Aisha Creates Access to Healthcare Amid a Pandemic

Countries throughout Africa have endured some of the toughest national lockdowns during the pandemic, disallowing many people from accessing basic necessities like medication. But that hasn’t stopped local leaders and The Hunger Project-Uganda from ensuring that communities maintain access to important education opportunities, healthcare and critical resources. One such local leader, Aisha Nanfuka, a 45-year-old mother of four daughters in Uganda, activated an innovative network of women volunteers that arranged door-to-door delivery of contraceptives and antiretroviral therapy along with gynecological care for the people of their community throughout the lockdown.

Aisha worked tirelessly to ensure that women in her community continued to access family planning services despite the pandemic. She spearheaded a family planning outreach in eight villages by mobilizing 16 of her fellow Hunger Project volunteers to make weekly rounds from Mpigi Epicenter’s health center. They collected data on the community’s health and ensured the continued distribution of oral contraceptive pills to women in the community who had previously registered for care and distributed antiretrovirals to HIV+ clients who couldn’t walk the long distances to the health center. Aisha’s team directly impacted 153 women with their medication delivery program, ensured that 22 women underwent cervical cancer screening and saw that one woman received a necessary surgery.

This story originally appeared in Kultura Magazine and was compiled by The Hunger Project Global.