PRESS RELEASE:President meets Turkish-Ugandan business community,

President Yoweri Museveni has hailed the political relationships between Uganda and Turkey and called for Turkish investors to exploit the opportunities in infrastructure development in Uganda, power and roads with tolls.

“Our political relations are very good. Our army has been active in Somalia and Turkey has joined the efforts there in helping improve the social and economic side of the situation in Somalia. We were also in London for the Somalia Conference while TUSKON is helping build a hospital in Jinja for our people,” he said.

The President was today meeting a delegation of Turkish Investors and their Uganda business partners at State House in Entebbe. The delegation was led by Uganda’s Honorary Counsel to Turkey Mustafa Gunay and included Bilal Akoc, Timur Tegdemir, Ejder Kilig, Lokman Cinar and Burak Aray. The Uganda delegation was led by Kintu Moses Nyonyintono. The meeting was attended by the Speaker of Parliament Hon. Rebecca Kadaga and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Asuman Kiyiingi.

The President described the Turkey-Africa policy as good and said Turkey was reemerging as a modern country whose interests in Africa were welcome.

He commended the Turkish government for the Turkish Airline that has eased communication between the two countries and for investing in Education in Uganda.

He called on the Turkish investors to explore other areas including Tourism through hotel and catering training schools.

Ambassador Gunay said they are working with the Uganda business community to promote business relations between the two countries.



END

St Joseph’s Technical Institute to introduce oil and gas courses

The discovery of oil and gas in the Albert and the Rwenzori regions has prompted St Joseph’s Technical Institute Virika in Kabarole district to start course units in oil and gas training.

Speaking during the 4th graduation ceremony of the institute on Saturday, the Principle Edison Mirembe said that the institute is in its final stages of introducing oil and gas courses.

Started 1920’s by the missionaries with aim of empowering and developing skills among the youths, will be the first high learning institution to introduce oil and gas in western Uganda.

Mirembe revealed that the institute has already applied to the ministry of education and sports to have some of its staff trained in oil and gas.

“We have already applied to the ministry of education and sports to train oil and gas technicians,” Mirembe said.

He attributed the increasing youth unemployment in Uganda to the poor training they acquire but does not equip them with skills in job creation.

Mirembe urged government to pay the universal post primary education and training funds on time to ensure that the academic calendar provides room for students to go for industrial training to enable them get used to the field of work.

The state minister for primary education Kamanda Bataringaya who was the chief guest at the graduation said government is determined to support all vocational institutions whose target is to develop skills amongst the youth.

“As government we shall continue fulfilling our obligations in supporting the youth  so that they can acquire the skills and  a positive attitude towards vocational trainings,” Bataringaya said.

Elijah Biryabalema, the Resident District Commissioner of Kabarole appealed to the grandaunts’ parents to provide them with startup capital so that they can establish private enterprises given the skills they have acquired.

A total of 261 students were awarded certificates and diplomas in different disciplines of motor vehicle and electrical engineering, carpentry and joinery, brick laying and concrete practice, plumbing among others.

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PRESS RELEASE: President meets British entrepreneur over Gold, Oil mining prospects

President Yoweri Museveni has said Uganda has a lot of potential in almost all sectors of the economy but lacks entrepreneurship skills and capital to go into successful large scale production.

“We have worked on the infrastructure; we have worked on the markets with our country now accessing markets in the region; in Africa through COMESA; USA, China and India. We also have raw materials and labour is easy to skill,” he said.

President Museveni was today meeting Hon. Nathaniel Philip Victor James Rothschild a British-born financier and a scion of the prominent Rothschild family in the United Kingdom at State House in Entebbe.

Hon. Rothschild who was accompanied by the Speaker of Parliament Hon. Rebecca Kadaga and Ambassador Etuket from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was introduced to Uganda by a Ugandan born entrepreneur and career accountant Henry Baisi currently based in the United Kingdom.

Rothschild who is a director in the Gold mining firm African Barrick Gold plc (ABG) a company listed on the London Stock Exchange that owns gold mines and exploration properties in Africa, said they are looking at confirming the existing of Gold mines in Uganda across from Tanzania where they are already involved in gold mining.

‘We are looking for projects and have actively done some on the mineralogy of Uganda. We look at opportunities of the growth of national resource and try to build a local business that is designed and built locally using foreign capital,” he said.



African Barrick holds a 73.9% equity interest in ABG. Barrick’s equity interest in 2011 production was 509,000 million ounces of gold at total cash costs of $692 per ounce1. In 2012, we expect equity gold production (reflecting our 73.9% ownership of ABG) to be in the range of 500,000-535,000 million ounces. Total gold cash costs are expected to be $790-$860 per ounce1.

Rothschild who is also the Chairman of JNR Limited, an investment advisory business primarily focused on emerging markets and the metals, mining and resources sector said his company would like to create collateral wealth for Ugandans through a national oil company to broaden the participation of all Ugandans on oil and also maximize the retention of value of oil for all Ugandans.

