St John Uganda is running a maternal and child health programme to tackle high maternal and neonatal mortality rates.

One in 29 women in the country has a lifetime risk of dying from complications in pregnancy or childbirth. For every death, there are many more women who suffer illness, injury or disability. Also, out of every one thousand children born in Uganda, 43 of them will not reach their first birthday.

We are supporting the local government’s efforts to improve the availability of timely and essential care for pregnant women and new mothers with babies.

In the first two years after its launch, our Mother and Baby programme reached a total of 9,000 people with low-cost and high quality activities.

Our volunteers make door-to-door visits to support expectant and new parents, encourage them to use medical services early and often enough. They also help families to develop a birth plan and what to do in an emergency. Community health education sessions reach women and girls before their first or next pregnancy, and promotes wider support among community members for pregnant women and new mothers.

St John also supplies a basic package of support to local clinics, such as scales to weigh pregnant women and newborns, blood pressure monitors and sterilising equipment. In remote villages, where health services are not available, our volunteers work together with local health staff to provide outreach clinics. These makeshift clinics in tents or spare rooms provide HIV testing, family planning, and checks for pregnant women, new mothers and babies.

Motherandbaby
St. John volunteers in partnership with the ministry of health and Community Based Organisations, reach out to adolescents on issues of HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and personal hygiene among others. St. John divisions in Uganda building on the strength of the volunteers reach out to the youth through peer to peer approach. The strategy of using youth-youth talks has been very successful in delivering health education and has initiated behaviour change among adolescents.
The peer groups have been formed using the existing brigade structure of St.John where badgers and cadets are first trained by the peer educators to reach out to others. The approach has since helped to reduce drug abuse, alcoholism, early pregnancies, and ultimately built resilience and self.

A charitable spirit among St. John volunteers is the source of inspiration that fulfils their obsequious ambitions to duly serve their communities. St.John volunteers identify the most vulnerable and neglected groups in the community. The volunteers organize fundraising events where community members contribute in kind materials and money for the needy. The elderly, the sick, and the disabled are some of the beneficiaries of the charity missions of St. John. The materials and money contributed in kind by the community members and later distributed amongst the needy for instance Nalukolongo.

In partnership with Kampala City Council Authority, St. John volunteers mobilize communities to participate in general cleaning activities geared towards improving community Health. This is done every last Saturday of the month. The community general cleaning campaign involves slashing the environment around homesteads, collecting and burning rubbish and sweeping roads among others.  Kampala City Council Authority treasures the role of St.John volunteers in the implementation of the Authority.

Road safety in Uganda is poor and police reports say it has deteriorated over the last 20 years, due to the growing vehicle population and lack of resources for appropriate road safety interventions.
In partnership with Uganda Traffic Police, The Ministry of Health and DFCU bank, St.John through its well coordinated Emergency call center at the Head offices in Kampala is able liase well with its divisions to respond to emergencies wherever they may be.
Over the years, the success story of Uganda in the reduction of HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country is due to the many key players including St.John.  St.John volunteers have continued over the years to sensitize communities about the HIV/AIDS scourge and making sure that people test and receive counselling services from a modern Health facility where appropriate treatment and care is available. The vibrant St.John volunteers, youths, adults, children, the married, and all other groups have been reached by the outstanding efforts of St.John. St.John volunteers are well trained in counselling and have since helped to restore hope in HIV/AIDS patients who are always stigmatized in communities they live in.

Building on the expertise of St.John volunteers in Home based care, they are now established in caring for the vulnerable groups such as the sick, the elderly, and expectant mothers among others in rural communities. Priority has been given to HIV/AIDS patients, expectant mothers and the elderly while focusing on training a care taker in each family in the rural communities.

With due diligence, St.John volunteers offer first aid and ambulance services during public gatherings. Public functions attended to include, sports events, concerts, festivals, national celebrations among others.
Public functions attended to – range from village based gatherings to national celebrations such as the inter school competitions in robust sports such as football, Netball, Basketball, Tennis and Rugby among others; have enormously been attended to by St.John volunteers through the provision of First aid and referral services to the sick and  injured persons.  St.John Ambulance in Uganda is given first priority in provision of medical cover during public functions.