She made her first millions in farming

One day in 1992, a professional teacher Evas Kamasaka returned home to try farming.  She left her teaching job to concentrate on farming after realizing that it was the only way she would attain riches.

Kamasaka says that she started growing, trees, matooke, ground nuts, greens, cassava, beans, sweet potatoes and millet for home consumption.

But her biggest and main enterprise was tree planting which she proudly says has made her go to the bank smiling.

Kamasaka who has planted 40 acres of eucalyptus trees, says that she used to sell each tree at shs 50,000 but later realized that she was being cheated and making loses and decided to be cutting her own timbers.

She says that trees are one of the most profitable enterprises Ugandans should engage in, urging that it’s not labour intensive and besides money earning they also contribute to rain making.

She explains that when she cuts her timber, she gets 120 timber  from one tree and sells each at sh 3600. Kamasaka earned millions of shillings from the actual sale of timber and is also earning millions money from the fire wood she sells to people burning bricks and schools.

 “Once your forest has grown, you relax as you count money. For instance whenever I cut trees for timber, I get 20 tippers of fire wood which I sell at sh 70,000, I get sh 1.4m and I am able to earn sh 432,000 from one tree,” she says.

Helping other farmers

Kamasaka  started Ruki women farmers group with aim of uplifting and promote women to attain financial independence.

The group with 25 members started saving sh 2000 per month, and borrowing it to each other.  She also procured coffee seedling for the group, to increase the production of coffee in area.

She has won herself a reputation in the entire neighbourhood as a hardworking and trustworthy farmer.

Advice

The mother of nine who also looks after 50 orphans urges parents to teach their children when they are still young to nurture them with a business and job creation mind.

“Teach children how to work when they are still young, they will grow up knowing that they can make money anywhere and they will never suffer hunting for jobs,” she counsels.

 She says that farming needs a lot of patience, love, care and high level of interest. “Love it, live it and take time to grow the love in farming, you will never regret,” she says.

 “I am telling you I have never earned such millions of money am earning from the harvest of the timbers and coffee before in my life,” he said.

Coffee

Kamasaka’s first coffee harvest got her sh 3m and the second season she got sh 6m. She’s optimistic that the coming season will be better because now a kilo of coffee is sh 6000.

“When I planted coffee, I did not know that the harvest would be so good. I had to give up one of my bed rooms to be able to store coffee. In fact we had to keep some of the coffee outside and had to worry about the rain damaging it,” she says.

Kamasaka was digging and preparing the ground for planting more coffee this rain season.

Mix enterprise

 The family also has 50 cows that give them milk worth sh 1.2m per month, poultry project with 200 birds that gives the family a daily income of sh 30,000 from eggs and also earns sh 6m from cassava per year.

 Kamasaka consistently keep 200 local chicken for meat  and  sells 50 per month  at sh 20,000  each getting sh 1m, she sells  20 bunches of matooke every week  that earns her sh 200,000  as well getting  sh 2m from beans per season.

Empowering women

Started up a tailoring workshop with only one sowing machine, Kamasaka was determined to train women and girls who dropped out of school in order to give those skills to sustain themselves.

Over 200 women and girls have passed through her hand, which gives her total satisfaction of seeing others excel.

However, besides using the workshop to train women and girls, it brings sh 2m per year.

“Christmas, Easter and beginning of the first term, is a peak time and the workshop gives sh 2m,” she adds.

Achievements

The 50 year old lady is already an opinion and influential leader in her community and luck has been following her farming activities, which has seen her get great achievements and is not afraid of mentioning a number of her achievements.

She reluctantly says that: “I have made money in farming that I would die dreaming of in teaching”.

 She has built rental houses and is expanding her coffee project. “My well maintained coffee plantation  three forests keep bringing in money all the time and helps me the occasional disappointments when annual crops such as beans and  maize don't do well perhaps due to drought or any other calamity,” she says.

However, seeing her children attaining education in good schools and exceling is one of the things that put a smile on her face.

Challenges 

Lack of labor is the main challenge the progressive farmer which she says that gets from Kasese district at high price.

