If you’ve been following our 15 Christian bloggers on their trip to Uganda you’ve seen only a glimpse of what it’s like to live in extreme poverty. It’s an outside view of Compassion’s ministry.

Today we begin a series of blog posts from staffers of Compassion Uganda who will give you an inside look into how Compassion’s ministry operates among the poorest of the poor.

What happens if a sponsored child needs an expensive operation? Or if his home is destroyed by a natural disaster? That’s where Compassion’s Complementary Intervention (CIV) program comes in.

CIV seeks to strengthen the ministry’s core programs by providing for needs that go above and beyond child sponsorship. CIV includes a number of ministry areas, including the AIDS Initiative, the Medical Fund, and Disaster Relief.

Jessica Masanganzira is the CIV Administrator for Uganda, and she is able to daily provide for the needs of children and church partners in this poverty-stricken country.

I have seen many successes in the CIV program in Uganda. The water program, for one, has helped many communities here, and it has contributed a lot towards improving the health of the children and immediate families.

In the Mulatsi Child Development Center, for example, an average of 32 children each month had diarrhea infections and abdominal pains due to the consumption of contaminated water. After installation of the borehole (a kind of well), medical expenses reduced by 23 percent, distances children traveled to fetch water reduced from 5 to 2 kilometers, and their classroom grades improved by 13 percent to date.

Another CIV project that has had great success in Uganda has been the nutrition training we have provided for children and caregivers. As a result of poverty and low levels of education, inadequate feeding, and lack of knowledge on children’s nutritional requirements, there is a high rate of malnutrition among newly registered children.

On average, 28 percent of children are reported malnourished and yet Compassion cannot continually provide nutritional support for all. Some families can barely afford a single meal a day and only get a reasonable meal only on center days at the project. This was hindering health, social and emotional development.The practical nutrition trainings and demonstration projects have led to improved health among children.

In one of the benefiting projects, Kisoro Child Development Center, malnutrition has dropped to 12 from 68 cases in a period of one year. Children and caregivers learned the nutrition requirements for children, trained in modern farming and animal-rearing methods, food preservation and storage to cater for dry seasons; horticulture and fruit growing, too, have been promoted at the projects and in children’s families.

I pray that CIV will continue to eliminate key child development barriers for the families in our programs. As we are educating and helping children and families, I believe we are changing our whole country. CIV works!

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Yesterday, our Ugandan bloggers visited Mildmay, an international HIV/AIDS charity, specializing in care, training and service development. Spence spoke about it. And so did Brian and Shannon. But none of them mentioned that every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS.

Our AIDS Initiative helps fight that. It focuses on prevention, treatment and rehabilitative care for the affected.

• Prevention is the only cure. And it’s the only way to lessen the spread of the pandemic; therefore, prevention is our priority. The truth is that the majority of HIV infections are preventable; nearly all new infections result from bad decisions, so prevention strategies must influence those decisions and change behavior.
• Treatment refers to the medical and psychosocial care given to those infected by HIV. The greatest challenge is not to deliver pills, build clinics, or hire doctors. The challenge is identifying children and families in need, earning their trust, and motivating them to get care, which is difficult in light of the stigma often associated with infection.
• Rehabilitative care addresses the lives of uninfected Compassion-assisted children who are jeopardized by HIV infection within their families and communities. Therefore, our response includes care for those who are indirectly affected by the pandemic.

Learn how the AIDS Initiative works.

Get educated about the pandemic and then take the quiz below. Take it to see how much you’ve learned and take it to share with others.

The clock is ticking.

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You want to know what’s going on Uganda, and our intrepid bloggers have a few questions for you too.

1. How many pairs of shoes do you have?
2. What is Ugandan for toy?
3. What’s going on here?
4. When’s the last time you spent $9?
5. What day is it?
6. Do you know what it means to adopt?
7. What is your dream for your children?
8. Have you seen this?
9. Can you see the stars from where you live?
10. What is Celebration Hill?

Internet access is still acting up over there. So, if this was a post of 11 questions, which it’s not, the next obvious question would be “When’s the Internet going to cooperate?” But then the judge would direct the jury to, “Disregard counselor’s last question” because this post is 10 Questions From Uganda.

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All is not lost.

Photos can be found at Flickr, and videos can be viewed at YouTube; although, Internet access in Uganda is slow and intermittent which is affecting what can be uploaded for the time being. For now, you can feast on the stories the bloggers feed you through Google Reader or you can visit their blogs directly.

Won’t you join me in enjoying this meal? It’s not as good as being there, but it’s not airplane food either.

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We arrived at the airport in Entebbe Uganda at approximately 11:00 p.m. Uganda time yesterday. We are thankful for the following:

• a safe journey
• all of our flights were generally on schedule and no flights were missed
• all of our luggage arrived at its intended destination
• good Christian travel companions
• a friendly and helpful Compassion Uganda staff to meet us at the airport
• good health for everyone on the trip

We are currently experiencing some problems getting access to the Internet in the hotel. It’s slow and intermittent access. Please pray that the Internet access will improve and we will be able to blog aggressively about Compassion’s work in this beautiful country.

Everyone is in the process of eating breakfast at the hotel. We will be leaving shortly to see some of Compassion’s Christian child development projects. Stay tuned for more updates!

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I’m writing from the Columbus, Ohio, airport waiting to begin my trip with 14 other Christian bloggers to see Compassion’s ministry to children in need in Uganda. We will combine the power of our blogs to educate and inform within our circles of influence about the impoverished children in this country. Check out the list of blogs, then read our blogs and get an insider’s view of Compassion’s work in this African country.

Each blogger will tell the story in their own unique way. You can read along as we share the emotion, sights, sounds and smells with you as our travel partner. If you sponsor a child from Uganda, we may even interact with the child you sponsor.

I will be meeting up with the rest of the bloggers at Chicago’s O’Hare airport later today. We’ll arrive back in the United States on February 18^th.

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