Rwenzori Center for Research and advocacy (RCRA) was registered fully by the law of Uganda in 2014. An interview with Mr. Jostas Mwebembezi (Statistician)-Founder. How did you start RCRA? I founded RCRA in 2010, I was involved in data collection to update municipality statistical abstract, while speaking with pregnant mother and mother of the newborn, I asked the pregnant mother if she knew her expected date of delivery (EDD) and if she had made childbirth plan, she replied no, I asked if she could remember her last menstrual period (LMP) she said yes.
I also asked the mother of the newborn if the child was fully immunized and seeking health centre services whenever child is sick and if she knew child feeding best practices including breastfeeding and eating vegetables among many others, she replied no.
By that time, I had no experience of running an organization, but using my mathematics knowledge I knew I could use LMP to calculate EDD for every pregnant mother and once I have generated the EDD then I can generate a schedule showing which trimester every pregnant mothers falls in and then using Ministry of Health essential maternal and neonatal child healthcare I would generate information recommended on each trimester including the dos and don’ts during pregnancy, and during home visits, assist pregnant mothers make a birth-plan of either normal or C-section while attending the antenatal and in consultation with the clinician on the health status of the unborn baby. Similarly, mother of newborn would get assisted with feeding advise and menu for the better child growth outcomes.
I visited the Director of the Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital by then Dr. Charles and Dr Obeti Richard- by then a District Health Office Kabarole and Dr. Richard Mugahi (who later provided first office space for RCRA, ) to validate my idea of empowering pregnant mothers and mothers of the newborn to prevent all preventable maternal deaths and child mortality in our community which I read in the district statistical abstract 2010,
I remember asking Doctors, ‘’why are women dying from preventable maternal deaths?, why can’t children celebrate their first or fifth birth anniversaries? ’’ he said mothers lack vital information and others use traditional birth attendants (TBAs), I was so concerned, if the vital health care information exists then it should be delivered to the community because if people are informed they would strive to be healthier and escape preventable health challenges
I started as a peer educator help pregnant women to know their pregnancy trimester and making a birth-plan, developing a household action plan, educating the pregnant mothers on the dos and don’ts during pregnancy, seeking on health centre and clinician advise, feeding well and avoiding and managing stress, attending all the 4 antenatal visits and delivering from the health facility with a skilled midwife.
And the mothers of newborn were educated on the benefits of breastfeeding, child immunization completion and seeking trained provider care for the newborn when is sick.
Much as I had no experience on running the organization but people would listen to me and do what I educated them to do, this motivated me to continue the mission, and finding resourceful volunteers in the community, and later I recruited the Village Health Teams as volunteers for home-based health education, identified pregnancy danger signs and malnutrition and make several referrals to the health facility and tracked all referrals to ensure those we referred had received a service referred for.
In July 2014, RCRA was fully registered and incorporated by the law of Uganda a non-profit organization by a group of health professionals including medical doctors, social scientists, biostatistician, and public health leaders.
In 2019, I led a very successful integrated family planning mobile day clinic which was attend by near 800 people at Kasangali Primary school in Kasese, where I witnessed how people are leaving with sickness in the marginalized rural communities, I continued outreaches working closely with the District Ministry of Health and now delivering 24 annual mobile outreach day clinics offering a full range of Family Planning treatments, Antenatal care, immunization, child deworming, cervical cancer screening, Hep B testing, Malaria testing and treatment, HIV testing and counseling and referring clients, and general doctor consultations.
In 2020 RCRA registered with the United States, in Ohio State and was granted a 501(C)(3) foreign public charity status by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as tax-exempted organization. EIN 98-1511659
In 2021 I started not-for-profit Community Health Centre III and Adolescent Recreation Centre in Rugendabara after the community and outreach clinic attendants demand a place where they could find us if they wanted our health care services.
Today RCRA is the leading provider of community maternal and child healthcare non-profit organization in the Rwenzori region
Funding
Currently, 1,000 Women’s Gardens is supported by over 200 individual donors through Global Giving as well as funding from the Packard Foundation and 128 Collective