End

A study on disasters on crop diversity concluded

A first study to investigate in detail the effects of disasters on crop diversity and its recovery has been concluded with a combined agronomic observations of looking at the seeds’ colour, size, pattern, and shape with biotechnology tools to determine the seeds’ genetic makeup.

Seeds of local crop varieties included in relief-seed packages distributed to small-scale farmers after natural calamities if indigenous agricultural diversity is to rebound faster.

Agricultural relief efforts also capitalized on existing social networks to distribute seeds more effectively and efficiently.

These are among the findings of a recent study looking into the loss and subsequent recovery of cowpea diversity in Mozambique after massive flooding, followed by severe drought, hit most of the country about 11 years ago.

After natural disasters such as floods and drought that often wipe-out their crops, farmers usually receive relief seed packages to help them recover and restore their food security and source of income.

However, most of the seeds in these relief packages are generally of introduced and genetically uniform varieties purchased from markets or from seed companies by well-meaning relief agencies, which slow the recovery of crop diversity.

Interestingly, the study also noted that the speedy recovery of Mozambican cowpea diversity after the double-disasters of 2000 was largely due to the exchange of seeds among farmers through gifting and other social interactions involving friends, family members, and relatives within the same community or adjacent communities.

Dr Morag Ferguson, a molecular biologist with IITA and one of the study’s lead researchers, says farmers in Africa traditionally grow many crops and several varieties of each crop on the same plot of land to cope with unforeseen economic or environmental instabilities.

He said that farmers usually set aside part of their harvest to serve as seed for the next cropping season.

Therefore, when natural disasters strike, many farmers often lose their seeds and are forced to rely on relief, buy from the market, or receive seeds as gifts from friends and relatives.

“We found that the substantial recovery of cowpea genetic diversity two years after the calamities was mainly due to the informal exchange of seeds among farmers that served as a social-based crop diversity safety backup,” he said.

He addede: “ It is therefore important that seed relief strategies recognize and capitalize on this existing traditional network based on social relations to help restore diversity especially after natural upheavals,” she said.

The study was initiated in 2002, two years after the flood-drought double disasters and carried out in Chokwe and Xai Xai districts in the Limpompo River Valley –areas that were among those severely affected.

The findings of the research have been published in the current edition of ‘Disaster’, a publication of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

The research established that nearly 90% of the farmers in the affected areas received cowpea relief seed immediately after the back-to-back calamities.

Two years after, only one-fifth of the recipient farmers were still growing the seeds, while more than half sourced their seeds from markets.

However, this did little in restoring cowpea diversity in the affected communities as the seeds bought by farmers from the market were mostly uniform, coming from other districts that grew just one or a few select varieties.

On the other hand, about one-third of the affected farmers obtained seeds from friends and relatives living within the same or neighbouring localities to restock their farms – the same people that they have been exchanging seeds with prior to the disasters.

This practice was the main reason why cowpea diversity was restored in these areas, the study showed.

Dr Ferguson says that such a social relations-based seed distribution system is already in play in an approach developed and implemented by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in partnership with other relief agencies in which seed vouchers are exchanged for seed at ‘Seed Fairs.

In this approach, he says farmers from nearby districts not affected by disaster and with excess seed, come to the Seed Fair to sell seed to disaster-affected farmers in exchange for vouchers, which they then cash-in with the relief agency.

“This approach recognizes that farmer seed systems are robust and resilient, and can provide seed even in emergency situations. And this study shows that such an approach will be more effective in restoring diversity faster and more efficiently than a system based on direct distribution only,” she says.

End

80 percent of Africans depend on herbal medicine

Many people in African still die of diseases which can be treated using African herbal medicine.

Clovis Kabaseke, a horticulture expert in Fort Portal town in western Uganda says that among the herbals that people have been using is for inflammation, fever and Malaria treatment.

Kabaseke says that Artemisia annua has traditionally been used in many herbal remedies such as a bitter, a febrifuge, as an anti-malarial and as an antibiotic.

