By Anzoo Evaline

The health sector in Adjumani District has registered tremendous progress in maternal and child health, attributed to the ongoing interventions under the SHARE Project. District health officials have revealed that between July 2024 and May 24, 2025, the district recorded only two maternal mortality deaths out of 13,577 deliveries, signaling a significant improvement in safe motherhood.

Dr. Lulu Henry Leku, the District Health Officer in charge of Child and Maternal Health, described the outcome as a milestone. He explained that of the 13,577 deliveries, 13,575 were safe, reflecting a drop in maternal deaths from 41 per 100,000 live births to 15 per 100,000 live births, now aligning with the national standard.

“We have seen progressive reduction in our institution of maternal mortality ratio. From the last financial year, 41 per 100,000 life birth to the current 15 per 100,000 life birth. To put that into perspective, from the month of July up to the 24th of May 2025, we lost two mothers out of 13,577 mothers that came for delivery. And that means the 13,575 were saved. All of them had safe delivery. And that shows the kind of progress we have made as a district because of the collective effort including the contribution of the share project towards this indicator”, The DHO emphasized.

The share project is a sexual health and reproductive education project. it’s a five-year project which on a broader perspective is being implemented in three countries in Africa. Uganda is one of the countries., Ghana and then Mozambique. In Uganda, Right to play is the lead partner of the project, forum for African women educationalist (FAWE), WaterAid and then Family Health International 360 degrees.

The project is looking at a total target of 44,671 beneficiaries of young women and 29,825 young men out of school. 14,769 girls and 9,846 boys in school. So, the project targeted adolescence in school and adolescence out of school.

Adjumani District currently has 43 health care facilities, all of which have benefited from the SHARE Project. “And so, through this initiative, we have established 43 health facilities that is able to appropriately respond to the needs of adults and girls and young women and all women of reproductive age. So, we want to report to the public that Since then, we have seen improvement in access and utilization of adolescent health services”, said Dr. Lulu Henry.

These initiatives have not only improved maternal outcomes but also boosted outpatient attendance among adolescents, leading to a notable decline in teenage pregnancies, which now stand at 15.7%. “We have also seen improvement in our key adolescent health indicators, our teenage pregnancies as well be at 15.7% compared to the national average of 24%”, He added.

Dribareo Agnes one of the VHTs from ciforo sub county whose capacity has been built under the project explained that. “ Before our capacity have not been built, we have being doing things anyhow, we don’t care whether we shall conduct infections because for us we don’t bother to use the gloves when treating a patient but after the training by Water and other partners, we are now doing well, on 20th , June 2025, I even referred on mother to the hospital when she was in labour pain” Dribareo explained.

A representative working with WaterAid based in Adjumani district particularly implementing the WASH project under SHARE project that focuses much in the 43 three health care facilities said that.

“In Maijji B Health Centre 2, we rehabilitated their only surviving sanitation facility which was in a very horrible state., we went ahead to support them with a motorized water supply system and in Ofua but Ofua had a bigger challenge than Maijji B because their only sanitation blocks which were there were already full and they are non-drainable So we give them two more block of sanitation facility. Each block has the washroom attached to them. Then we also got for them a permanent hand washing facility. The maternity ward was not in a very bad state. The ceiling was almost falling. The cracks were too much. So, we rehabilitated the ceiling for that ward, but we realized the entire ceiling was not done well. So, we did the entire block. This is to ensure that we eliminate the challenges of our inpatient having no where to bath from. That’s number one. Number two, to support our adolescent girls and young women. When they come to get health care services and they are into their period. They will need to clean themselves. They will need to change their pads. So, where would they do it? That’s why constructed those facilities”, He said.

Uthman Bagonza the project manager working with right to play also said that. “as Right to Play, we are the lead partner as far as the share project is concern and focused much in ensuring that the Adolescent girls and boys have access to services like education, health though we much focused in the primary school sector as FAWE deals with the secondary schools but also under health we  have managed to supply sport materials to all the 43 health centres to improve on the re visit of the facilities by the adolescents”, said Uthman.

With this progress, Adjumani District is positioning itself as a model for maternal and child health improvement in Uganda. Authorities say the focus will remain on strengthening health systems, expanding adolescent-friendly services, and enhancing community awareness to reduce preventable deaths and health risks further.