School of Social Sciences (SSS)
http://hdl.handle.net/10570/33
2024-03-29T01:47:27ZAccess and utilization of maternal healthcare services among pregnant women in Yei Sub County, Central Equatoria State South Sudan: a case study of Jigomoni and Aleru Health Centres
http://hdl.handle.net/10570/12539
Access and utilization of maternal healthcare services among pregnant women in Yei Sub County, Central Equatoria State South Sudan: a case study of Jigomoni and Aleru Health Centres
Bida, Emmanuel Francis
The study set out to assess accessibility and utilization of maternal and child healthcare services in Sub County, central equatorial province South Sudan. This was in light of the view that despite massive investment of resources and attention to the different health facilities in the country by the government, there seems little progress registered in terms of reduction of maternal and child mortality rates. The study specifically sought to establish the nature of maternal and child health care services, explore factors that influence access and utilization of healthcare services and propose institutional level strategies to improve healthcare service delivery in Yei sub county. The study adopted descriptive research design so as to capture the historical and prevailing circumstance on the ground. To avoid unrealistic results, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. Qualitative data was collected using in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, and non-participant observation since it involves respondents‟ experiences, beliefs and attitudes while quantitative method was used to establish percentage of respondents by sex, name and others. Data was entered into the SPSS (version 23) computer programme and analyzed with descriptive statistical tools. The study established that are quite a number of MHCS offered to women by various health providers these include; Antenatal care, family planning services and immunization of their children among others. There is high level of awareness among women for the different MHCS provided in the different facilities but this is not matched with access and utilization due to long distances that have to be travelled by women to access care, the backward cultural norms and orientations which deter women from using facilities for fear of shame and loss of dignity, hostility displayed by health workers towards patients which scare off many women hence resort to use TBAs, the high transport costs which affect women especially in remote areas however, pregnancies perceived as risky make women by all means to seek care from experienced and trained physicians. It was recommended that Ministry of Health in South Sudan should increase the number of Community Health Centers in south Sudan for easy accessibility, adequate staff especially nurses should be appointed at the existing Health centers to reduce on the long waiting time, improve physical infrastructure, essential drugs supplies, equipment to improve the extremely difficult working conditions for staff and enable providers to offer quality care, education programmes to women of Christian, Islamic and traditionalist beliefs on the importance of Maternal Health and Childcare Service utilization which can be routed through religious and community leaders.
A research report submitted to the School of Social Sciences, Department of Social Work and Social Administration in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Social Sector Planning and Management of Makerere University.
2023-11-01T00:00:00ZAccess to childcare services among children living with imprisoned mothers in Masaka Women Prison
http://hdl.handle.net/10570/11142
Access to childcare services among children living with imprisoned mothers in Masaka Women Prison
Mutiti, Stella
In different parts of the globe, the number of children incarcerated with their mothers in prisons has greatly increased. Growing up in a prison environment is identified with several implications for the growth of children. Like children in home and community settings, children incarcerated with their mothers in prison are entitled to childcare services. However, information on the access of childcare services by children incarcerated with their mothers is scanty. Upon this background therefore, the study sought to examine access to childcare services among children living with their imprisoned mothers in Masaka Women Prison. A cross sectional case study design was adopted utilizing qualitative approaches. 15 in-depth interviews were conducted with mothers living with their children in Masaka Women Prison. Four Key informant interviews with Prison officials were also conducted. Non-probability sampling techniques were used to identify mothers imprisoned with their children. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data where key concepts, ideas and themes were identified, coded and patterns in the data categorized. Study findings reveal although the Prison Act stipulates the circumstances under which a child can be incarcerated with the mother, the act is not much followed when deciding whether the child should be incarcerated with the mother or not. Most of the mothers who were incarcerated with their children argued that they wouldn’t have wished to be imprisoned with their children if there was an alternative. While study results indicate that the need for childcare services for children incarcerated with their mothers, most of these services are not partially accessed. In situations where childcare services are provided to the children, they are either inadequate or occasionally provided. In addition, most of the childcare services are provided through donations either from religious institutions or other well-wishers. However, these have to provide the services within the existing prison policies and laws. Nonetheless, the study identifies open partnership policy, availability of human resources and the good relationship with the donor/well wishers as opportunities to strengthen access to childcare services. In conclusion, Children incarcerated with their mothers in prison require a serious childcare service intervention if a holistic growth and development of these children is something to think about. While there is access to some childcare services for these children, it is still early for the prison authority to jubilate success in the provision of childcare services. This is because a number of inhibiting factors were reported by the study findings ranging from poor quality of the services, inadequacy of the services provided and the procedural tendencies associated with access to the services. It is therefore recommended that more resources be committed to the childcare services for children living with their imprisoned mothers or else the poor care environments in prisons these children are exposed to, mean that they face even a harsher sentence than their parents do.
A dissertation submitted to the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Masters of Arts Degree in Social Sector Planning and Management of Makerere University.
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZAccess to educational services for the physically impaired pupils under the universal primary education in Uganda: A case study of Kampala District
http://hdl.handle.net/10570/3433
Access to educational services for the physically impaired pupils under the universal primary education in Uganda: A case study of Kampala District
Nanyonga, Dorothy
Education is one of the basic social services the country can offer its people because it positively affects socio - economic behaviors such as productivity in the workplace, living standards, demographic, reproductive and health behavior.
