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Meeting Point International
2016
Mission
“ Offering a friendship in which people are not reduced to their problems or
sickness; they are looked at embraced for their infinite dignity of their humanity.”
REPORT 2016
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Meeting Point International 2016
Meeting Point International
Kampala,Uganda
MPI operates as a presence, a
companionship, a point of reference that
anyone can meet and involve him/herself
with. The methodology adopted by MPI is,
in fact, qualified by the offering of an
effective friendship in which people are not
“reduced” to their problems or sickness;
they are looked at and embraced for the
infinite dignity of their humanityThe
services and the activities provided are
important means to promote the
awareness of one’s own value and,
therefore, enhance responsibility in facing
reality as protagonist and contributes to
recreate a communitarian sociality besides
reducing, if not eliminating, the stigma of
HIV/AIDS.
Meeting Point International (MPI) is a
Ugandan Non Governmental Organisation
(NGO). It was registered with the Uganda
NGO Board in 2003 but had been
operating since 1992 as an unregistered
community based Organisation.
Its area of operation comprises four slums
situated in Kampala namely Naguru,
Kireka, Ntinda and Nsambya. Its main
activity is the care of people affected by
HIV/AIDS and of their orphans.
2,190 sick patients and 1,027 orphans are
registered with MPI.Most of these women
and children immigrated to Kampala from
the war that torn northern regions of
Uganda where for twenty years the Lord
Resistance Army looted and abducted
children and girls.
Women with no hope they start taking the
responsibility of their lives, people
stigmatised and neglected by the society
begin re-discovering the beauty of life. They
become creative, making plans for their
future. They produce necklaces made out of
recycled paper and they sell them in Europe
and America. They have discovered the
value of education for themselves (they all
want to attend adult literacy courses) and for
their children. With the money earned
through the sales of the necklaces and the
help of MPI they built a primary and
secondary school in Kampala where their
children could discover the beauty and
importance of education. An education that
starts from the recognition of the fact that the
value of a person is GREATER than any kind
of circumstance one is leaving in.
The aim of MPI is to promote, through
cultural and social activities, awareness of
the intrinsic value and dignity of human life at
all its development stages and levels of
maturity.
This aim is specified into the
following objectives:
• Assistance to the suffering victims of
HIV/AIDS,
• Commitment in poverty alleviation,
• Promotion of education at all levels.
Through a constant companionship that
helps people discover their infinite value and
dignity, that is greater of any disease or
poverty, a whole community has been
transformed.
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Support to Persons Living With HIV/AIDS
Home Visits
The unique strength of MPI is apparent
with the home visits. Everyone who works at
Meeting Point International checks regularly
on those who are sick in order to provide
supportive care including help to bedridden
patients and to provide adherence and
compliance counselling at home.
On a typical home visit, our staff walks out
into the neighbourhood, stopping at each
home where they know someone is sick.
Usually more than one woman makes
the trip, greeting everyone along the way.
Inside the patient’s homes, conversations
remain upbeat.
Serious discussions are punctuated
with jokes, gossip and laughter.
Receiving visitors gives everyone a
sense of honor, reminding them that
they are respected and helping them
re-discover their value and dignity.
Establishing a relationship with a person
is just as important as the physical support
provided. Through these relationships, the men
and women working for Meeting Point International
provide a glue that holds together those with each
of their individual needs.
Members of Meeting Point International
communities know that if any one they know is
sick in any way, they can visit the office. Once
there, the staff refers them to the hospital or a
center that can provide the treatment they need.
Each office keeps certain medicines in stock, such
as digestive aids, cold remedies and pain
relievers. Additionally, a doctor is present at each
center two days a week to advise patients and
make treatment more convenient.
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Treatment and Medical Care
There are many organisations in Kampala that
serve the sick, impoverished hungry. At Meeting
Point International, the focus is not simply on the
problem but also on the individual. Each new
client is treated with love; MPI focuses on the
value and dignity of every individual, ensuring
that all needs are cared for while also activating
one’s ability to feel pride and responsibility. Every
new client of MPI spends time chatting with staff
and other patients.
Antiretroviral Treatment
In the early days of Meeting Point International,
ARV drugs were expensive, and in short supply.
The registration book was filled with patients who
came for help and yet couldn’t get it because of
the then high cost of the medicines. MPI staff
watched in dismay as their attempt to treat
infections bore no fruit without antiretroviral
treatment.
The men, women and children who
receive medicine are generally referred
to organisations around Kampala that
provide drugs for free or at reduced
costs.
The groups working with Meeting Point
International include Nsambya Hospital,
The St Benedict Hospital and SAS
clinic. Unlike many patients on ARV
medication who fail to follow their
treatment regimens, clients of Meeting
Point International are educated and
monitored to make sure that they take
their medicines properly and
continually. As a result, patients
achieve and maintain great health
without stop.
As international donations arose though and
scientific advances made ARV medications
affordable, MPI clients have begun now to fully
experience the wonder of life. Today, MPI
supports about 2500 patients, 240 of these are
on ARV medications also thanks to Abbracci
Senza Frontiere.
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Social Economic Strengthening
Necklaces
For years the women of MPI have been
making necklaces. At the beginning it was
used as part of handcraft together with making
sweaters but later wth support of AVSI Distant
Support Program (DSP) it has become a way
to sustain their families.
Using recycled glossy magazines the women
create beads which are then used to produce
necklaces, bracelets and earrings.Necklace
and bead making has been a wonder for MPI.
Many women no longer need to toil breaking
stones in the Kireka quarries and women who
had no food can now feed their children.
