Maternity care was our founding reason - so children's health is naturally what we now do too
Over half the patients who visit Hope Clinic Lukuli are under the age of 18 years - the under 5s account for 30-35% of all the out-patients. Those first five years of life are the focus for public health programmes and national health services in more developed countries. In the United Kingdom, Birth to Five gives parents the information and assurance they need for many of the rashes, screams, eating, not-eating, fevers and vomiting that they will face from the children. Uganda doesn't have that from the Government.

Through the extended family, the new mother spends the period before delivery and the months of the newborn with her mother and aunties, or her mother-in-law. A home visit from the delivery midwife or community nurse is highly unlikely. The new mother is reliant on a combination of older wives' tales, traditional practices and her own reading and age peers, limited by the available services. Even simple matters such as breastfeeding, or not, expressing milk or demand feeding, her diet and baby's weight gain are expected to occur without a trained medical input. Hope Clinic Lukuli works with the aunties and grand-mothers to supplement their advice with medical tools, comparisons and a broad range of medical services and reference literature.

New baby - new mother, so we help	Fun and learning - nutrition in a sack	Lifeskills protect and inform kids

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of targets against which Uganda and other developing countries can set themselves targets, compare their rate of improved services and also guide supporters and implementers as to what are the priorities. When it comes to Uganda's progress in achieving the MDG targets, the regular reports by UNAIDS and UNICEF reveal the progress and the remaining journey. Much of the most recent data is from 2006.

Percentage of children determined as under-weight for age.....................16% in 2006, from 20% in 1988.

Percentage of children under 5 years, with diarrhoea receiving oral rehydration therapy/ fluids alongside continued feeding......39% in 2006, up from 29% in 2000.

Percentage of children below the age of 5 years sleeping under a mosquito net.....10% in 2006.

Immunisation coverage: Measles 68%, three does DPT 68%, 3 doses of Hib 64%. Level was already 60% in 1994.

Percentage of children with suspected pneumonia taken to 'appropriate' health provider.....73% in 2006.

As at 2008: Uganda had 6.1 million under 5s in a population of 32.2 million (19%). 1.4 million born that year. The statistics predict 85/1000 infant mortality [almost 124,000 of the babies born that year].