Choose Life
Uganda
Launched in 2018, the Choose Life programme continues with a series of activities aimed at the socio-occupational inclusion of HIV-positive adults and young people. The intervention is implemented by Choose Life Home Based Care (CLHBC), a community organisation founded by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Moroto, Karamoja region, in 2007.
In northern Uganda, in the Karamoja region, there are worrying rates of illiteracy among women, with more than 70 per cent of girls and women never having started and/or completed primary education, and only one in 10 having received secondary education. The two years of school closures as a measure to prevent the spread of Covid-19 made the situation even worse, due to the dramatic increase in pregnancies and early marriages. Female schooling and education rates are even lower for HIV-positive girls and women due to the strong stigma still caused by HIV. Although the incidence remains low (around 4%) compared to the rest of the country, the spread of HIV in Karamoja has been increasing since 2017 also due to the lack of an adequate prevention and awareness system. The consequences of the spread of the disease here are particularly dramatic for women, as - in the absence of adequate care and attention - it contributes to a particularly high maternal mortality rate. It is therefore necessary to intervene with projects to support HIV-positive women in the region, also aimed at raising awareness and prevention of the spread of HIV.
Our commitment
In the province of Moroto, alongside the specialised association ‘Choose Life Home Based Care’, the Costa Family Foundation is committed to providing literacy courses and vocational training to 80 HIV-positive girls and women in Karamoja, also helping them to start a small business by lending them small sums using the micro-credit method.
Specifically, we provide them with
- Basic literacy, with training on how to start and run a self-sustaining business and related earnings;
- Training in agro-forestry activities, both as income-generating work and as a means of improving family nutrition;
- Training in beekeeping and honey processing, as a new income-generating occupation.
The main objective of the project is to improve the social and economic conditions of fragile and marginalised HIV-positive women in the Moroto area, making them more aware and independent, and to prevent the transmission of the virus in the region.
Other projects in Uganda
