By Janella Sorin Kang | I am working as an intern with the Makerere University’s COMONETH project that ultimately works towards reducing neonatal and maternal deaths in Luuka District of Eastern Uganda. COMONETH aims to design and implement a community owned but facility-linked district-wide intervention that promotes high coverage with preventive care and improves quality of clinical care equitably leading to impact on maternal, perinatal and neonatal mortality in rural Uganda. Through the home visits, the COMONETH team collects Verbal and Social Autopsies (VASA). VASA focus on asking the questions directly to the patient’s relatives and family to better understand the behavioral barriers, care seeking processes, and what disease(s) each individual had to determine the cause of death: the social determinants of maternal health and mortality.

Using the Census data and Ministry of Health reports, I wanted to understand more deeply about Luuka district and its pressing issues: Luuka district is one of the 112 districts located in the eastern region of Uganda. According to the 2018 census data, Luuka district is projected to have 262,100 individuals residing and a continued increase in population. However, Luuka district is struggling with high child mortality rates and high maternal mortality ratios. Recent reports show that less than 30% of pregnant women are attending antenatal care 4th visits, and only 13.4% of the population is within 5km proximity to any health facility.

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