HOW THE WEB BLOG TRANSFORMED CHARLES’S ORGANIZATION

Rwenzori Rural Health Services (RRHS) is a community based organization (CBO) whose vision is to see every house hold having all the health amenities, acceptable health records and reduced morbidity and mortality rates in the community. In the bid to boost its capacity, skills and knowledge on community service, RRHS networks with several likeminded organizations.

In the same vein, Mr. Charles Kiima the RRHS Director reached out to Rwenzori Information Centres Network (RIC-NET) to support them in the development and use of on-line platforms and other social media. The purpose of which was to acquire skills in the same to allow for a wider and faster sharing of information about RRHS activities with the outside world, and, to also match with the current IT trends, aka dot.com society. “I desperately wanted to have a website for my CBO and to learn how it operates. I pestered the RIC-NET Director Mr. John Silco to orient me in this because I had previously seen him working on the Website for Kasese District. John later invited me to the E-Resource  Centre at Kasese  District Head quarters and introduced me to one ICT Officer Samuel Mukamba to me teach me what I needed to learn”, explains Mr. Charles Kiima.

While at the E-Society Centre Charles learnt how to develop and use a web blog. “ I actually started with developing one for RRHS; http://rrhkasese.blogspot.com and also uploaded relevant organizational information and activity photos on it. Little did I know that this was the beginning of great visibility and growth for RRHS. It was our turning point as an organization” he asserts. Immediately International friends and organizations started contacting them. They thanked them for their interventions, and expressed interest in supporting RRHS.  For starters RRHS got a lot of on-line technical guidance from one Jim Chapman a project consultant based in the USA.  Jim’s guidance helped RRHS in refocusing and improving their interventions for the better. They later received 363,000shilllings from Mithai Avondestonet in the USA for community rural medication free supply Program. With this RRHS was able to extend free medical services to a bigger number in the community. As usual results were documented and shared on the blog.  From their routine sharing another partner supported RRHS with 3,500.000 shillings for renovation of water springs in the community. This was aimed at improving access to safe and clean water by the community.

The constructed Rural Maternity Centre

The pace had been set, many more institutions and persons that accessed the RRHS blog reached out to it and supported their different community interventions; Volunteers without boundaries in the USA donated 10,000,000 shillings for starting a mini gravity flow scheme to run approximately 4.5 kilometers in Nyakabingo Village, Rukoki Sub County; meanwhile another partner donated approximately 12,000,000 million shillings for constructing a water reservoir tank to feed into the gravity flow scheme. In Oct 2011 the Dutch Organization too donated 14,000,000 million shillings to construct a rural maternity centre.

Other support was received from SNV. This offers capacity building to RHS in its advocacy for clean and safe water, improved sanitation and hygiene in ten primary schools in Kasese District. With excitement Charles indicates how grateful he is to RIC-NET for the training; “I am grateful to RIC-NET for equipping me with the knowledge and skills in the use of on-line platforms and social media that have enabled me to share our work and also attract support from all the above partners and more”.

RRHS is equally grateful to all its partners and funders for their interest in it and support given, without which it would not have been able to cause positive impact in the community, and also register the various achievements. Among others RRHS is particularly grateful to the Foundation for Community Development and Empowerment (FCDE) in USA for awarding it a Certificate of acknowledgement for its good performance in community work. 

Apart from attracting funders, RRHS has also been instrumental in passing on these skills and knowledge to other institutions for instance it guided Miriam Medical Centre to develop and regularly update its weblog; http://miriammedicalcentre.blogspot.com/; which accordingly has in return enhanced the centre’s visibility on the services offered. Mr. Charles appeals to everyone to dedicate their efforts to community service and to value regular sharing of information using ICTs because the world seems to have moved in this direction as opposed to the traditional methods.