World Humanatarian Day: meet a "small" guy who worked with us to start a solar powered internet center

Sunday 19, August is World Humanitarian Day. Have you done anything to help some one in need? Have you donated to a noble cause? Have you signed a petition for a just human rights cause?  To celebrate World Humanitarian Day, we have singled out one “small” guy who worked with us set up the first solar powered Internet center in our region (southwestern Uganda). Waitresses who served him local food,  local farmers, boda boda boys (motorcycle taxi) and children he met on Lyantonde’s dusty streets, called Ga-a-lanti instead of Grant. Grant Buhr who currently lives in Chicago Illinois worked with Project Focus from 2007 to July 2012.

2010 staff retreat in Lake Mburo National Park.

Grant lived and worked with us for almost one year. Before he left, we had Lyantonde Internet Center running. He worked like a professional social worker, mobilized communities, shot and produced videos, helped manage finances and danced with us to our local Ugandan songs. Its impossible write everything  in this article but we hope you enjoy some the videos he worked on while living in Lyantonde. Michael: You need 365 days to listen to my story. 

Michael: I first met Grant in 2007. It never came to my mind that I would work with him again because he was in different world; producing videos and music, lives in the U.S… On one of our trips on rainy day, I lost control of the bike and we crushed into a pothole full of dirty water. He knew I was a good driver and he trusted me with his life again.  The most trying moment with him was when some one guy we all thought was honest almost conned our organizations $100,000 meant to construct a school. It was a very stressing time but we decided to move forward and here we are. As I said before, I need 365 days.

Adam: ( laughs) I remember him as a very strict man… he loved playing with children here.

Fatuma:  (laughs so loud and  tightens her scuff) Wabula simanyi kyakwogela ( I don’t know what to say) He was very hardworking, down to earth and  I remember he once said he wasn’t going to shave until we had enough money to start Lyantonde Internet Center.  

Enjoy some of the videos produced. 

 


 

Uganda's Yoweri Museveni warns of Ebola threat as deaths are reported in the capital Kampala

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has called on people to avoid physical contact, after the deadly Ebola virus spread to the capital, Kampala.

Fourteen people have died, including one in Kampala, since the outbreak began in western Uganda three weeks ago, he said in a special broadcast.

Ebola is one of the most virulent diseases in the world. It is spread by close personal contact and kills up to 90% of those who become infected.

Mr Museveni said health officials were trying to trace everyone who had had contact with victims so that they could be quarantined.  People should avoid shaking hands, kissing or having sex to prevent the disease from spreading, he added.

Mr Museveni said relatives and friends should not bury anyone who is suspected to have died of Ebola.

"Instead call health workers because they know how to do it," he said.

Mr Museveni said seven doctors and 13 health workers at Mulago hospital - the main referral hospital in Kampala - are in quarantine after "at least one or two cases" were taken there. One victim later died. 

"I wish you good luck, and may God rest the souls of those who died in eternal peace," Mr Museveni said as he ended his address to the nation.

The first victim of the latest outbreak was a pregnant woman.

Uganda has seen three major outbreaks over the past 12 years. The deadliest was in 2000 when 425 people were infected. More than half of them died.

There is no vaccine for the virus. Symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness, headache, vomiting and kidneys problems.

Ebola’s hits Kibaale District 

Government has dispatched a team of doctors to hunt down and isolate people suspected of having come into contact with patients infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Kibaale district.

Some 20 people been infected by the virus by Saturday night, according to the district health officer Dr Dan Kyamanywa, of whom 14 have died.
Although no new infections had been reported by press time yesterday the race was on to isolate people who came into contact with those affected, in order to stop the highly infectious virus from spreading.

A team of physicians from the Health ministry, the US Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation are in the district to assist local officials manage the outbreak.

Dr Kyamanywa said two patients admitted to an isolation ward at Kagadi Hospital are showing signs of recovery. “They were admitted with severe fever, abdominal pain and diarrhoea but they are in a fairly good condition,” he said.