Feeling their responsibility, clients take
pride in repaying the group when their
businesses become successful, hoping that
someone else can benefit as they have.
The real beauty of the necklace making, and
saving’s groups lies in the sense of community
and pride that it generates. Women gather
together to create with each other, sharing
ideas and establishing strong bonds.
The therapeutic outcome that results from
sitting together and making these necklaces
and plan the business they are going to build
with the saved money is immeasurable.
Village Savings Groups
With the support of AVSI through Sustainable,
Comprehensive Responses for vulnerable
children and their families (SCORE) Program,
MPI helps its clients to organise themselves in
groups of 30 people each one in order to save
money and take out twice a year their money
and also small loans so that they can begin
businesses to generate their own income.
These small businesses enhance the capacity
of families, and most of all make
families empowered, with a reinforced
sense of responsibility and dignity. With
loans men and women are able to build
vegetable stands, brick businesses, tailoring
shops etc.
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Educational support
Supported children at school
Meeting Point International through a project with AVSI Foundation, Support International, Cesal,
Insieme Si Puo’ and other donors has created a program that links Ugandan children with private
donors who provide educational and other activities support. This rather unique project is further
coloured by the exchanges between sponsors (who become friends) and children in Uganda. At
least twice a year, sponsors receive letters and photographs from their “adapted” children. MPI
staff stays in close contact with each child’s parents or guardians encouraging and providing
support so that each child can reach his or her full potential. This involvement keeps every one
enthusiastic about the children’s education.
They send their grades off to their sponsors, and each child hopes to impress! Meeting Point
International believes that no child should have to go without a good education. Therefore, MPI
staff seeks out orphans and other vulnerable children whose parents are struggling so that they
ensure a brighter future for each child. At the same time, each sponsor has the satisfaction of
putting a smile on a child’s face.In recent years and now to put the value of the person in the
center of the intervention demonstrates success.
The women assisted by MPI, taking part of this experience, wanted to give the same education
they are receiving from MPI to their own children. Two schools were born from this desire,
thanks to AVSI and CESAL: the Luigi Giussani Pre-Primary and Primary School, attended by
280 children, in the district of Kireka, and Luigi Giussani High School, attended by 537 students
in Kamuli road. MPI also started Apprenticeship and Vocational Institutes is an occupational on
job skills training for youth
Adult Education
Adult education and literacy classes are additional programs provided by Meeting Point
International. MPI clients and volunteers are taught basic numeracy (how to read, write and
speak English). In addition, current affairs, health science and mathematics are also taught so
that they are able to count, add, subtract and divide any figure. This helps them especially for
those who are planning to start a business as an income generating activity.
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Acquiring new knowledge gives confidence, improves esteem and enables the women to carry
on their daily work with pride. English lessons especially help women living in the Naguru and
Acholi Quarters, who often suffer from language barriers. Students in the adult classes work very
hard to make the most of their education. They are serious about exams and often request tests
to make sure they are learning everything they can. It is a remarkable aspect – especially since it
is generally rare thing to see students so excited and enthusiastic about their education!
Child Protection
Welcoming House
In places where suffering is common, children are often the first fall victim to the problems of
their community. For these children, Meeting Point International has set up a home called
the Welcoming House to rescue orphans and other children who have nowhere to go. Eighty
children have found their way to Welcoming House. Some are brought by concerned adults,
especially police, while others are found alone in the streets of Kampala. The staff at the
Welcoming House become a family for these children, teaching them self-respect and
treating them with all the kindness a parent should.
Though the Welcoming House is a safe haven for these little ones, we continue, with the
support of the police, to trace the relatives of these children; if available, a family can offer
the best form of care for a child. When placement back in their home fails some of the
children are placed into the care of the families in the community. Amidst all their potential
suffering, and lack of means, it’s often the women of MPI who volunteer to take in a child.
The openness with which they receive other children who are not even related to them is
always a lesson and a sign for us that humanity is indeed powerful! MPI provides also: Food:
flour, dried beans, powdered milk, sugar, salt, oil, drinking water Health and Hygiene:
medicines, pampers, soap, personal hygiene products, washing powder but also Toys and
playground.
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A big effort this year has been the rehabilitation of the water and power network, thanks to
Support International and CESAL, in order to provide a safe and beautiful place where the
children can grow.
Playground in Welcoming House
Birth registration
Beside the main activities that are implemented as above mentioned, our children are
benefitting of Birth registration. The general aim of doing this is to: Access social services,
such as education (e.g. when enrolling in school or joining university); Prove how old they
are, helping to protect against child labor or in defilement related cases; To have a national
identity, making it easier to fight abuse and child trafficking; Enforcing laws relating to
minimum age for employment; Effectively countering the problem of girls forced into marriage
before they are legally eligible; Ensuring that children in conflict with the law are given special
protection; Protecting young people from under-age military service or conscription;
Protecting children from harassment by police or other law enforcement official; Getting a
passport, opening a bank account, obtaining credit, voting or finding employment.
It will be a long process especially for the one abandoned or brought to Welcoming House
from the police without any documents, but we think it is a big opportunity for our children to
start.
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Beneficiaries of Meeting Point International
Activities
Numbers
Women supported
2500
Educational Support to children from Nursery to high school and
vocational studies
1100
People receiving ARV treatments
950
People receiving sanitary and health care treatment
2500
Women attended saving groups
50
Women attending adult literacy
35
Children and Youth living in Welcoming House
84
We thank all the friends, public institutions and private companies that support our work.
MEETING POINT INTERNATIONAL
P.O. Box 21261
Kampala, Uganda
Phone: +256 (0) 414222698
[email protected]
www.meetingpoint-int.org
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