He explains that traditional African medicine is a holistic discipline involving extensive use of indigenous herbalism combined with aspects of African spirituality.

 “Traditional medicinal remedies are made from the leaves. This anemophilous species has only a light pollen count during hay fever season,” he noted.

Hay fever season usually happens in from July to November in Kabarole district, western Uganda according to Kabaseke.

Artemisinin is a plant natural product produced by Artemisia annua and the active ingredient in the most effective treatment for malaria.

“Efforts to eradicate malaria are increasing demand for an affordable, high-quality, robust supply of artemisinin. We performed deep sequencing on the transcriptome of A. annua to identify genes and markers for fast-track breeding. Extensive genetic variation enabled us to build a detailed genetic map with nine linkage groups,” he said.

Kabaseke explains that replicated field trials resulted in a quantitative trait loci (QTL) map that accounts for a significant amount of the variation in key traits controlling artemisinin yield.

He said that enrichment for positive QTLs in parents of new high-yielding hybrids confirms that the knowledge and tools to convert A. annua into a robust crop are now available

“The genetic map now makes it possible to speed up plant breeding of Artemisia; rapidly developing it into a high-yielding crop. This breakthrough is crucial if we want to meet the ever-growing demand for effective malaria treatments,” he said.

Malaria, a preventable and treatable disease, is still responsible for an estimated nearly one million deaths every year globally.

Artemisinin is extracted from the plant Artemisia annua; however, yields so far have been low, making the product expensive. Planting areas have declines because Artemisia production has been uneconomic. This drop has raised fears of shortages.

Despite numerous attempts at government interference, this ancient system of healing continues to thrive in Africa and practitioners can be found in many other parts of the world.

Under colonial rule, many nations considered traditional diviner-healers to be practitioners of witchcraft and outlawed them for that reason.

In some areas of colonial Africa, attempts were also made to control the sale of traditional herbal medicines.

He said that the Mountains of the Moon University are also doing a study to assess the use of traditional herbal medicine by AIDS patients in Kabarole District, western Uganda.

He said that they enrolled 137 AIDS patients selected from outpatient departments of three hospitals and interviewed them.

Kabaseke said that they wanted to find out the frequency of herbal medicine intake, concomitant herb–pharmaceutical drug use (including herb–antiretroviral drug co-therapy), and the perceived effectiveness of herbal medicine. Overall, 63.5% of AIDS patients had used herbal medicine after HIV diagnosis.

“Patterns of traditional herbal medicine use were quite similar between those on antiretroviral therapy and those who received supportive therapy only,” he said.

He added: “I’m not an expert in herbal medicine but it works perfectly well. I agree that it needs to be run along with conventional medicine”.

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 80 percent of people still rely on herbal remedies for their health care.

Yayeri Mugenyi a HIV patient from Buhesi in Kabarole district said that many people resort to using herbs as a result of poverty.

Mugenyi says that the high cost of drugs in clinics and pharmacies, drug resistance which often lead to treatment failure, prolong and expensive treatment are some of the reasons that pushes lower income people to use herbs.

 “Herbs have fewer side effects compared to conventional medicine and it is cheap. Why should I go for an expensive drug which will as well give me terrible side effects? Mugenyi asked.

If herbal medicine was not in Uganda, so many Ugandans will be dead by one. Trust me on this. Grace Kabasita, a traditional birth attendant and a resident of Kaburasoke in Kamwenge remarked.

Kabasita said that she also use herbs to treat livestock diseases and uses herbs to treat expectant mothers.

“I have used some of the plants to treat diabetes, tumours, stomach pain, rheumatism,” she says.

“Personally, I love herbs because of the wide variety of diseases can be treated with a single plant. You take one for cough but you end up treating over ten diseases hidden in your system as well,” Kabasita adds.

Haji Suleiman Nyakana of Rwengoma said that he treats his family of malaria plant called alovera.

Nyakana called upon the Ugandan government to officially authorize herbalists so that they can be able to conduct their business legally.

