The Kawempe Home-based Care Alliance: Together for Recognition and Support

Abstract

This two-part video illustrates the activities, achievements and challenges of Uganda Community Based Association for Child Welfare (UCOBAC), a non-governmental organization in the urban slum areas of Kawempe, in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The Home-based Care Alliance is an initiative of GROOTS International, which was initially piloted in Kenya in 2005 and is now being replicated and organized in other countries including Uganda. It aims to bring recognition to the contributions of home-based caregivers, to shift resources and decision-making power to caregivers, to form a broad network for peer learning and to serve as a platform for advocacy and negotiations with government, donors, and other decision makers in the field of the fight against HIV/AIDS. The goals of the HBC Alliance are to organize a social movement aimed at supporting grassroots women caregivers to have the primary outcome of strengthening the provision of care services and care systems and the secondary outcome of strengthening women’s political participation and their position within certain societal structures.