The disease was first reported about two weeks ago in Nyanswiga Village, Nyamarunda Sub-county, after it killed 13 family members. Ms Claire Muhumuza, a clinical officer at Kagadi Hospital who was attending to the patients, also passed on last week.

Dr Kyamanywa said three patients have recovered and are under surveillance. District leaders joined medical officials in briefing the public about the disease in a two-hour talk show that was aired at Kagadi-Kibaale community radio on Saturday.
Dr Kyamanywa said a public awareness and sensitisation campaign has been rolled out to give measures of prevention from contracting the disease.

Source:

BBC News

Daily Monitor

Family Planning Saves Lives, But Millions Can’t Access It

By Carolyn Miles

Around the world, an estimated 222 million women who don’t want to get pregnant cannot access contraception. I was surpised to learn Namutebi was one of them.

On the way to the Ugandan hospital where I met Namutebi, I saw several clinics advertising family planning services. The services were free and there for the asking.  But despite her deep desire to control her family size, Namutebi told me she didn’t go to the clinics.  Her husband didn’t want her to use contraceptives, she said.  It just wasn’t a decision she could make.

Namutebi was in her early 20s, but she had just given birth to her fifth child.  She was lucky, really, because she escaped serious complications for her baby or herself—even though she was unable to plan and space her pregnancies at least two years apart as medically recommended. In fact, empowering women to delay conception for three years after giving birth could save up to 1.8 million children’s lives each year, as explained in Save the Children’s new report, Every Woman’s Right: How family planning saves children’s lives.

But Namutebi hardly felt like celebrating.  She told me she felt worried.  How would she and her husband provide for their growing family?  Would there be enough money for food?  For school fees?  And what if she kept having babies?  She probably would, she knew.  The average Ugandan woman has seven children, a figure that has barely budged for several decades.

In Namutebi’s community and others around the world, large family size is equated with status and even a perception of wealth.  In some Ugandan tribes, for example, a man may receive cows for every daughter he marries off.   He’ll need these when it comes time for his sons to marry.  The whole thing can end in a wash, but the pressures remain.  Women like Namutebi and their children often pay the price, sometimes with their lives.

In many places where men have the upper hand, husbands may insist their wives keep having children and become angry or even abusive if women choose to use contraception. It makes sense, then, that when we talk about making family planning more accessible for women, we include men in the conversation. The Ugandan government has started to do that now with a campaign aimed at engaging men around the benefits of having smaller families.

Save the Children also includes men in our global efforts by helping train male “motivators” to talk to their peers with messages on the importance of healthy timing and spacing of births.  At the same time, we must ensure that women themselves can access family planning methods that are acceptable to them.  That’s one of the many reasons Save the Children puts great emphasis on training frontline health workers to reach out directly to mothers in their own communities.  These health workers are a critical link to lifesaving maternal, newborn and child health services—including family planning—for women who cannot access hospitals or sometimes even a clinic.

This week, world leaders congregated in London for a family planning summit hosted by the British government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The summit addressed the barriers to improved access and use of contraception, and prompted government pledges to for family planning—which we hope will boost supplies, improve delivery and focus on the critical role of frontline health workers.   This comes on the heels of a global “Child Survival Call to Action” hosted by the U.S., Indian and Ethiopian governments in Washington last month. Save the Children is calling on policymakers to endorse that forum’s goal of ending preventable child deaths within a generation.

The United States has helped lead the way to cutting child deaths by nearly half in the last 20 years.  We need to keep investing in girls’ education and health and nutrition programs that we know save children’s lives. Family planning is a key part of the solution.

Source: Logging Miles

2300 female condoms distributed.

We continue to try and break discrimination against women in sexual rights; we have distributed 2300 female condoms. We got new supplies today; 2 boxes containing 2000 female condoms for distribution. 