“I want the government to put herbalists into some form of training and authorize them like the Chinese have done to improve to implement the health sector,” he said.

The study which was conducted between January 2000 and September 2003 by the Department of Botany at Makerere University documented medicinal plants used to treat fungal and bacterial infections in health care in and around Queen Elizabeth Biosphere Reserve in Bushenyi and Kasese districts in western Uganda.

However the study pointed out that some people also worry about bacterial infection that comes out of mixing herbs or saliva used by herbalists.

End

Woman quits accounting job to look after 3,000 HIV orphans in Uganda

By Hope Mafaranga
 
“I was born in a poor family, raised up in a grass-thatched house and cared for by many people,” says Faith Kunihira, the director of Bringing Hope to the Family, on how she was inspired to take care of HIV and vulnerable children.

Kunihira adds that she was born under a coffee tree and ushered in by her grandmother who was a midwife. An accountant by profession, Kunihira never had any personal savings because most of her money was spent on looking after her siblings after her mother separated with her father.

In 2000 and with only sh5000 to her name, Kunihira left her accounting job in Jinja to go back to her community in Kaihura, Kyenjojo district, to look after HIV-orphaned and vulnerable children. She was inspired by her background and many NGOs that did HIV-related work in Jinja.“I knew the stories of the HIV prevalence in my community. I had no money but I had the brain, was sensitised and knew that I wanted to help people in my locality,” the 40-year-old Kunihira says.

A family friend who lived in Kampala gave her a house where she started doing her work by talking to HIV-orphaned children and widows. What moved Kunihira most was a woman who had lost all of her six children and husband to the virus, and was left with 12 orphans. This was Kunihira’s starting point. “I picked up the 12 children and offered them scholastic materials and in less than a month, I had 68 children,” she says.

Kunihira now provides school fees, scholastic materials, healthcare, livelihood skills and psycho-social support to 3,000 children. She also started a clinic, Hope Again, to provide treatment, counselling and following up on children who are infected. The clinic also caters for teenage mothers and expectant mothers exposed to HIV /AIDS. It now provides treatment and support for 800 people living with HIV, 260 of them children.

Kunihira also pays all the expenses of having all the patients’ tests done which include CD4 count at Joint Clinical Research Council in Fort Portal. “No matter the cost, I have to take care of them. Caring for the disadvantaged is a dream come true for me,” she says. Kunihira adds she does this because she was also cared for by people she was not related to, who gave her a meaningful life. “I have to care for others just like I was cared for. I have passed through many people’s hands, if someone had not cared for me, I would not have been the person I am today,” she said.

Kunihira’s project, which is largely supported by the Inter Religious Council of Uganda, is now building a multi-million hospital to accommodate more patients and save the money she has been spending on rent. Equipping the youth with skills Kunihira has built a farm and vocational school to equip the youth with skills to sustain themselves. At Bringing Hope to the Family, girls are taught tailoring and craft making while boys learn carpentry, welding and mechanics. “We currently have 400 girls under our care. We keep them until they are 18 years to protect them from early marriage, early pregnancies and contracting HIV. We counsel them, teach them about family planning and help them make right decisions for their lives,” she explains.

Kunihira also rehabilitates the youth who are addicted to alcohol and drugs. Improving standards of living, Kunihira has supported eight families in Butiti sub-county and 40 more families in Katooke and Kyarusozi sub-counties by giving seeds and teaching them good methods of farming. She also offered 15 wells to the community so that people can have access to clean and safe water. “I give them seeds so they can increase on their harvests and get enough food for their families and sell to earn a living,” she adds. Kunihira has also set up farms and gardens at Kingora village in Kyarusozi sub-county and the village is now a model village where people go to learn modern and improved ways of farming.

Testimonies “I was an idle marijuana man who smoked as if my life depended on cigarettes,” testifies 26-year-old Simple Man Tikitiki. Tikitiki says his life was saved by Kunihira who preached to him and he reformed. “With the help and guidance of Kunihira, I have formed a singers’ group made up of 20 youth. This has helped us generate income for ourselves,” he says. “Bringing Hope to the Family has really brought hope to me. I was hopeless but know I can see the future and I know where I am going,” he adds.

