Hope Mafaranga

A pain of a mother who looks after 15 blind members of her family  By Hope Mafaranga I have been through a lot, looking after my blind husband, my blind children and blind in-laws is not a joke.  I am just putting on a smile on my face to keep me going.  These are the words of Celina Tushemereire a mother of six a resident of Numba-Kajumero, in Nyakishenyi Sub County in Rukungiri district says. Among her six children five are totally blind while one can only see during the night. She is married to blind man, her mother in-law is blind, her two brothers and one sister in laws are blind and also looks after four more children who are blind that are born by brothers in-law.  She is the only person that sees and is tasked to look after all the 15 blind family members on day to day lives.  Tushemereire tells a story of pain, agony, disappointments and the sacrifice she has made in ensuring that the family stands by her own. Patience and Hope  She got married to

Town dwellers are lazy and idlers- Kagombe By Hope Mafaranga  “People who stay in town and depend on small salaries are lazy and idle. They fear to engage in agriculture because they lack the right vision to see the goodness in farming,” these are the first words Charles Kagombe told me as I arrived at his home in Kitoma village, Nyakayojo Sub-county in Mbarara district.   How he started Kagombe becomes popular when his Zana Complex pub and lodge was booming, it was the first happening place in Ruti and people who were heading to Kabale and Rwanda would make a stopover for a cold beer. Augustine Murebe, one of the locals in the area said: “Zana Complex was a prominent place to an extend that people around used to sell their land and property to come and hang out there,” Kagombe was a prominent business and most people thought he was doing well because he used to import clothes from India and sell them in Mbarara. He owned multiple business entities that one ever t

By Hope Mafaranga in Indonesia International funding institution, The Global Fund has developed a new funding model to maximize the global fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The new funding model would promote stronger public-private partnerships. The model required not only government involvement but also non-government institutions and private sector commitment. The Chairperson of the Board of the Global Fund, Dr. Nafsiah Mboi, who is also Indonesia's minister of health, said that the change is deliberately strategic, financial and operational components of the Global Fund. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/653308-global-fund-to-offer-more-flexible-funding.ht

“My children will not starve while I have my body to sell” Email a friend Print | © Hope Mafaranga January 12, 2015 Author Hope Mafaranga Country Uganda Filed under HIV and wider development issues 2 Comments At Katwe-Kabatoro landing site on the shores of Lake George in Uganda’s Kasese district, the HIV epidemic is taking another twist. With few other opportunities to earn a living, many women sell their bodies in exchange for fish, while others face dangerous working conditions in the lake’s salt mining industry. Susan Kabugho, a 47-year-old mother of six, says she has sex with more than five men in order to survive. “There is no way I am going to loo

Aine, 28, lives in Biharwe village in Mbarara district in western Uganda, and is just one of many people who almost lost his life to HIV due to a lack of information about the virus. Boda-boda (motorcycle taxi) rider Aine says that when HIV hit his marriage, he believed that he and his wife Joan were bewitched and so they sought medical attention from a shrine in Nyakabale village, some 80 km away in Sheema district. http://www.keycorrespondents.org/2015/04/13/aines-story-addressing-stigma-and-ignorance-about-hiv/

Despite the massive HIV response by the Ugandan government and its partners, 380 people still get infected with HIV every single day. The new infections are threatening Uganda’s success story in responding to HIV in the late 1990s. Speaking at the 2015 Western Regional HIV and AIDS Scientific Conference, Dr Zepher Karyabakabo, director of policy, research and programming at Uganda AIDS Commission , said Uganda has 1.6 million people living with HIV who need care, treatment and support. He added that 56,000 people die every year of HIV-related illnesses. http://www.keycorrespondents.org/2015/06/17/ugandan-government-warns-against-complacency-in-hiv-response/

As Women Deliver delegates gather in Malaysia this week to discuss progress on women and girls’ health and wellbeing, Key Correspondent Hope Mafaranga recounts how one young woman living with HIV faces particular challenges in Uganda. “I never believed I was HIV positive, I was forced to test in three different health centres but my results never changed. I did not imagine I could get HIV from my girlfriend,” says Jacinta. http://www.keycorrespondents.org/2013/05/28/jacintas-story-hiv-does-not-discriminate/

