Uganda: Health Ministry Mobilises Faith Leaders to Help Reduce Maternal Deaths

What the report says

Uganda’s Health Ministry is working with religious and cultural leaders to encourage pregnant women to seek antenatal care and give birth at accredited health facilities, in an effort to lower maternal deaths. The appeal was made during an engagement with interfaith health champions from 32 districts, according to the source article distributed by AllAfrica from Nile Post.

The ministry’s reproductive and child health commissioner, Dr. Richard Mugahi, said the country has made progress in reducing maternal mortality, but he urged expectant mothers to rely on skilled care throughout pregnancy and childbirth. He also pressed policymakers to strengthen lower-level health facilities, especially Health Centre IIIs and IVs, so maternal and other services are closer to communities.

The discussion also linked maternal health with broader reproductive and adolescent health concerns. Uganda’s Minister for Kyabazinga Affairs, Yudaya Babirye, said teenage pregnancy, poverty and weak education outcomes remain major challenges in Busoga, and she called for greater involvement of men in family decisions and parenting. Separately, Sheikh Muhammad Ali Waiswa of the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council said families and communities are central to improving health outcomes, and he highlighted the role of faith leaders in promoting antenatal attendance, family planning and cervical cancer awareness.

Faith for Family Health Initiative officials said more than 1,000 interfaith, political and media champions have been trained across 32 districts, and that the programme now also covers immunisation, gender-based violence, adolescent health, malaria and sickle cell disease.