Kunihira, who resisted the pressure of joining politics, says the most significant achievement she has made is helping her community. She adds that creating jobs for 80 people, building a nursery and primary school to cater for vulnerable children gives her joy as well. The major challenges is the sustainability of funds for the project.

Ends

Wonders of Tooro Botanical Gardens

It is sunny evening; the cool breeze is soft and gentle as it fanned upon my face. As I walked into the Tooro Botanical Gardens (TBG), I was enchanted by the abundance of colorful flowers and trees and I could easily hear the birds perched on the groves, singing their lullabies.  .

I started walking slowly, so that I do not scare the birds away because my ears were enjoying their sound and I was enthusiastic to see them.

 However my excitement was cut short when a bee started buzzing near my ear, I shooed it away.  It was no wonder that bees were there in big numbers because were completely surrounded by flowers of different colors, shapes and sizes.

TBG that sits on 100 acres of land is conveniently located towards Mountains of the Moon Hotel, about 2km from Fort Portal town, in Kabarole district.

The second botanical garden in Uganda is a perfect site for leisure with numerous peaceful places for resting and listening to nature. Yet it is also a place where many different and innovative activities take place and deserve to be seen.

Another one is a government owned Botanical Garden Entebbe which was established in 1901 that lie on the shores of Africa’s greatest Lake Victoria.

This wonderful garden is a unique environment where a variety of flowers, medicinal plants vegetables and fruits are grown. It is a magical place to wander around, taste locally grown fruits and vegetables and get to know the rich biodiversity of the region.

 The garden employs 85 workers who get their pay from selling spices, vegetables and other plants. They actually pack them for all sorts of buyers, including sellers of herbal medicine.

According to Godfrey Ruyonga, who runs the garden, as its director say,  the first private botanical garden in Uganda was started in 2001 with three main objectives of conversation, education and recreation.

He says Uganda is one of the world’s richest countries in terms of biodiversity with other 5,000 plant species, 1,000 bird species, 350 mammal species and countless insect and reptile species.

These are extraordinary figures are however threatened by the unfortunate common harmful trends of overexploitation  of resources, abandonment of traditional knowledge and know-how, pressure on natural habitat for agro systems.

 Ruyonga says that it is utmost important to address these issues and put a brake to reduce this dangerous loss speed and with time, reverse this trend to the gain of biodiversity.

“The main purpose is to preserve the indigenous species of plants in the Albertine Rift Valley Region of Africa by creating a conservation site at the TBG and using it as a facility to inform the public about the importance of protecting the natural environment,” Ruyonga quickly mentioned.

Community involvement 

 TBG is more than just a conservation gardens, it is working hand in hand with the community. They teach school children about the beauty of nature and their natural environment, and the importance of preserving it.

Angela Mboneka, a tour guild says that farmers frequent the garden to learn how to grow crops organically, and how to use their land in a sustainable way.

 “The community purchase fruits and vegetables seeds to produce greater variety,” Mbeneka says.

Exploration  

Throughout the gardens many paths lead towards magnificent viewpoints. Several itineraries are set up such as easy short walk to more adventurous trails.

You can smell and taste the different herbs, spices and see many unique birds. I loved the grownup smell flowers.

Fees

A guided visit to the gardens costs sh 5000, and for your convenience several walks are set up, from easy paths for a pleasant stroll to more adventurous trails including tree-houses.

This will also give you a chance to see a variety of living plant collections from the Albertine Rift region of Uganda.

You also can learn about a wide variety of plants by touring around the demonstration gardens of flowers, medicinal plants, trees and shrubs, herbs and spices. Visitors can join an educational trail to discover more about local fauna and flora

The medicine

In the nurseries are vast assortments of ornamentals, garden and indigenous forest trees for sale. Notably are flowers and organic vegetables, like leeks, beet roots, fennel and lettuce.  Other common species include artemisia an anti-malaria booster, centella a memory booster and garlic tincture to regulate blood pressure.

