A pain of a mother who looks after 15 blind members of her family

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 Siliversita Musinguzi 19 years ago well knowing that he was blind. She also knew that her mother in- law Mary Federesi was blind too but was hopeful that she will give birth to normal children.

She however later learnt that other relatives of her husband had the same problem but decided to stick around with hope that she will have normal children.

“I knew my husband was blind and I never thought it was genetic because I thought that my mother in law’s blindness was due to old age. So there was no reason to why I could not marry Siliversita. I knew my children won’t be blind as their father and grandmother. 

Oh my God I was so wrong.  Our first child was born blind, the second born, third born too were blind and I was almost giving up. I thought about leaving the three blind children to a blind and father and I changed my mind and stayed,” she said.

Tushemereire says that she planned to not to conceive again but decided to have another chance thinking that maybe she will have a normal child.

“Our fourth child was born normal but lost her sight when she was seven months old. Her eyes become extra white and peel, I rushed her to the hospital when she was declared blind. This is the time I wanted to dump this family and I go elsewhere so that I can get normal children. I thought the family was cursed,” she adds.

To the hospital:

Tushemereire said that she has given up on her, husband, children and in laws health condition and she is now used to live with it.

 She said that she took them to Kisizi hospital but the doctors told her that there was nothing wrong with her family.

“The doctors told me that there are nothing wrong with my family and in fact they advised me to take my children to schools where children with special needs are taught,” she told.

                  Experts take

Dr Freddy Mbumba an ophthalmologist at Ruharo Eye hospital said 80 per cent of blindness can be treated if detected early.  He said that the family could be suffering of a condition known as Glaucoma which he is a genetic issues and nothing can be done about it.“Glaucoma is a permanent condition can this cannot be treated,” he said.

However he was quick to add that the family need to have genetic tests to ascertain if this could be the problem. He said that in Uganda testing genetic issues that are eye related is expensive and few laboratories to carry out this kind of tests.

“One test could be at shs 300,000, we have we have few laboratories to carry out them our which makes it hard to access,” he said.

                   Silversita’s story

Silversita Musinguzi said that the when they had their first child was born blind he thought that she was going to desert him and his family.

“She has been a hero and blessing to our family. I however feel bad  that I am not able to help in raising our children and proving for the as a man,” he said.

                      Blindness is not a crime

Andrew Akankwatsa one of the blind people in the family says that being blind has not stopped from excelling.  Akankwatsa went to St Hellen’s Primary School  and then went to Hornby High School in Kabale and was  among the best students in  last year senior six examination.

“Despite all the challenges that we face especially studying with normal students I managed to get 19 points and I want to be a lawyer,” he said.

Justus Arinaitwe is primary six, Justice Amutuhairwe is primary five while Martin Agaba has joined St. Peter SS Kashekuro. The trio were at St. Hellen’s primary with a small help from Compassion International but the mother had to contribute towards their education.

Sister Vassy Bakuze who teaches special needs children at St Hellens Primary School said that teaching such children is hard and expensive.

 She said that Perkins braillers that is used to type the notes of children with special needs cost Shs 1.8m, braille tylius that they use to write is Shs 20,000, hand frame is Shs 40,000 while white canes are at Shs 40,000 which make it hard for children from needy family like Tushemereire’s.

                     Challenges

Tushemereire says that she is often in debts from different SACCOS where she borrows money to pay fees.

“I spend a lot of money on things the children lose at schools and I have to borrow money every now and then to take care of them. It’s hard.” Tushemereirwe narrated with sorrow in her tone.

Town dwellers are lazy and idlers- Kagombe

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 thought could never quite his trading for farming.

 Getting into farming

25 years ago, Kagombe, chose to leave his accounting job at Mbarara district and his other business to engage in farming and decided to put to good use of the 60 acres of land he had inherited from his late father.

“After releasing that our land in Rwampara was fertile, I did not see any reason of wasting my time in the office earning peanuts yet I knew that my fortune and riches where hidden in the soil. I had to get out of comfort zone, get hoe and dig my gold out of that soil. You see the results for yourself,” He said. 

Kagombe now is household name is the circles of agriculture, as soon you mention his names; people will quickly identify him as the man who owns the biggest banana planation in western Uganda. Others will tell him as successful matoke grower in the region.

The father of seven said that agriculture has less risks compared to other business yet the returns are commendable.

“You cannot compare agriculture with other businesses. The risks are fewer and manageable and it’s earning are good. I can never stop farming,” he said.

He explains that he started farming on a 60 acres of land after seeing that people in town were idlers who needed food but those who were in the villages in production of food in large quantities were fewer.

He also bought more 150 acres to keep cows and goats but later abandoned the idea to concentrate on matoke growing.

Other investments / Achievements

 Kagombe planted 20acres of trees and he is targeting to sell them to UMEME and earns big from it. He also planted 10 acres of sugarcanes, built rentals in Kampala and Mbarara, and educated his children and his is living a good life.

“I don’t stress with life, I have achieved the entire basis a man desires and I just chill and play golf during my free time,” he boosts.

Where he gets his labour

Kagombe has also created jobs for the youth. He employs 40 people among them; three are diploma holders in agricultures related field.  He pays them between sh 150,000 to 300,000, gives them accommodation and food.

In pick reason, he hires prisoners to give a hand.

“When work is too much, I hire about 30 prisoners every day to assist. I pay sh 3,000 for each, feed  and transport them , pay the security guards  sh 10,000 who guards while at my farm and they really do a great job,” he said. The workers are headed by his wife Edruyi Kgombe who is the production manager at the firm.