Keeping watch for policemen is a typical day for Dewi, now 29, a sex worker in Bekasi, an industrial area east of Jakarta in Indonesia. “I live by the grace of God. I have to keep on the look out for policemen who are always looking for sex workers to arrest them,” says Dewi, who has been a sex worker since the age of 19. Dewi works in a bar in an area that hosts big international manufacturing giants like Converse and Samsung. Every night she goes to dance with the long-distance truck drivers and factory workers who come to drink and relax after work. If they want sex, she sells that to them too. http://www.keycorrespondents.org/2014/04/17/no-hope-for-hiv-prevention-for-indonesian-sex-workers/

A bitter row erupted in the Church of Uganda’s West Ankole Diocese prompting the Police to deploy heavily to protect the Bishop from a section of Christians. Bishop Yona Katonene, who started a tour of the archdeaconries of Rwabutura and Kabwohe on Sunday was on Monday locked out of one of the churches in Sheema by Christians. The Christains accuse the Bishop of attempting to relocate the church-founded Ankole Western University project (AWIST) from the area to Bushenyi district. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/655118-christians-lock-bishop-out-of-church.html

Heath workers team up to fight TB By Hope Mafaranga Every second someone in the world gets infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. One third of the world’s population, around 2 billion people, already has this TB bacterium in their body. It is for this reason that health workers in western Uganda goes knocking on doors of congested slums once a week to convince suspected tuberculosis (TB) patients to visit referral hospitals and submit a sample of their sputum. The health workers have been doing this for the past three years in a bid to fight and prevent TB in the most congested slum areas of Kisenyi in Kabarole district, Biafra in Mbarara district and Nyendo Senyange in Masaka district. They set up tents as sputum collection centers to serve and counsel people from there. They work with local leaders in the slums to mobilize and sensitize community members the dangers of TB and urge them to diagnose for the disease. They also use local radio stations to

In part five of our series on cannibalism and the related social upheavals in Uganda, Hope Mafaranga and Robert Atuhairwe focus on Isingiro district. And, in Kyenjojo, a story of how a priest, who challenged cannibals, almost got eaten. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/648621-the-priest-who-was-nearly-eaten.html#NewVision

Cannibalism in Kibaale is not a new word to the locals. No one expresses shock over it.  “Oh, you are looking for cannibals?” A security officer at my hotel asked. “Be careful. Some people who came before you on the same mission have disappeared!” http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/647773-kibaale-the-hub-of-cannibalism.html

It does not matter if cannibalism exists or not. For as long as its allegations lead to mob justice, evictions, death and destruction of property belonging to people who are not given a chance to prove their innocence, it is a big problem. Both the victims and communities who evict them claim the Police is not providing ample security. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/648842-boy-leaves-school-over-cannibalism.html

[KAMPALA] Banana stems, maize and other crop waste will be turned into charcoal briquettes in Uganda in an effort to reduce the number of trees chopped down for cooking fires. http://www.scidev.net/global/biofuels/news/biowaste-briquettes-fuel-drive-to-save-trees-1.html

A team of security experts is travelling to Kirumya sub-country in Bundibgyo to probe mass graves, says  the regional police commander, Thomas Kasimo. According to him, the regional Police office had submitted a budget for exhuming whatever bodies there may be, to the office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), because the cost was beyond their budget. He said it was necessary to exhume the bodies to ascertain their number because they were not buried by the Police or the army. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/657777-police-to-probe-mass-graves-in-bundibugyo.html

Time literally stopped in Bundibugyo town on Tuesday as people closed their businesses to witness the hearing of a case of 131 people who are suspected to have participated in the recent coordinated attacks in the region. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/657596-131-remanded-in-connection-with-bundibugyo-attacks.html

U p to 255 people who participated in this month’s Kasese and Bundibugyo attacks have surrendered to government and have asked for amnesty. Of those 86 are from Bundibugyo district. http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/658061-kasese-bundibugyo-clashes-255-attackers-surrender.html

“I used to despise local food such as green vegetables, eggplants, silver fish (mukene) and others because of the common belief that they are inferior. In fact, whenever my husband returned home from work without chicken, meat, chips and sausages, I would throw a tantrum.” This was the testimony of Jessica Kabahweza, a resident of Funti-Butagwa in Fort Portal Municipality, Kabarole district. However, all this changed after Kabahweza watched a series of nutrition dramas staged by Akasindikaine Drama Actors. http://www.newvision.co.ug/article/fullstory.aspx?story_id=646810&catid=434&mid=53