We are students at Makerere University who believe malaria is a solvable problem — and that the people closest to it should lead the fight.
The Makerere Chapter operates under Malaria Youth Champions Uganda (MYCU),
a national youth-led network mobilizing young Ugandans against malaria. We are one of several
university chapters working in coordination across the country, sharing methodology, data, and impact.
Visit MYCUG National Website →
Malaria remains Uganda's leading cause of illness and death. Despite decades of intervention, certain communities — particularly informal settlements in Kampala — continue to bear a disproportionate burden. The reasons are knowable: net coverage gaps, poor drainage, fragmented care-seeking, and a lack of granular local data to target interventions.
Most malaria programs operate at the district or national level. The street-by-street, household-by-household reality is invisible to policymakers, and that's where solutions stall.
We bring rigorous research methods to communities that are usually only "studied" — not engaged. Our surveys, hazard mapping, and drug shop assessments are designed not just to produce reports, but to enable action.
Every dataset we collect feeds into open, interactive tools that residents, NGOs, and policymakers can use together. The Kasanvu Portal is our flagship example — a live system where data, intervention planning, and community pledges all live in one place.
We don't act on what we think communities need. We collect the data, talk to residents, map the hazards — and let the evidence direct our work.
Our data, methods, and impact are public. Donors can see exactly where contributions go; examiners can scrutinize our methodology; communities can hold us accountable.
The communities we work in aren't research subjects — they're partners. We build tools that residents can use long after our team has moved on.
Our leadership combines public health, engineering, and community organizing experience — all united by the belief that young Ugandans can lead this fight.
A small team of public health, engineering, and statistics students at Makerere University come together with a shared frustration: malaria data exists, but it doesn't reach the communities it describes. The chapter is founded under MYCU national.
The team selects Kasanvu Zone in Namuwongo as the pilot community — one of Kampala's highest-burden informal settlements. Methodology development, IRB approval, and enumerator training begin.
12 enumerators conduct 56 household surveys, 7 drug shop assessments, and document 157 GPS-tagged environmental hazards. All data captured via KoboCollect for transparency and reproducibility.
The interactive platform launches publicly — combining the field data with live simulator, intervention monitoring, and a pledge tracker. The first end-to-end MYCU Makerere project is online.
The methodology and platform are designed to be reproducible. Additional Kampala communities are in scoping, with the goal of building a network of data-driven malaria interventions across the city.