President Museveni commended Speaker Kadaga for attracting such investors interested in changing the lives of the local people. The meeting was also attended by the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Asuman Kiyiingi.

END

Over 600 Congolese refugees taken to Kamwenge

Congolese refugees who fled the fighting between government forces and rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo have finally been resettled in Rwamwanja refugees’ settlement camp in Kamwenge district.

The refugees who had been stranded in Kisoro district entered Kamwenge town on Tuesday night aboard eight buses and were escorted by two police patrol vehicles.

Francis Bafakai a settlement officer in the prime minister’s office said that brought in 672 refugees and they are expecting more 600 at the end of this week.

 On Sunday, Congolese officials led by Vincente Mwanbusya met officials from Uganda and addressed the refugees at Bunagana border and urged them to return home but a two days later they were ferried by the UNHCR to Kamwenge district.

Bafaki said that up to 7,000 Congolese refugees have fled to Uganda to escape violence in their home country, adding that residents are nervous and scared of the coming of refugees in their area but urged them to stay calm as no one will be chased away from his home.

“The people of Rwamwanja are starting to feel nervous, yet we are not displacing them. We are only settling the refugees and that is all,” he told the New Vision on Wednesday.

Government’s plan to settle the refugees to Rwamwanja were delayed by the objections of residents who say they also need the land. Some had threatened violence if they were forcibly evicted.

The government had originally planned to resettle the Congolese refugees on March 19.

However the Settlement Commandant David Mugenyi said that they will keep on settling the refugees as they come and people who encroached on the government land will have to move.

Mugenyi did not say when the government was likely to evict the residents who encroached on the resettlement camp.

“As of now I have not received any instructions of evicting them but if I get it, we will act,” Mugenyi said.

Frank Tumwebaze the MP for Kibaale County and Dorothy Shaija the Kamwenge district MP they could not be reached as all their known telephones were switched off.

 Shaija and Tumwebaze last month went on loggerheads with the Minister of Disaster and preparedness Dr Steven Malinga over settling Congolese refugees in Rwamwanja.

 Moses Kwesiga the LC I chairman of Kaihora village said that they have no choice since government have decided to bring the refugees.

“The government has decided to bring the Congolese here and we have to choice but to accommodate them,” he said.

 Ends

 

Oil companies to employ only 10,000 people

The much excitement that came as a result of oil and gas discovery in Uganda may be short lived if communities are not prepared to grab the opportunities that come with the discovery.

The oil companies have finally disclosed that the exploration and production of oil and gas in Uganda will not directly provide many jobs to meet expectations of unemployed youth and urged them to engage in activities aiming at becoming service providers instead of job seekers.

Jimmy Kiberu, the corporate affairs manager of Tullow Uganda said that the sector will only provide 10,000 jobs which is a drop in the ocean.

“People have many expectations of getting jobs in the oil sector unfortunately we will only employee 10,000 people. My appeal is that engage in service provision in order to benefit from the sector indirectly,” Kiberu said.

Kiberu was on Thursday during the Rwenzori region stakeholder’s consultative meeting on oil and gas at Mountains of the moon hotel in Kabarole district organized by Kabarole Research  and Resource center.

Kiberu said that the sector is a technical area which needs high skilled personnel which Uganda is lacking.

“The challenge is that we cannot employ anyone from the street, the sector needs technical people with high skills to handle the sector. It’s unfortunate a few Ugandans c have the qualifications to do the work,” he said.

Grace Kanoni said that Tullow Uganda has not involved the communities in their planning activities a reason to why they are getting a negative reception from the community.

“You never involved us at the beginning, you are just coming to tell us what you have already done that’s why the community is giving a cold reception,” Kanoni said.

Moses Balinda from Ntoroko district said that the communities in Rwebisengo where oil and gas has been discovered are still confused of the criteria which Tullow Uganda will use to compensate them.

The director of Kabarole Research and Resource Center  Julius Mwanga said that the issue  oil and gas is no longer a dream to Ugandans, adding that its high time people in the region take a keen interest to a deeper understanding the sector in order to benefit from it.

 Richard Rwabuhinga, the Kabarole district LCV chairman said that the discovery of oil and gas will determine the destiny of Uganda,  but was quick to add that this does not necessary translate to development rather than the readiness to use the resources effectively.

 “Let us be mindful of the fact that mere discovery of oil does not necessary translate to development, it is rather the readiness to use the resources optimally, prudently and objectively to achieve the vision of developing our nation,” Rwabuhinga said.

He noted that the main economic activity of Rwenzori and Bunyoro regions is agriculture and there is need for people to produce more food to meet the increasing demanding that has come with the exploration of oil and gas.

Rwabuhinga however expressed his concerns on environment impact that is oil and gas production is likely to cause.