Despite it being one of the basic human rights, children with disabilities have, over the years, persistently faced problems in attaining this social service. They comprise one of the most socially excluded groups in all societies. The World Bank asserts that in developing countries, the vast majority of these children receive no education, are absent in school datasets and are invisible on the national policy agenda.
The current NRM Government attaches great importance to the development of education in Uganda for it recognizes the fact that education is a powerful tool for the transformation of society. This is clearly stipulated in its 1995 constitution where Article 30 of the constitution states. “All persons have a right to education”. [the disabled inclusive].This also partly explains why the Government of Uganda launched the free Universal Primary Education in January 1997. Some of its key features was that children with disabilities should have priority over the non – disabled children.
However, the program has not effectively catered for the special education needs of children with physical disabilities. Statistics show that actually there is no increased enrollment of the disabled children despite this free government education program. There has actually been a problem in the accessibility to educational services by the physically impaired pupils under Universal Primary Education program and reasons for this have been unknown so this called for a scientific investigation to explore the socio-economic, socio cultural and policy factors that explains this problem; a task this study undertook.
The study was carried out in Kampala district, and respondents were selected from at least each division among the five divisions of this district. The sample size was 70 respondents in the categories of head teachers of primary schools, pupils with physical disabilities, able-bodied pupils; officials from the Ministry of Education, officials from the NGO related sector and parents of the disabled children.
The findings of the study revealed that actually the issue of accessibility by the physically impaired pupils under the Universal Primary education is affected by many factors which can be categorized under the school related, policies/laws and social-economic/cultural factors. Under the school related factors it was noted that the nature of the schools is not user friendly. Most of them are double storeyed, with no ramps but instead they have steps. Schools have no teachers trained in special needs education, no special curriculum, high teacher pupil ratio and over congestion in the classrooms.
Under the policies related factors it was realized that there are a number of good International and local policies that are in place advocating for the education of children with physical disabilities. However, the problem lies in the fact that they are not effectively implemented and enforced hence leaving them good on paper but not serving their major objectives.
Socio- cultural/socio-economic factors showed that negative attitudes towards children with disabilities stem right from their homes where they are born and this forces their parents to deny them their basic rights like a right to education. Negative attitudes coupled with the high levels of poverty in Uganda really aggregate the problem of accessibility to education. Education of
children with disabilities is very expensive the parent needs to buy assistive devices like wheel chairs, white cane sticks, which the government does not provide through its UPE Program.
More to this the community at large also has negative attitudes towards these children so they do not give them enough support when it comes to accessing this social service yet they are also some of the major key players. Negative attitudes then later stretches to the children themselves and they lose their self esteem and some end up performing poorly in class while others drop out of school.
The research therefore recommends that if the problem of accessibility to educational services by the physically impaired pupils under the UPE Program is to be solved, there must be an integrated interplay between all these factors and interventions from all the sectors to make their education a reality. However, more emphasis should be laid on the government intervention since all the factors rotate around its support as the founding member of UPE.
A Research dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the Degree of Master of Arts in Social Sector Planning and Management of Makerere University.
2008-01-01T00:00:00ZAccess to information and the right to health: A case of mothers seeking antenatal care services in Mulago Hospital.
http://hdl.handle.net/10570/2721
Access to information and the right to health: A case of mothers seeking antenatal care services in Mulago Hospital.
Watera, Josephine
This study investigated the association between access to information and the right to health for mothers seeking Ante-Natal (ANC) services in Mulago Hospital. This was against the background that access to health information is a basic need and right and that, despite this, mothers especially those seeking maternal health services are still lacking effective access to it. The study attempted to; explore the knowledge of mothers on access to information as a right to health; analyse the information needs of mothers seeking antenatal health care; investigate available channels of accessing information for mothers seeking antenatal care; and to discuss the barriers to access of health information by mothers seeking antenatal care services.
The study was informed by an important theory in health care delivery, namely, the Health Belief Model. It also borrows concepts from the Human Right Based Approach to health. Using a case study of Mulago Hospital, quantitative and qualitative approaches were engaged to conduct the study. Data was collected through Exit Client Interviews involving 98 mothers seeking ANC services, 2 Focus Group Discussions and 10 Key Informant Interviews and secondary sources. Quantitative–descriptive as well as thematic analysis was undertaken in the process of data analysis and interpretation of findings.
The findings indicate that access to information is the one most vital element for one to realize the right to health. The results show that the background characteristics of mothers influenced their knowledge of and desire to claim their right to health. Most mothers reported to have knowledge of the elements of the right to health though they could not clearly relate this to access to information. Many mothers usually have specific information needs as they seek ANC services though some of these miss out on meeting these needs. The mothers reported to have used a number of channels to access information. The study found out that ANC classes and the health provider-client interactions were the commonly used and also most preferred. A number of barriers were noted as mothers struggled to access health information. This included language barriers, outdated information, limited time, difficulty in interpretation among others.
The study concludes that access to information is paramount in realizing the right to health and reducing the diseases burden. The health providers and government of Uganda should fight to remove any barriers.
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Masters of Arts Degree in Social Sector Planning and Management of Makerere University.
2012-07-01T00:00:00Z