Across Uganda, men reach a clinic later, test later, start treatment later and die earlier than women — not because care is unavailable, but because almost nothing about how care is offered was designed with men in mind. OMF is changing where, when and how men are met.
Health is not a favour we grant to some and withhold from others. Everybody needs, and is entitled to, the highest attainable standard of health.WHO Constitution, Art. 1
Each bar compares men with women on an indicator where the gap holds across the region. Read them together: men are not sicker by nature — they arrive later.
Sources — Life expectancy and suicide: WHO Global Health Estimates. HIV testing and treatment gaps among men: UNAIDS, Blind Spot. Care-seeking: Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. Full citations on request: omfmenandyouth@gmail.com
Every OMF health activity attacks the same bottleneck — the delay between a man noticing something is wrong and a man telling someone about it.
Distress in men often surfaces as anger, withdrawal, drinking or silence — rarely as a request for help. We train people to recognise it and respond.
Men who test late start treatment late. We take screening to the places men already are, at the hours they are actually free.
Heavy drinking gets treated as a personality, not a health condition. We treat it as a health condition — without shaming the man in front of us.
Boda riders, builders, fishermen and miners carry much of Uganda's injury burden, and lose income the moment they stop working.
These steps run in order, and the last one is the one most programmes skip.
Boda stages, markets, fishing landing sites, football pitches, churches and mosques — not a clinic waiting room he has no time to sit in.
A short, free check: blood pressure, blood sugar, HIV testing on request, and a brief conversation about mood, sleep and drinking. No moralising, no forms he cannot read.
A trained counsellor is present at every outreach, so a man who opens up is not told to come back another day.
We hand over to a named clinician at a named facility, and where transport is the barrier, we cover it. A referral slip alone is not a referral.
A call at two weeks, six weeks and three months. Most men who drop out of care drop out quietly in this window.
Directed at the Ministry of Health, district health teams, donors and employers. None of them require a new building.
Disaggregate and publish. A gap that is never counted is never budgeted for.
Evening and Sunday slots at district facilities remove the most cited barrier.
Meet men at stages, sites and pitches. Facility-based models keep missing them.
Mental health separated from physical health is mental health men will not attend.
How distress presents in men, and how not to lose a man at the first appointment.
Uganda has no dedicated men's health strategy. Several countries now do. It works.
You do not need a diagnosis, a referral or money to talk to us. Reach out during office hours and a counsellor will call you back. If you are in immediate danger, go to the nearest health facility or call emergency services.
Fund a screening camp, host us at your workplace or stage, or join the volunteer roster. We work across 75 districts with more than 40 volunteers.
