CTPH has been implementing a successful community health and conservation model in BINP since 2006. Community health is implemented through Village Health Teams, a recognized Ministry of Health structure in Uganda who are trained as Village Health and Conservation Teams (VHCTs) to promote health together with conservation. VHCTs are local community volunteers who deliver integrated community based services to individual households to promote good health-seeking behaviour, hygiene practices, infectious disease prevention and control, family planning, nutrition; and conservation education. VHCT networks are sustained through group livestock income generating projects, which they reinvest into Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs). CTPH focuses particularly on engaging women, both as VHCTs as well as during VHCT activities, as women are primarily responsible for their families’ health and wellbeing and are, therefore, in the best position to make positive changes for improved household health. As VHCTs, women have taken on a leadership role in the community, elevating their status and supporting improved gender balance.

CTPH successfully scaled up the VHCT and VSLA model from Kanungu to another district, Kisoro around BINP, home to the world’s endangered mountain gorillas.