“If not handled well, mining of gas and oil can lead to environment degradation. I call upon the oil companies involved to be mindful and protect the environment of the new and nascent oil and gas sector,” he said.

Gloria Sebikali, from the ministry of energy and mineral development said that 65 exploration and appraisal wells were drilled but only 58 were found to have oil.

Sebikali said the ministry is planning to use crude oil to generate power so that they can reduce the problem of power shortage in the country.

Ends

Working class should go back to farming during weekend- Namwese

Most people stay in the urban centers and enslave themselves in jobs even when they have land where they can cultivate food for their families and for sell. This increases on their burden of buying food every day and also affects their income as well.

You wonder someone works for 40 years but when you look back she/ he has nothing to show for all the years spent in formal employment because all the salary was spend in food, school fees and others.

There are the words of Brenda Namwese a resident of Bukomero trading center in Bukomero town council in Kiboga district.

 Namwese stays in an urban center but refused to buy food which she can cultivate for herself, urging  that,   staying in urban center does not mean that one should not engage in farming because at the end of the day you will have to buy food.

“We spend a lot of money in urban centers buying food which we are able to dig for ourselves. When I sat down and calculated the money I was spending in food, I got annoyed, this anger urged me to start my own gardens,” she says.

 She noted that one does not require hectares of land to start farming but needs a right and positive attitude towards farming to have food and income.

 “We are in the modern world, using modern technology, the excuse of having small land does not matter but what matters is someone’s attitude towards farming. It also is high time people in towns start visiting villages during weekends and dig. It is the way Uganda will win the war of poverty and famine,” Namwese says.

In 2003, Namwese left her job at World Vision where she worked as Correspondent Analyzer   to start farming.

 Namwese used her last salary and purchased 10 pigs, this marked the beginning of her journey of farming. She later sold the pigs and brought one acre of land where she wanted to farm food for her family because she hated buying food all the time.

 Namwese planted a banana plantation, cassava, beans, ground nut, maize and started keeping chicken in her small piece of land,  all in a bid to have food and an income for her family.

She later formed Balima Women’s group and they started saving sh 50,000 per month with an aim of engaging in business in order to increase on their household income.

The 20 member group is engaged in catering services, decorations and digging in groups.

Namwese started getting contracts at the district to construct pit latrines at schools and  sold her beans , maize, groundnuts  and added up to get a capital which she used to  start up a stationary shop.

 She widened her network and connected her group to start cooking food for the workers who were working on Kampla- Kibgo- Hoima road.

She however says that she realized that the stationary shop was not bringing in a daily income especially during holidays, she sold more of her produce and started a hardware shop so that she can earn money even when its holiday period.                                                                                                                             

Namwese always admired farmers and whenever she went to the market to buy food, she kept on telling herself that one day , she will also bring food to the market to sell to others.

She even says that she would get annoyed giving her money to farmers yet she had hands to dig and have her own gardens.

 It was from this background that Namwese got the motivation to start farming and storing food for future consumption.

 She says that most people think that farming is hectic and expensive before they give it a try but urges people interested in farming activities to seek advice from the already existing farmers and read The New Vision on Tuesdays (harvest money) to get farming tips.

She for example gets matooke and sweet potatoes peals, dries, pounds and mixes it with little chicken feeds for her chicken instead of spending lots of money on feeds. “This boosts the capacity of chicken to lay more eggs,” she says.

 She has bought more 6 acres to expand on her farming activities. She says that her hardware shop brings her an income of sh 12m per month while her stationary shop earns shs 1.5m per term.

Namwese has constructed rental houses which brings in sh 300,000 per month, sells eggs which gives her sh 160,000 per week and sells matooke sh 600,000 per month.

 She is excited on her decision of leaving formal employment for farming. “I was going to die a poor woman if I did not opt for farming,” the 39 years old and a mother of four.  

 Namwese’s biggest challenge is the unpredicted weather that affects farmers these days and cattle keepers who stubbornly leave theirs animals to destroy people’s crops.

Tsetse flies kill cows in Ntoroko district

The cattle keepers in Ntoroko district have decried the rate at which tsetse from Semliki national park are killing their cows.

Ntoroko district is estimated to have 160,000 heads of cattle but the herdsmen are now worried that if the tsetse flies are not controlled, their livestock is at stake of perishing.

Mujungu said that the national park stages a threat to the people of Ntoroko because tested flies and trypanosomiasis come from there and attack their animals.

“Tsetse fly and tick challenges are high in the greater Rwebisengo area especially at the interface with conversation area. Famers lose many animals to East Cost Fever and Trypanosomosis,” Christopher Mujungu, a resident of Rwebisengo said.

He said that the cattle keepers are also facing a big problem of lions which come from Semliki national park and eat their cows, adding they have lost over 200 cows to lion in a period of ten year.

He appeared to Uganda Wildlife Authority to relocate the lions from the park to other parks where people don’t keep cows.