 “These are vegetables you won't find anywhere else. We also sell natural mosquito repellent, based on citronella,” Ruyonga says.

Ruyonga who has visited over 160 botanical gardens in the world says that they want to domestic gloss berries (entutu) because there are nutritious. The gardens was a brain child of  Prof. Edward Rugumayo initiated. He says he gets no income from the garden but he is very passionate about it.

Training traditional healers

Ruyonga says that traditional healers also visit the gardens regularly to get more knowledge of unique medicinal plants which provide preventive and healing properties for various illnesses.

He says that they also train them on good methods for harvesting the medicine and storage.

“We train them to converse the medicinal plants and harvest in correct manner so that they can use it for a long time. We do research, find new species and study them for future use,” he says. 

 It was a joyous day for the butterflies and bees hiving above the blooming petals of the flowers they were all colorful in comparison to me. I came back from the sweet memories I had from the start. To people who love nature, it is a good sight.  

 Ends.

Five Pakistanis arrested in Uganda

Five Pakistanis arrested in Uganda

By Hope Mafaranga June 18, 2012

In Ntoroko

Security operatives in Ntoroko district have arrested one Congolese national and five Pakistanis for entering the country without travel documents. 

The six were arrested on Wednesday night at Ntoroko landing site, while crossing into the country on a boat.

Wilson Kwanya, the Western Regional Police Commander, identified the Congolese national as Musa Ismael Tembo. Kwanya, however, refused to disclose the names of the Pakistan nationals, citing security reasons. 

According to Kwanya, the six are said to have travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through Mpondwe border in Kasese district and then from Congo, they proceeded to Ntoroko landing site in Ntoroko district. 

The men were arrested after security operatives attached to Kanara landing site, became suspicious when the six were told to identify themselves, but they refused. When they were searched, they didn’t have any identification documents.

The men were in possession of bags, but Kwanya declined to reveal what was in the bags.

Kwanya says that when they were interrogated in Ntoroko, the men said that they were on a mission to spread Islam in the country. 

They were then transferred to Fort Portal police station, where they were again interrogated by Kwanya and other police detectives.

The six men were then taken to Kampala on Thursday evening under tight security, for more investigations to be carried out.

The arrest comes at a time Uganda is on high alert after the Inspector General of Police; Kale Kayihura revealed that several suspected al-shabab militants had entered the country through Kenya. 

 Al-Shabaab militants have been threatening the East African region, in revenge of sending troops to Somalia.

In July 2010, more than 70 people were killed when explosions ripped through Kyaddondo Rugby Club and Ethiopian Restaurant in Kampala as revelers watched a 2010World Cup final match. Al Shabaab militias claimed responsibility for the attacks to avenge Uganda’s involvement in Somalia, where more than 5000 soldiers are deployed.

Kenya has been attacked on at least four different times since sending its troops to Somalia in October last year.

End

INMATES living with HIV/AIDS in Mubuku government prison in Kasese district have asked the Government to improve the conditions of work at the prison. The inmates, who were meeting members of the Judicial Service Commission recently at the prison, said the prison officials subject them to long hours of work and stigmatise them. Patrick Businge, one of the inmates living with HIV, said inmates on ARVs were too weak to dig, especially under the scorching sun. “When one of us (HIV-positive inmates) asks for permission not to go to the garden, the officers tell us that we are responsible for our status since we looked for the disease. We work like others who are not sick,” Businge said. The inmates also reported that their diet was poor which subjected them to opportunistic infections. Alfred Kisobole said that doctors advised them to drink boiled water, eat greens, fruits and have enough rest, which are all not provided in prison. “We are at the edge of our graves. We do not have nutritional food to support the ARVs. We are aware that we committed offences but this does not give the prison authorities a right to send us to our creator before our time,” Kisobole said. Herbert Nzeke, a clinical officer in charge of the prison, said he had asked the prison officials to reduce the workload for the inmates living with HIV in vain. This prompted the eastern region Prisons commander, Moses Kakungulu, to order for the transfer of inmates living with HIV to other prisons with lighter work schedules. Kakungulu said it was wrong for the prison officers to subject inmates living with HIV to long hours of work. “Overworking them is killing them prematurely. They are on ARVs to prolong their lives. You are making it short by overworking them. Take the inmates to prisons with light work,” Kakungulu ordered. Mubuku is a government farm prison with a population of 330.

