MISSION

GOAL & VISION

The public’s health status has been recognized as one of the most important indicators of poverty in Africa. The goals of CTPH are centered around an innovative integrated conservation and development approach that focuses on improving the health of local communities to support wildlife conservation through preventing and controlling disease transmission between closely genetically related species such as people and gorillas, and cattle and buffalo. Conservation Through Public Health envisions ecosystems where wildlife and people prosper in shared, dynamic, resilient, and healthy environments.

METHOD: 3 Strategic Programs

1. Wildlife Health Monitoring

CTPH established an early warning system for disease outbreaks through wildlife fecal sample collection and analysis. In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park CTPH has trained rangers, trackers, field assistants, and community volunteers in gorilla health monitoring through recognizing clinical signs in gorillas and collecting fecal samples from night nests and fresh trails. Samples are analyzed at the Gorilla Research Clinic, which also serves as a veterinary clinic for other animals in the area.

Weekly mountain gorilla fecal samples are collected by park trackers and rangers and community volunteers from the Human and Gorilla Conflict Resolution (HUGO) team when gorillas forage in community land. The samples are analyzed for pathogens (parasites, bacteria and other disease causing organisms) at the Gorilla Research Clinic, where results are shared with local health clinics.

In Queen Elizabeth National Park, rangers and research assistants are trained to recognize and report clinical signs in the wildlife, and to collect blood smears and other tissue samples from animals that they find dead in the course of their daily work. This is enabling the early detection of fatal diseases, such as anthrax and prevents further spread within the park. Another component is disease surveillance to detect infection rates and trends of diseases that spread between wildlife, livestock and people where a certain number of wild animals are tested for Tuberculosis (TB), brucellosis, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) among others. Results are used to aid better management of the wildlife and livestock in and around the national park.

Milestones:

• Training 170 Uganda Wildlife Authority Park Rangers in gorilla and other wildlife health monitoring.
• Training 90 HUGO members in gorilla health monitoring .
• Analyzing more than 4,000 faecal samples from mountain gorillas looking for harmful pathogens and creating a baseline understanding of gorilla health.
• Launching research efforts of savannah animals by collecting blood samples and evaluating disease threats in more than 50 Cape buffalo and more than 100 cattle bordering Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Strategic Direction:

Improve the quality and quantity of data collected in the wildlife/livestock monitoring program and develop mechanisms for information sharing with the human health community.

Current Projects:

1. Expansion of gorilla fecal sample analysis tests from parasitological to bacteriology and measurement of stress
2. Expansion of the Gorilla Research Clinic to accommodate the growing number of tests and become a regional centre of excellence
3. HUGO community volunteer training workshops
4. UWA park staff training workshops
5. Training QENP research assistants in laboratory analysis of anthrax and other diseases

Sponsors:

MacArthur Foundation
WCS
USFWS
Whitley Fund for Nature / World Wildlife Fund
USAID/Prime West / AWF
Zoological Society of London
Bayer Pharmaceuticals

Supporters:

Uganda Wildlife Authority
Cornell University
The Gorilla Organization
Gorilla Haven
Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project
Colgate University
Robert Koch Institute
Vets Without Borders
Coca Cola

2. Human Public Health

CTPH is working with the Kanungu District Medical Office and local health centers to improve the health of Bwindi communities. A Population, Health and Environment (PHE) approach is being used to reduce threats to mountain gorillas and other wildlife, by consolidating community based health care to promote family planning, and prevent and control TB, scabies, HIV/AIDS and dysentery. This is done by facilitating the formation of community health volunteer networks, which educate and encourage their community to be more hygienic and have better health practices and conservation attitudes. To sustain the volunteer efforts, CTPH is helping to create Community Based Organizations to spearhead this approach in their communities, and has introduced income generating livestock livelihood projects for the community groups to derive an income to sustain their volunteer efforts. CTPH also engages traditional healers and gets them to refer suspect TB and HIV patients, as well become their community volunteer who watches them taking treatment for eight months, as part of the Community Based Direct Observation of Treatments Short Course Therapy (CBDOTS) national strategy.

Community education focuses on relationship between good health and hygiene habits which in turn affects gorilla health, ecotourism and sustainable livelihoods. We achieve this through several methods including:

1. Local drama groups disseminating our message.
2. Targeting village health talks and home visits by CTPH-facilitated community volunteers using visual aids such as flip charts incorporating the “gorilla conservation through public health” message.
3. Distribution of educational brochures and newsletters.
4. Promoting the health message via sign posts in key areas.

In Queen Elizabeth National Park, CTPH is working with the Kasese District Veterinary Office and surrounding communities to improve the health of the livestock. CTPH encouraged the pastoralists to form a network of community animal health workers (CAHWS) who are trained to improve the health and husbandry of livestock in the community as well as promoting an understanding of disease issues between wildlife, livestock and people. They are model change agents improving conservation attitudes and public health practices in their community. In addition to their educational responsibilities, these community volunteers work with CTPH to test cattle and other livestock surrounding the park for diseases that can spread between livestock and wildlife.