The cattle keepers addressed their problems to the minister of state for agriculture, animal industry and fisheries Lt Col Bright Rwamirama on Saturday at Rwebisengo trading center in Ntoroko district.

Rwamirama had rushed to Ntoroko district to sensitize the cattle keepers on how they can prevent tsetse flies and trypanosomiasis from affecting their animals.

Rwamirama gave them deltamethrin acaricide that kills both nuisance flies, lice ticks and tsetse flies in the affected sub-counties of Rwebisengo, Kanara, Nombe and Karugutu.

He also provided 20,000 doses of Cooper pour-on to treat foot and mouth disease, contagious Bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) locally known as ekihaha in cows and peste despetitis ruminants (omubyamo) in goats and sheep which has left many animals dead.

The Ntoroko district woman Member of Parliament Jennifer Mujungu noted that the people of Ntoroko entirely depend on cows as main source of food, income and other needs.

“People here sell their cows to buy food in markets and milk is part of our food as well. Without cows, people in Ntoroko cannot live and we need a lasting solution for this problem,” Mujungu said.

She also urged government to give Ntoroko a special consideration like Karamoja region, saying that they have similar challenges.

“When it rains, the area floods and when its dry season, we experience a terrible drought, I am begging the government to give us a special attention so that we can save our people from dying,” Mujungu pleaded.

The district veterinary officer Dr Patrick Bagonza said that the cattle keepers in Ntoroko are worried after an outbreak of rabies and lumpy skin diseases reported d in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr Bagonza said that the heavy traffic of illegal livestock movement is worsening the situation and called for an urgency to vaccinate animals in the district to prevent the diseases.

Parliaments scale up efforts to secure the health of women and children

Leaders of nearly 120 national parliaments attending a major meeting in Ugandan capital, Kampala this week resolved to prioritize action and resources for improving the health of women and children.

Delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Union  (IPU) passed a resolution on Thursday ( 5^th April 2012) calling for all member-parliaments to take all possible measures to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 by 2015.

 MDG 4 aims to reduce child deaths around the world by two thirds by 2015, while MDG 5 aims to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters by the same year. 

This is the first time that the world’s parliaments, acting through the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), have passed a resolution on this issue.

The debate on the resolution, which took place over three days in Kampala this week, featured interventions from more than 50 member-delegations, associate members and observers, including Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, Sweden and Indonesia.

The resolution was initiated by parliamentarians from Uganda in April 2011 at the IPU Assembly in Panama, and proceeded from a September 2011 special report, ‘Access to Health as a Basic Right: the Role of Parliaments in Addressing Key Challenges to Securing the Health of Women and Children.”

The Canadian Parliament, as host of the next Assembly of the IPU in Quebec City, in October, will follow up with a dedicated push on maternal, newborn and child health to support the implementation of the resolution.

Senator Salma Ataullahjan noted that “Canada has significantly supported women’s and children’s health through our Muskoka Initiative, our support to the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health and our Prime Minister’s co-chairmanship of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health. 

Without healthy women and children, the potential of our nations remains unfulfilled.  I am encouraged by the IPU’s adoption of this resolution and will, looking towards the 127th Assembly in Quebec City, work to facilitate its implementation.”    Speaking during the Assembly, Ms. Paula Turyahikayo, one of the three IPU Rapporteurs responsible for developing the resolution, said.

“The adoption of the resolution on MDGs 4 and 5 in Kampala is a major achievement. We hope that now all the stakeholders will come in and strengthen efforts by parliaments that make it possible to implement the resolution in all countries where MDGs 4 and 5 are doing badly,” She added.

She also noted that “strengthened partnership between parliamentarians, civil society organizations, media, the private sector and all other relevant actors will be key to the implementation of this resolution.

 Mr Martin Chungong, Director of Programmes at the Inter-Parliamentary Union noted that “this resolution is welcome and will go a long way in structuring the engagement of parliamentarians in national efforts to improve the health of women and children. 

The IPU intends to support this effort through the development of tools that parliamentarians will be able to use in their efforts to promote accountability for better results. 

The resolution gives the Inter-Parliamentary Union a renewed mandate to work with its partners to strengthen parliamentary capacity in support of maternal, newborn and child health.  We are committed to that mandate. 

“We urge development partners, notably CSOs, to support parliamentarians in their efforts through capacity building and the provision of evidence when required,” Chungong said.

Over 1,500 members of parliament and parliamentary staff drawn from 119 countries worldwide attended the IPU Assembly in Kampala.

The IPU, created in 1889, is the world’s leading forum for parliamentary dialogue on common issues of concern, and holds a general assembly for members each spring and fall.

This spring’s agenda for Kampala also included an IPU initiative to reduce violence in Syria and improve access to humanitarian aid, as well as the launch of the first Global Parliamentary Report, co-produced with UNDP, investigating the state of relations between parliaments and citizens.

