My social engagement thesis, “Increasing the Effectiveness of Health Care Delivery in Rural Areas: A Case Study of Village Health Teams and Childhood Malnutrition in Rukungiri District, Uganda,” represents a case study of the challenges to implementation of a community-based model of healthcare delivery as a complement to an in-patient program. It is based on a project in Southwestern Uganda that was conducted in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital’s Division of Global Health and Human Rights. The thesis researched and analyzed the root causes of malnutrition, situating the disease in the post-colonial context. It also tells of my direct involvement in the development of two programs—Village Health Teams (VHT) as well as Outpatient Therapeutic Care (OTC).  The two programs, while initially independent, created a sustainable model for harnessing a pre-existing government program of volunteers, for training these Village Health Teams to specifically identify malnourished patients, and for constructing a self-sufficient outpatient program to which these patients could be referred, and in which their caretakers could learn critical strategies for avoiding future malnutrition.  This thesis is meant to supplement a growing body of literature that warns against non-governmental organizations parachuting into communities to target specific diseases with protocols that disregard local norms and cultures. The thesis argues that Village Health Teams can be effective allies in combating community health issues such as childhood malnutrition, if given appropriate governmental legitimacy, financial support and training.  And it emphasizes that successful health solutions develop from a cultural dialogue with the target community—a process of respectfully learning from that community and eliciting from them effective solutions to their health issues.