Background of the organization

 “Kitovu Mobile” was started by the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) in the year 1987 as a response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in the district of Rakai.  By then, they were based at Kitovu Hospital.  Sr. Ursula Sharpe MMM was carrying out routine community based health care in Rakai district when a considerable number of AIDS patients increasingly asked for help. Funding was sought from outside the country and a Mobile Home Care Program caring for AIDS patients within their homes was started with a small Suzuki car (donated by CAFOD) two nurses and a driver.  

As already noted, at the beginning, the Programme staff visited individual clients in their homes to give them medical and psychosocial support. Eventually the numbers grew to such levels that it was no longer feasible to visit individual patients in their homes. Meeting centers (places of convenience to the patients in a given community) were chosen in consultation with the patients. These included churchyards, schools or residences of one of the clients within a given community. AIDS clients are visited in their respective centers every after two weeks and only the bed ridden or those requiring specialized care are visited in their homes.

While caring for the sick, it was found necessary to prevent new infections. “Kitovu Mobile”  started to mobilize and sensitize the communities about HIV/AIDS prevention and care. In order to augment the work of the program, a new cadre of health workers based in the community was found to be necessary. Community volunteers referred to as community workers (CWs) were subsequently identified and trained in the different aspects of HIV/AIDS care and management. These CWs now approximately 750 in total support the program in co-coordinating all program activities in their respective communities. CWs have been and remain a major component of the program and their voluntary spirit is the backbone of MAHCOP.

As part of the counseling, positive living was encouraged, but the question was asked as to how people could live positively when they had so many needs. This led to the provision of expressed priority needs such as orphan school support, house construction and repair, food relief and other basic materials.  In 1989, it was also felt that socio-economic needs could no longer be ignored and Income generating activities (IGAs) were introduced. 

A variety of IGAs have been supported with activities based on agriculture being the most common. In 1998, we embarked on training teenage school dropouts mostly orphans in sustainable modernized organic farming through the Mobile Farm School (MFS). Due to HIV/AIDS with its unlimited impacts like trauma, psycho social support/counseling has become a key component.   Community approach is the underlying factor for all our interventions.

The program activities are spread over three districts of Masaka, Rakai and Ssembabule within 25 Sub counties  (i.e.  Rakai -13 sub-counties), Masaka -11 sub-counties and Ssembabule -1sub county)