Women’s and children’s health was also the focus of IPU Assembly plenary addresses given by Professor Babatunde Osetimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA who spoke on reproductive and maternal health, and Anthony Lake, Director of UNICEF, who spoke on nutrition.

 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also provided an address, calling attention to the Every Woman Every Child effort, in support of the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), the Countdown to 2015 effort and UN agencies have been important technical partners of the IPU in the lead-up to this resolution, beginning from 2008, when they first co-hosted a session on maternal, newborn and child health during the IPU’s spring assembly in South Africa.

Since then, PMNCH has worked closely with the IPU and host parliaments in organizing panel discussions, site visits, research reports, and knowledge summaries to increase knowledge and awareness among parliamentarians, focusing on their important roles in allocation, oversight, representation and accountability for women’s and children’s health.

 Dr. Carole Presern, Director of PMNCH says : “Parliamentarians play a crucial role as advocates for women’s and children’s health.  They can create enabling environments through legislation and through policy and budget support. Most importantly, they can promote accountability of the executive and political arms for women’s and children’s health by supporting the implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health”.

Delegates at the Kampala meeting called upon parliamentarians to scrutinize all government health interventions to ensure they are evidence-based, conform to international human rights standards, and are responsive to regular and transparent performance reviews.

Maternal and child mortality rates remain unacceptably high, and many countries, especially in Africa, are not on track to achieve MDGs 4 and 5. 

About 7.6 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday in 2010, with 41 per cent dying in their first month. In 2008, 358,000 women died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth.

 Many women and children around the world do not have access to the professional care, medicines and supplies that can save their lives and those of their children. 

Many pregnant women are not being attended to by skilled health professionals during labour and delivery, a major contributing factor to maternal and newborn deaths. In Sub Saharan Africa, 50% of women deliver their babies without professional care.

  Parliamentarians play a critical role in allocating resources, enacting laws, overseeing implementation, and reflecting the views of citizens about their access to health services. 

Press release: Kumi gets specialized orthopaedic centre, as President cautions against Hepatitis B

President Yoweri Museveni has hailed Dr. John Ekure, an orthopaedic specialist who overcame his personal tragedy when his mother died and exploited his opportunities and challenges by investing in a multi-million orthopaedic facility to help other Ugandans.

“The important thing is that he transcended that tragedy and made something out of his life. He studied on a government programme and after he got an education not only as the only specialist orthopedic doctor here, he became something else, an entrepreneur. Somebody who has spectacles to see opportunities and challenges and exploit them is brilliant. I came to give him moral and material support,” he said.

The President said he would direct the Minister for works and Transport to work with the contractors of the Tororo – Soroti road to include a section of the road leading to the orthopaedic centre so that the tarmac can protect the equipment in the hospital from dust.

He also pledge to bring electricity to the centre and donated Shs 40 million in cash to the centre to buy an electric drill for the bones.

“This is a private facility but there is no reason why we should not support it because it is making a great contribution to the heath sector and changing the lives of our people,” he said.

The 40 bed, 25 doctor centre was built by Dr. John Ejure, the only bone specialist in the region, is the only such facility in Eastern and North Eastern Uganda. The Orthopaedic centre dedicated to Dr. Ekures mother Elizabeth Opola a midwife killed during the insurgency in 1989.

“I wanted to demonstrate to my kinsmen and youth that it is possible to initiate development projects and stay in the countryside. Let’s be patriotic, together we can do more,” Dr. Ekure said.

Uganda has very few specialist hospitals such as these and yet 10 percent of Uganda’s population has one form of disability or the other. Of the six orthopaedic surgeons that the country has, three are based in western Uganda, two in northern Uganda and one in Eastern Uganda. Dr. Ekure said the majority of bone patients in the hospital are as a result of road or traffic carnage on our roads.

“I do appreciate the challenges our country is facing in terms of human capital flight among professionals. One of the most pervasive myths in Uganda is that government, donors and other funders must shoulder all responsibility for peoples health, education, welfare, happiness and jobs simply because we exist, the real truth is that there is only one person responsible for the quality of life that one lives and that is you,” he said.

The President also cautioned the people against the deadly Hepatitis B virus that is ravaging the region, urging health workers to launch mass sensitization campaigns to inform the people. He warned against what he described as sexual nomadism and sharing instruments that are not sterilized.

here is a hidden treasure in hoe- Kayaayo

In 1995 she abandoned her job at Busitema National College, Tororo where she worked as a records clerk. This marked the beginning a new life as a farmer in her home area in Kabarole district.

Her friends and relatives criticized her while others called a fool for abandoning her permanent job to misery called farming.

Nevertheless, Florence Kayaayo had a different view about farming.  She settled on the land she had had bought together with her husband Emmanuel Rusoke Kayaayo in Kibale village, Kisomoro sub-county Kabarole district.