Milestones:

• Enrolling more than 50 individuals living around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in TB treatment (implementing Community Based Direct Observation of Treatment methods).
• Counselling more than 1,500 rural residents through home visits on family planning methods and infectious diseases that can be transmitted between people, wildlife, and livestock; a third of the homes having regular “interactions” with gorillas.
• Training 30 community volunteers around Queen Elizabeth National Park, in animal and human disease issues and human/wildlife conflict resolution thus empowering community conservation leaders and promoting sustainable livelihoods.
• Educating more than 7,000 Bwindi community members about the links between conservation, public health, ecotourism, and sustainable livelihoods through community drama workshops, brochures and five health message signposts.
• Creating five community volunteer networks around Bwindi Impenetrable and Queen Elizabeth National Parks improving the health of people and animals, of which one of the Bwindi networks became a community based organization.
• Developing the first innovative flip charts for peer education on the “gorilla conservation through public health message”, on ecofriendly sisal based grain sacks.
• Starting the third pilot Community Based Depo-Provera project in Uganda of three monthly interval contraception injections given by trained CTPH community health volunteers, ensuring better compliance of women on this contraception with potential to making this a national policy.
• Over 290 new modern family planning users in two years among volunteer household clients, four times higher than expected based on historical trends, of which 40% of the homes visited bordered the park and considered at higher risk for human/gorilla interaction including disease transmission.
• Two pilot radio programs with community testimonies encouraging people to got for TB testing and enrol in the CBDOTS program, and to adopt modern family planning,

Strategic Direction:

Broaden and strengthen our base of key stakeholders with whom we are conducting integrated conservation and public health awareness campaigns and strengthen the tools to evaluate the impact of community health programs.

Current Projects:

1. Strengthen the community health volunteer networks to achieve maximum conservation impact by encouraging them through monthly meetings to distribute contraceptives, and educate people on the benefits and methods of family planning, TB, HIV/AIDS, scabies, dysentery and good hygiene. At these meetings, the data they collect during village health talks and couple peer education home visits is reviewed.
2. Training workshops for the PHE community volunteers to use GPS and measure improvement of Ministry of Health hygiene indicators in the homes that they visit.
3. Continue CBDOTS and HIV/AIDS education in the two parishes, Mukono and Bujengwe, working more closely with the traditional healers.
4. Expand CBDOTS and HIV/AIDS education to other high human and gorilla conflict parishes.
5. Expand CBDEPO to other high human and gorilla conflict parishes
6. Host and coordinate biannual meetings of the Public Health and Conservation Technical Support Unit, made up of local government, UWA and supporting NGOs.

Sponsors:

Whitley Fund for Nature / World Wildlife Fund
Spell Out Family Health International
African Wildlife Foundation
Wildlife Conservation Society
Camp Dresser and McKee International
International Gorilla Conservation Programme
Worldwide Veterinary Services

Supporters:

Kanungu District Local Government
Kasese District Local Government
Bwindi Community Hospital

3. Information, Education & Communication

The internet provided by the CTPH Telecentre makes the world smaller, enabling people and businesses to surpass geographical barriers instantaneously. Families are no longer limited to interaction in their own towns, but can reach the rest of the world with the press of a key, allowing them to learn from the international community and address the problems of isolation, poor health practices, and increase access to education and jobs to name a few. Community members, primarily youth, learn computer skills enabling them to become more actively involved in the ecotourism industry, such as e-commerce to market their crafts on the internet while learning about the important and delicate linkages between gorilla conservation, public health, ecotourism and sustainable livelihoods. Another benefit? As the local community’s education and international scope improves, most often so do their health practices.

A CTPH Telecentre/UWA Visitor Information Centre at the Queen’s Pavilion Crater Drive Gate entrance to Queen Elizabeth National park, trains people to use computers and access internet at the centre and in their villages through a roving telecentre with cached websites, improving their attitudes to wildlife conservation. The centre is run by CTPH staff from two of the most disadvantaged communities around the park, Hamukungu and Kikorongo who serve the tourists refreshing coffee “Gorilla Kawa” and other beverages, with a stunning panoramic view of the craters, Ruwenzori Mountain, road to DRC and the Equator.

Milestones:

• Training more than 200 rural youth, 40 % women in basic computer applications at our two remote solar-powered telecentres.
• Providing opportunities for more than 3,000 people in rural local communities to access internet services for conservation and health education purposes.
• Setting up two innovative community websites in the local languages spoken at Bwindi Impenetrable and Queen Elizabeth National parks, with information on the links between conservation, public health, ecotourism and sustainable livelihoods.

Strategic Direction:

Develop a core curriculum and projects for the Information, Education and Communications program that are closely integrated with our mission.

Current Projects:

1. Build permanent telecentre in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
2. Continue roving telecentre computer training in Queen Elizabeth National Park
3. Expand roving telecentre model to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
4. Upgrade the local language community websites to make them more dynamic and interactive for the national park communities.
5. Launch distance learning programs between primary (K through 12) students in Bwindi and New York State.

Sponsors:

UCC – Uganda Communications Commission/World Bank
British High Commission
BOCES Monroe #1
Microsoft
UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Wildlife Conservation Society
Uganda Telecom

Supporters:

SN Brussels
BRD – Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe
Multichoice Uganda
Wyse Technology
Makerere University Department of Women and Gender Studies
Coca Cola
Kiwanja.net
Picopoint
Barclays Bank
International Cyber Volunteers
SAS Institute
Wildlife Direct