Cholera outbreak hits Ntoroko district leaves two dead

A cholera outbreak has hit Ntoroko district leaving two people dead and over 80 people admitted in a period of three weeks.

The Ntoroko district health officer Dr Simon Ssentamu said that the district registered the first case of cholera on 18 May 2012, but since then, the number accumulated to 82 patients.

He attributed the outbreak to people who fish from Lake Albert on the side of Hoima and Nebbi where cholera was reported recently.

“It is true we had an outbreak of disease and most samples that we tested turned positive to cholera and two people have since died but we are doing our best to stop the spread,” Dr Ssentamu confirmed.

Dr Ssentamu said most people who reported at centers of Kanara health center III and Karugutu Health center IV were vomiting, watery diheorea and also complained of muscle pain which led to dehydration in their bodies.

He explained that cholera can kill an adult within three hours, causing active secretion of an isotonic fluid resulting in profuse watery diarrhea, extreme loss of fluid and electrolytes, and dehydration and collapse.

 According to Dr Ssentamu Cholera is an acute epidemic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. “Vibrio cholerae bacteria naturally live as rod-shaped bacteria existing primarily in plankton populations in shallow, brackish water,” he said.

He said that people at the landing sites along Lake Albert have no pit latrine and they use the lake for sanitary issues and draw water for drinking and other domestic use.

“There is a lot of movement of people from Ntoroko side who go to Nebbi Hoima, Kibaale to catch fish. As you aware that cholera recently hit those districts where people also fish from, we suspect that they got the disease from there,” he said.

He said that most people who have been admitted escape from health centers for fear being identified in the community as people suffering from cholera.

Dr Ssentamu however told the people of Ntoroko that Cholera is normally spread by drinking contaminated water and eating contaminated food but it is very unlikely for cholera to be spread through casual contact and urged people not to isolate members of their families who have suffered of cholera.

“The disease has a lot of stigma associated with it and people don’t want to be identified that they were affected by cholera. Today four patients escaped from the health centers and discharged themselves before they were totally healed,” he said.

 Richard Badaki, the in charge of Kanara health center III said that, it has been a very difficult time to handle cholera patients due to lack of human resource, infrastructure, water gloves and other supplies.

“We are only four staff at this health center, we have no beds patients are sleeping at the veranda without mattresses while others  using incomplete building without windows and doors and we had a great challenge of drugs,” Badaki said.   

It is for the reason, China National Offshore Oil Company Limited (CNOOC) has come to their rescue by procuring assorted medicines for the district worth sh 85M.

 The General Manager of CNOOC in charge of development and production Qui Zongjie said it is part of their social corporate responsibility to help communities around the area where they have operations.

“When he has the bad news of cholera outbreak, we acted faster to bring medicines so that we don’t lose lives,” he said.

 Dr Ssentamu said that among the much needed medicine to treat cholera received from CNOOC is Erythromycin, Ciprofloxacin tablets, Cephalexin, Amoxyccillin and Chloramphenicol capsules. Others are Intravenous fluids and Oral rehydration salt among others.

“We have received a lot of medicines and other supplies from one of our partner CNOOC to fight the colony of bacteria and other infections,” Dr Ssentamu said.

 The district LC5 chairperson Timothy Kyamanywa urged people to observe proper hygiene and boil water for drinking in order to avoid water borne disease.

The chairman said that in district last suffered of cholera in 2007 when the disease hit the area killing 15 people and affected 230.

“I do not want to see the 2007 repeat when we lost 15 people due to cholera, observe proper hygiene and avoid drinking  unboiled water otherwise we will continue to die from diseases which we can easily prevent,” Kyamanywa said.

Ends