 “I wanted to show those that despised me when I left my job that farming was had a hidden golden that all of them did not know,” she says.

Realizing that most people in her village were farmers, Kayaayo started growing Irish potatoes, maize, beans, matooke, cassava and sweet potatoes her four acres for home consumption.

After studying how people lived, she also noticed that people were prone to famine because they did not store food.

“I saw an opportunity to make money during the time when food was scarce. I started storing food for my family and for selling and I have no regrets,” she says.

In 2003 after her husband was transferred from Busitema National Agricultural College (now Busitema University) to NARO Entebbe.

 She decided not to follow her husband but to go to the village and make a home for her children.  Her mother in-law gave her one basin of garlic seeds and planted it and harvested   a full sucker of garlic, that’s when she realized that garlic was a business she wanted to engage in.

 Later in the year, NAADS was introduced in Kisomoro sub-county and she was brought on board and given 80kgs of garlic seeds which she planted on a one acre of land.She was surprised to harvest 800 kgs.

“At that time I sold a kilo gram of garlic at sh 5,000 and I got sh 4m, I celebrated and I said oh my God, there is money in farming,” the 50 year old says with a lot of excitement in her voice.

Because of her progress, Kayaayo has been made the leader of all garlic farmers under Kabarole Garlic Growers Marketing Association.

To support other garlic farmers, Kayaayo offered some of her land for the construction of two stores for the harvested garlic from other farmers in the district. The stores were built with the support of NAADS, Kabarole district.

She says that better storage facilities would ensure good quality, better prices and after harvesting, all farmers transport their produce s home where it is kept in the stores until it is sold.

She says that the price of garlic has gone up from sh 5,000 in 2004 to sh 15,000 and last season she sold garlic worth sh 18m.

When the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) introduced apple growing to the people of Kabarole district in 2003, the local farmers believed that apples could only thrive in Kabale district and countries where snow falls.

She began growing apples in 2004, with 20 plants as from Kabale district where she had gone on an exchange visit programme.

She planted the apples in her compound as a trail she harvested 1,000 apples and sold each apple at sh800, less than the price in grocery stores.

Kayayo started with 20 trees of apples as a trail after seeing a future with apples she has scaled to 350 trees. She however targets 500 trees.

Working with East African Seeds

Kayaayo was always not happy selling her maize locally because the local buyers were paying little money. She worked hard and added value to her maize and contacted East African Seeds which came and inspected her and were satisfied with the quality they gave her business.

 She says that she takes care of crops right from the gardens by putting turplines in the garden during the harvesting time, carry it in clean suckers to the store in order to keep its nature color and avoid contamination of the seeds.

“When harvesting, I don’t put my maize on the ground I use tarpline and transport them to clean place until I put in the grannies for safe storage. This protects its color to 100 percent, keep the real original test and moisture content,” she says.

With the profits she gets from farming, she supported her husband to build a permanent house.

“I told my husband that let us build a big house and one for the children because they had grown up. He did not believe me but I assured him that I had the money,” the mother of six says.

She has paid school for her children, five of them are now grandaunts,  supported her relatives , catered for 20 dependents among them two are now priests and she is still paying fees for the rest.

She has built rental houses at Nyakigumba trading center which fetches her sh 1.1m per month.

 She is also started up a hardware shop that gives her a daily income. She also owns a four wheel drive car that she uses to transport her produce. She has also bought an additional piece of land on which she has planted eucalyptus trees, which she will sell to generate more income.

“I have done all this because of hoe. Let me tell you these is gold in digging,” she emphases.

Kayaayo says that farmers should be creative and manage their farmers using cheap but modern ways of farming.  She says that she uses soap and milk to spray her apples to prevent diseases in apples known as “white methods” which says is very dangerous and a threat to apple farmers.  

She explains that she gets one piece of blue washing soap, sock it overnight, then in morning she mixes it with one liter of milk and add in 20 liters of water and spray her apples.

 Kayaayo says that farming needs love, patience and commitment.  If you choose to do farming you must be ready to invest in time and totally commit yourself to it. Let it be part of your life if you want to benefit from farming. In fact to me the day I don’t go to my gardens I feel bad, I feel I am missing something that I love so dearly,” she advises.

 Kayayo says that if people in Kabarole were hard working and embrace the good soil and weather, Kabarole would be one of the riches districts and a food basket in Uganda.

One of the most challenges is farmers who want quick money yet they are not willing to invest in farming. She says that others at lazy  and have a wrong attitude  saying farming is labour intensive, while others say that they will get old and dirty when they did.

“When I started mobilizing women to dig, most of them told me that they will get old while others thought that digging is dirty. I was shocked me,” she says.

Kayayo is also a founder of Karungi Women’s Group, Kisomoro United Association and Bunyangabo Farmers Marketing Cooperative Association.

