Context
Uganda has a population of 46 million people, more than a third of whom live below the poverty line. It ranks 162 out of 189 on the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index. Children are the first victims of the abject poverty, as their families are unable to ensure their health and well-being, especially in remote areas of the country.
The impurity of the water that households use leads to acute diarrheal diseases, which are often fatal. Every year, 1.5 million children die from diarrhea worldwide.
FXB in action
In the early 1990s, FXB’s founder, Albina du Boisrouvray, wanted to expand the organization’s activities in Africa, specifically in Uganda, which had many orphans due to AIDS, war and other causes. In 1991, FXB launched its first assistance programme for biological or extended families within the community to take in these orphans.
The goal was to provide them with the means to meet their basic needs so that they could raise, protect and provide a dignified future for these children. Each family received a seed capital in-kind to start an income-generating activity and support for the children’s nutrition and schooling. These were the first steps in our poverty reduction model: the ” Economic and Community Development FXBVillage ” programs.
By combining access to food security, adequate health services and disease prevention, education for children, safe housing and appropriate sanitation facilities, and a regular source of income through microenterprise development, FXB has, through 37 Economic and Community Development FXBVillage programs, lifted 25,000 adults and children out of extreme poverty since 1991.
In addition, in order to create a lasting impact and bring about behavioral change, FXB has organized numerous capacity building sessions for communities. Family planning, the importance of education, WASH, hygiene, health, prevention of HIV/AIDS and other diseases, violence against women, children’s rights, and environmental protection have all been addressed.
