and many will not be able to meet the daily food needs exposing them to malnutrition especially children under five, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, elderly. The call for action now is more urgent than before if we are save a live.
Hand washing with soap help lower the incident of diarrhea by 53% in young children (Mubina, Stephen, et al, 2005), thus washing hand with soap when done correctly, is critical in the fight against hygiene related disease and COVID-19 but 3 billion people have no ready access to a place to wash their hands with soap at home (WHO 2020). In Uganda particularly only 28% have access to a functional hand washing facilities (UBOS, 2011), a baseline evaluation and formative research conducted by pachedo in year 2018 at pabbo sub-county in Amuru district indicate that only 16.9% has access to functional handwashing facilities. With the outbreak of covid-19 a great job has been done educating the public on preventive and protective measures but only 30% in Rihino camp setting has functional hand washing facilities with soap (Namara, et al. 2020), as the gradual lifting of the lockdown gets underway strict standard operating procedures (Sops) by ministry of health has to be followed. this has cause acute demand for sanitation and hygiene supplies, it’s even worse among the disadvantaged communities and high risk profile district in Uganda like Amuru, Moroto, Lamwo, moyo, and insingiro since the do not have the capacity to compete for this scarce resources exposing to high risk.