She employs six permanent workers and over get over 15 casual workers during the weeding and harvesting period.  She is been able to retain her workers because of the motivations she gives them.  She pays them sh 60,000 and sh 3,000 daily for casual on top of giving them bonuses.

 She is planning to increase of apple garden from 350 to 500 trees, she also plans to plant coffee.

She says that if looked after well, one apple tree can produce over 600 fruits and a fruit is sh sh 1,000. “I want to move away from season crops to a life time crops. Apple can last for 25 years and coffee as well,” she says.

 Her biggest plan is to turn her home into an agro tourism center and training center for farmers where people can come, see and learn.

Thousands appeal to government over poor health facilities.

Thousands of people in Kibiito sub-county in Kabarole district have appealed to government to improve on the poor road network and poor health facilities in the area.

The residents said they walk about 30 kms in the mountainous area seeking for health services at Rwagimba health center III.

They said that the Government and Kabarole district leadership in particular have failed to extend social services in their area.

 The most affected villages are Buryampaho, Rwagimba, Busanda, Bukara and Bulyambaghu.

According to William Mumbere an elder in the area said that the health center rarely has drugs because vehicles, boda-boda and bicycles don’t reach there.

Mumbere said that once in while when the drugs are delivered to the health, the delivery van stops at Kinyampanika primary school and they mobilize the community to carry drugs their head to the health center.

“When we get drugs we mobilize the community and divide the drugs so that people can carry it to Rwagimba health center III,
on their head,” he said.

He added that as a result many people have resorted to treat their disease using herbs while others seek healing from Rwagimba hot springs.

Mumbere noted that because of poor road infrastructure when people fall sick, the community use traditional stretchers to carry them to the health center.

“It is so unfortunate that we suffer carrying our people on stretchers but when we get to the health center, the workers and drugs are not there, we end up loosing our dear ones,” he added.

However Joshua Bulimbenda the LC I chairperson of Bulyambaghu village  disclosed that due to poor road network and poor health facilities, many expectant mothers die before reaching to the health center.

“It takes about six hours to walk to the health center and as a result, many of our women and unborn babies have died before getting there,” he said.

He explained that many women have resorted to traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in their area.

Joan Masika a TBA in the area revealed that she delivers received between 10 to 15 women per month.

“Many women come to me because the health center is far, hard to reach, no health workers and drugs,” Masika who charges sh 30,000 for her services said.

 When KC contacted a health worker who spoke on conditions of anonymity said that, at times they spend five months without drugs. The health worker also said that sometimes the center is given expired drugs.

“We have over 400 doses of corterm which was delivered in 2009 while it was already expired,” he said.

KC observed that the maternity wing has been turned into a staff accommodation and beds which were in the general ward did not have mattresses.

Other roads in Kibiito sub-county were constructed through LGDP funds leaving Rwagimba road, Rogers Baluku another resident stated.

However the Kabarole district engineer Steven Wakatama said that Rwagimba road was not in the district work plan.

On the status of the health center, the district health officer Dr Richard Mugahi promised to investigate why expired drugs were delivered  there, adding that he will deal the absenteeism of health workers.

“I will investigate how the expired drugs were delivered there because we don’t even accept drugs that will expire in within six months,” Dr Mugahi said.

End.

Cancer patients struggle to survive

Cancer patients struggle to survive the disease and costs, however most cancers can be prevented and even cured if detected early and treatment made available.

But frequent drug stock-outs and an ill-equipped health system mean many patients cannot afford the high cost of treatment, many end up dying. Once a rare disease, cancers of various kinds are emerging to be a big killer in Uganda.

Despite this threat, many of these cancers are either not getting treated or costing huge sums of money.

His breath was slow and desperate, taking every successful breath as if it were his last.

Early this month, Ronald Ahwera joined the agony queue at the Mulago Cancer Institute, the only cancer facility in a country of 34 million people.

Funding to the health sector, most of it from foreign donors, largely goes to three diseases namely HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. So cancer patients like Ahwera are paying a heavy price.

He had arrived here a few days earlier than 4th October when I met him. The 13-year-old was diagnosed with Burkitt ’s lymphoma, a type of cancer common in children.

He has a swollen jawbone, his breath emits a foul odour, blood oozes from his mouth, most of his teeth have fallen out, and he cannot eat food and has to depend on fluids. He is in severe pain.

Treatable cancers

Doctors say although Burkitt ’s lymphoma is highly aggressive and life threatening, it is also one of the more curable forms of cancer. But for patients like Ahwera, the chances of being cured look too distant.

Since arriving at the cancer institute, he has not received treatment. “We have been told that the drugs are over so we have to buy them from the private clinic,” said his sister, Martha Natukunda.

A dose of treatment for Ahwera’s cancer costs 200, 000 Uganda shillings at government rates, but goes for as high as 700, 000 Uganda shilling at the private clinics.

“We can’t raise this kind of money,” said Natukunda. She is still hoping that the hospital can get the drugs so that patients like Ahwera can access them for free.