The really money

 Kagombe can proudly say that he earns real money, touches it and feels it.  On weekly basis he gets 600 bunches of matoke from his plantation and sells each at sh 15,000 which earns him 9m weekly.

“I earn real cash. My children are graduates with good jobs, I told them that even if they put together their salaries, it can never add up to what I earn from my matoke. So what is the use of being employed? He asked.

The market

 Among the things that worry Kagombe, marketing his matoke is not among them. He says that he has a ready market because tracks come from Kampala, pack at his home and load matoke. He also has a 24 hours market at Ruti in Mbarara were Lorries come from Kigali and Kampala to buy matoke.

Challenges

 Banana bacteria wilt is a threat. He however has been able to control it.  He has also advocated for a bylaw in his village to curb down the spread of the wilt.

“Banana bacteria wilt is like HIV/AIDS if you don’t protect yourself against it, you will contract it,” he said. He helps his neighbors to treat the wilt and has enabled farmers to by a bylaw in place to punish those that will not treat the bacteria.

Advice

People should choose their main enterprise because if you engage in many, chances are they will miss out in many ways.

 He said that the Runyankore proverb of “Katungye ente n’orutokye having is one proverbs that has tied people in poverty.

“I had 200 cows and a big banana plantation but I could not handle both big projects. I weighed to see what was giving me more money and sacrificed cows for matoke. I am proud that I have made this progress in this farming,” He said.

 He said that many farmers want to eat everything they invest and don’t want to give back and inject in more money in the project.

“If you want to succeed in agriculture, eat 50 percent and put back 50 percent in terms of paying workers and other farm expensive, but if you want to do everything for yourself, you die,” he counsels.

Global Fund to offer more flexible funding

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”

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| © 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 look at my children starving, yet there are men here willing to give me fish to feed my children. I have to improvise,” she says confidently.

Aine’s story: addressing stigma and ignorance about HIV

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/

Ugandan government warns against complacency in HIV response

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/

Jacinta’s story: HIV does not discriminate

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/

No hope for HIV prevention for Indonesian sex workers

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/

Christians lock bishop out of church

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

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 call people to come have them tested.

“We as health workers identified this cause and recognizes the effect of TB in congested slums and we want to save the people from getting this disease,” Dr. Ronald Muhame, the in charge of Kibito health IV in Kabarole district said.

He said the group gets assistance from districts and local leaders. The samples are sent to the National TB and Leprosy Program (NTLP) whose overall functions are to establish country wide quality diagnosis and treatment services for TB and Leprosy and to coordinate the implementation of TB and Leprosy control activities. It also have specialized laboratories to test for TB.

TB remains a major public health problem in Uganda. According to the 2009 WHO Global TB Report, Uganda is ranked 16th among the 22 high burden countries. In addition, the country has an emerging multi drug resistant TB (MDRTB) problem.

Dr. John Muhumuza who coordinates the group says that they also offer HIV/AIDS testing and counseling services to slum dwellers, saying that TB is common among people living with HIV and is the leading cause of death among HIV positive patients.

Dr Muhumuza expressed fear that despite their intervention, the level of infection has not gone down which he attributed to lack of treatment adherence of TB patients.

“Most people do not want to test while others refuse to adhere to the treatment which results into extremely drug-resistant (XXDR) TB,” he told said.

Dr Rhoda Tuhaise a TB expert said that four of the 12 patients detected with totally TDR, TB recently were from Biafra slum in Mbarara district.

She said that poor ventilation, lack of sunlight, dampness in the environment that favors the growth of TB bacteria in slum areas.

Stigma and challenge TB patients face

Those people who do develop tuberculosis face an exhausting disease. Treatment takes months and in many countries like Uganda people with TB face a huge social stigma. The disease often leads to loss of income and isolation.

Among them is Ronald Tukamubona, 35 who started TB treatment last month, used to visit private clinics but his problem was not solved.

A taxi driver Mbarara, Tukamubona lost his job because of absenteeism. He was off and on at his work place and he was weak most of the time until his job demanding was terminated.

He has no idea that what he was suffering from was TB until he met a group of medical personal volunteers who were testing slum dwellers and grabbed the opportunity to test for the disease.

“I lost my job after contracting TB and I was unable to perform my duties, I would cough all and day and night, not until I took sputum test and tested positive for TB. If I had known earlier I would have lost my job”, he said.

"The kind of discrimination I faced from my neighbors made me regret sharing my condition with them; I could not even share the communal toilet with them,”Kabakumba Annette a business woman in Fort Portal said.

Eight months into her marriage, Jolly Nampija was diagnosed with tuberculosis in January. She was hospitalized for a week at Masaka hospital but when she was discharged, her husband asked her to stay at her parents’ place in Kyotera in Rakai district saying he and his family had to travel to Kampala for a wedding and there was no one to take care of her.

For two weeks, her husband did not call to check on her. When her mother took her to her husband’s home, her mother-in-law said they didn’t want her in the house because she had TB.

“My husband wasn’t even ready to face me. My mattress, bed sheets and other belongings had been burned,” Nampija said.

Six months on Nampija has completed her course of TB treatment and was given the ‘all-clear’ by her doctor. “I don’t know if my husband and his family will ever take me back,” she said.

Health workers talking to people in Biafra slums in Mbarara. Picture by Hope Mafaranga

End

he priest who was nearly eaten

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

Kibaale, the hub of cannibalism

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

Boy leaves school over cannibalism

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

Biowaste briquettes fuel drive to save trees

[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

Police to probe mass graves in Bundibugyo

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

131 remanded in connection with Bundibugyo attacks

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

Kasese, Bundibugyo clashes: 255 attackers surrender

Up 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

Saving the malnourished through drama

“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