Lira, Uganda | Wanacel Foundation has intensified community sensitisation on hygiene, sanitation, and preventive healthcare, with residents of Amin-nyanga Cell, Amuca Ward in Lira City urged to take greater responsibility for keeping their homes and surroundings clean.
The sensitisation was conducted on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, by the Wanacel Foundation through its community health outreach programme. The activity sought to complement the government’s national cleanliness campaign by encouraging communities to adopt good hygiene practices and promote healthier homes.
Wanacel Foundation Executive Director Patricia Aceng Ogwang, who is also the proprietor of Wanacel Community Clinic, said the outreach was intended to bring health information and selected services closer to communities. She urged residents to be patriotic by actively participating in keeping their surroundings clean, consuming safe food, and protecting pregnant mothers. Aceng, however, said records at her facility showed that urinary tract infections (UTIs) remained a significant health burden in the community, calling for government intervention to address the problem.
Amony Caroline and Tino Christine, Village Health Teams (VHTs) from Amin-nyanga Cell, said poverty continues to discourage some residents from seeking timely medical care. They said VHTs receive malaria testing kits and medicines from government health facilities, which they use to provide basic services and make referrals where necessary in complicated cases. The VHTs urged pregnant women to begin antenatal care (ANC) as early as three months into pregnancy and called for increased supplies of malaria test kits and medicines. They also appealed to the government to provide Panadol alongside Coartem supplied to VHTs.
Amin-nyanga LC1 chairperson Alele George welcomed the outreach, saying it had helped take health information and services closer to residents. He cautioned the community against using shallow boreholes constructed near swamps, saying tests conducted by health experts had found some of the water unsafe for human consumption, although it could be used for washing clothes, noting that financial challenges often prevent people from seeking medical services.
Victoria Odongo, a resident who attended the outreach, called for regular community sensitisation on the prevention of UTIs. She attributed what she described as the widespread prevalence of the infections to multiple sexual relationships among some young and older people, saying continuous health education was necessary to promote responsible behaviour and early treatment.
During the outreach, children below five years received free Vitamin A supplementation, while community members were offered free HIV testing and liquid soap.
Wanacel Foundation is a non-profit women’s rights and advocacy organisation based in Lira City, Uganda. Founded on April 4, 2016, by journalist and public health advocate Patricia Aceng Ogwang, the foundation focuses on empowering women, girls and child-headed families, promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV prevention, community health services, education opportunities for vulnerable learners, and advocacy against gender-based violence.