Michael opens SMOCSA International Women's Conference.

On May 27, ICOD Action Network's Executive Director Ahabwe Mugerwa Michael gave an opening key note speech at the SMOCSA International Women's Conference. Single Mothers and Child Support Agency (SMOCSA) Uganda is a non profit making and voluntary organization that advocates for the rights of single mothers and vulnerable children in Uganda especially those affected by domestic violence. 

This year's conference under the theme "Eliminating Discrimination against women in order to end Gender Based Violence" focused on improving coordination among agencies, departments, courts of law, members of the community and victims in efforts to end domestic violence.

Michael inspiring talk focused on increasing women's access to birth control and reproductive rights information, ending rape and sexual enslavement, ending Female Genital Mutilation and increasing women's access to investment capital.

May 2012 Farmer's Engagement training

We were in Kamengo Village for our  May 2012 Farmer Engagement Training.  Over 50 farmers turned up for the workshop. Farmers had an opportunity to share ideas, ask questions  and interact with  our permaculture expert.  A team from our new partners GlobeMed  were in Lyantonde visiting and also had an opportunity to visit our community.

Farmers in a group discussion.

Group presentations.

Community members at the meeting

Uganda at 50; time to Female Genital Mutilation

As I wrote this article, two men behind me were arguing whether restoration on term limits in the Uganda constitution is a violation of human rights of those that voted for it and each other had strong reasons. Anyways, let me share with you the worst of women’s rights violation; I think worse than the video clip I watched on NTV, a police officer “massaging” breasts of a female activist.

Has of us thought how it feels to lose part of your body? I am one person who fears having someone else cut my finger nails. I do it myself January to December. That’s why I found it hard not to write this short article about Female Genital Mutilation. 

FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world today have undergone some form of female genital mutilation, and 2 million girls are at risk from the practice each year. The great majority of affected women live in sub-Saharan Africa. In Uganda facts from Sabiny, Pokot and Tepeth communities who practice are shocking. The Sabiny believe it is an essential rite of passage that will enhance a girl’s chastity and chances of marriage. 

Our East African neighbours are worse off. In Kenya, FGM is believed to one of the major contributors of early maternal mortality and child death. The practice has remained highest among the Somali, Kisii, Kuria ,and Maasai. In Tanzania the most affected areas include Arusha, Kilimamnjaro, Dodoma, Singida, Mara, Morogoro regions, Iringa, Mbeya, and Zanzibar.  In some communities mentioned above, Female Genital Mutilation is regularly being performed on girls as young as seven and eight so as to go unnoticed while other communities cutting baby girls is done secrecy when they are a few days old.

The passing of the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Bill made female genital mutilation in Uganda a criminal offense. In 1998 the Tanzania Government criminalized Female Genital Mutilation, Kenya has similar legislation against Female genital Mutilation. However, many citizens in East Africa remain unaware of the Bills and laws and continue the practice of Female Genital Mutilation.

No health benefits, only harm

FGM has no health benefits, and it harms girls and women in many ways. In the great majority of cases it involves the excision of the clitoris and the labia minora. At its most extreme, the procedure entails the excision of almost all the external genitalia and the stitching up of the vulva to leave only a tiny opening. Whatever form it takes, Female Genital Mutilation  is a violation of the human rights of girls and women; and it is a grave threat to their health.

Immediate complications can include severe pain, shock, hemorrhage (bleeding), tetanus or sepsis (bacterial infection), urine retention, open sores in the genital region and injury to nearby genital tissue.
Long-term consequences can include: recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections,  cysts, infertility and an increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths.

Every day , Uganda media writes about people’s wishes they want government to fulfill as Uganda makes 50 years of independence; restoration of term limits, stop police brutality, more accountability and transparency. My wish is one and simple, government needs to take firm action against Female Genital Mutilation.

Ahabwe Mugerwa Michael.

Founder ICOD Action Network