Hospital officials say although some cancer patients are accessing treatment, many more others like Ahwera are not.

This is because the cancer institute doesn’t have drugs to treat Burkitt’s lymphoma. The drugs are supplied by the National Medical Stores.

Moses Kamabare, the General Manager at National Medical Stores (NMS) confirmed  that they have not supplied some of the drugs but said that the various drugs are purchased from different manufacturers.

 “Any one would understand that we don’t buy these drugs from the same manufacturers so they also supply them at different times. We would have loved to have them supplied at the same time but we can’t,” he said.

However  time is already running out and the tumour is growing by the day, spelling more gloom for Ahabwe.

Dr Jackson Orem, the director of the Mulago Cancer Institute, notes that cancer patients take several medicines, not just one and if the deliveries are made at different times, administering treatment becomes more challenging.

“Drugs are given in combination. So if you are supplying you need to supply a full range of drugs so that they can fit in the combinations that are prescribed,” he says.

“If you supply only one drug then we have to look for two or even more drugs to make a full complement of the combination. The effect is that patients are asked to buy those medicines that are not supplied. If the patients have the money then they buy the drugs. If they don’t have the money, then we are stuck,” he adds.

We can’t treat them without all the drugs because that would be under treatment and we shall only be feeding the cancer,” he notes.

Although a significant proportion of cancers in Uganda can be cured by drugs, surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, especially if they are detected early enough, the grim reality of drug stock-outs and an ill-equipped health system means many patients do not have access to early diagnosis, screening or palliative care - all of which have contributed to the gradual increase of cancer patients and the resultant high cost of treatment.

The story of Ahabwe is a case study of the agony faced by many cancer patients in Uganda -that of how many treatable cancers do not get treated because the drugs are not available in the government facilities forcing patients to shoulder hefty out-of-pocket costs, sometimes millions of shillings per month.

Many patients, especially the poor, have been hit hardest as they are forced to buy the prescribed drugs at a market price, considered too expensive for the average Ugandan.

And for many, at the end of the day, the cost is a deciding factor of whether a patient lives or dies.

Dr Nathan Kenya Mugisha, the acting director of Health services in the Ministry of Health, acknowledges that cancer treatment is prohibitive for many poor patients.

“The problem has generally been that cancer is a very expensive disease to treat. The medicines for cancer are highly specialized so as government we provide what we afford. This explains some drug stock-outs,” he said.

Costly treatment

Dr Orem said most cancers can be prevented and treated if patients turn up earlier and the cost would be relatively low.

Often times though, he said, patients come when the cancers have progressed, making treatment not only difficult but also grossly expensive.

“The cost of treating a patient who has come early is as low as a quarter of treating one with the advanced disease and with a relative amount of money, the chances of cure is high but with a lot of money you have spent, the chances of cure are not there,” said Dr Orem.

According to the medic, treating a cancer patient would cost in excess of two million Uganda shillings for each cycle of treatment, with patients receiving at least six cycles.

Even this is not a guarantee especially for those patients with advanced stage cancer because as Dr Orem explains, by the time the patient has received the six cycles, the cancer will have reduced by just half, meaning a patient needs to be started on another cycle of medication.

But there is a dilemma to this too. Doctors say patients at this stage are less likely to withstand more treatment.

 “So you end up in a situation where you want to treat but the patient can’t tolerate your treatment any longer,” said Dr Orem.

Already overstretched, the Cancer Institute is virtually taking the entire burden of cancer patients as the other government-run hospitals across the country do not have the expertise and infrastructure to handle the patients.

Often times, this leaves the patients with no option but to look towards costly private hospitals or join the long wait at the Institute-sometimes at the cost of their lives. The cancer burden has further been triggered by a shortage of specialists.

There are only five cancer doctors for the 34 million Ugandans, with the institute seeing upwards of 10,000 patients every year.

But having these five doctors, Dr Orem says is a “great” achievement because five years ago, he was the only Oncologist (cancer specialist) in the country.

 “With new cancer patients coming in and old ones coming back, you are looking at about 12,000 cases per year and this year we are projecting it could reach 14,000,” said Dr Orem.

Broken radiotherapy machine

Against the backdrop of rising cancer cases and costly treatment, the country’s only radiotherapy machine is too old and falling apart.

Although crucial in cancer treatment as the radiation rays is what is used to destroy or reduce the growth of cancer cells in the body, the machine has been out of use for the past one month.

Dr Joseph Mugambe, the head of the Radiotherapy department at Mulago Hospital said they had already ordered for spare parts from China and are expecting them to arrive over the next two weeks.

He said the machine which is 15 years old breaks down frequently and will now require replacement.

But as the radiotherapy machine is awaited, and the number of cancer patients keeps growing, health authorities will in the long run be overwhelmed by the numbers and cost of treatment unless huge investments are made in cancer prevention.

End