In defense of the blogren via Jackfruity
Glenna at Uganda's Scarlett Lion posted yesterday, wondering why the majority of Ugandan bloggers write about things other than politics:But where have all the political blogs gone? There's this one, but that's also a newspaper column, or this one, not updated frequently, or this one that's not by a Ugandan, and some others that are more general to Africa and not specific to Uganda.Or were polticial blogs never there in the first place? There's plenty of thoughts on boda bodas, Big Brother Africa, the bad weather Kampala's been having lately, being broke, and other aspects of life in Uganda that certainly aren't apolitical, but they aren't exactly government budgets and school fires either.My experience in Uganda has been that expat bloggers are the ones writing about politics, while...
One of my strongest memories from Uganda is riding the bus between Kampala and Gulu, watching the land — green, thick, damp and hilly in Kampala, at times stifling and claustrophobic — flatten out to meet the bright, open sky. It always felt good, no matter what meetings I had ahead of me or what I had left behind in Kampala. from Flickr via SnaptographyIn an essay titled "Landscape and Character," Lawrence Durrell, a novelist and travel writer whose works I devoured in Uganda, claimed that "human beings are expressions of their landscape." Land is a central part of the northern Ugandan conflict; the Acholi, for the most part, are subsistence farmers, and being separated from their land and herded into Internally Displaced Persons camps has ruined their economy and their... 
from All Africa The Monitor (Kampala)INTERVIEWSend a Cow Uganda, a non-profit NGO, will celebrate its 20th anniversary this September in helping communities overcome poverty and malnutrition through distribution of livestock to needy families. Florence Namasinga talked to the organisation's Executive Director, Mr Samuel Kawumi. Excerpts.Are you simply engaged in giving out cows as your name suggests?Send a Cow emerged as a response to a need to help poor communities out of poverty and malnutrition. It started in 1988 as an idea by Archbishop Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo who requested UK farmers to donate livestock to Uganda.It has grown to cover about 36 districts spread countrywide. We now give out more than cows. Our packages range from cows to goats, poultry and organic farming. We mostly target... 
from All AfricaNew Vision (Kampala)The 3rd African Child Policy Conference was held recently in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the theme "Child Poverty in Africa".The event comes at a time when several African children are living under extreme poverty.Africa has been hard hit by the ever rising food prices. Most African children are bearing the brunt of the rise in food prices resulting from poor agricultural policies and practices.Many children in northern and north-eastern Uganda are starving and several others malnourished. Over 50% of the children in the war-affected region survive on only one meal a day, which compromises their health.In Karamoja, the majority of the children have turned to eating rats, a tradition that was abandoned many years ago because of its dangers on personal... 
from the Chester Chronicle by Rebecca Edwards, Chester ChronicleFACED with hundreds of Ugandan children living in poverty with no medical care for AIDS and malaria, a retired GP set herself the challenge to build them an £85,000 medical centre.Dr Pauline Hutchinson, who lives in Kingswood near Frodsham, set on the extraordinary journey four years ago after she was asked to investigate the dire health needs of youngsters in a remote region of the African country.Dr Hutchinson, 57, retired as a GP in Runcorn 17 years ago and first visited Uganda in 2004 to advise on the health needs of local children, on behalf of the Just Care charity, of which she is a trustee, and which also supports two schools and an AIDS orphanage.She said her observations, and those of other professionals,... 
from All AfricaThe Monitor (Kampala)NEWS21 May 2008Posted to the web 21 May 2008By Eva MashooKampalaSarah did not have what to eat or a job but her health condition was disturbing. She was suffering from tuberculosis (TB) and malaria yet she didn't have a coin to pay her overwhelming medical bills.One day a friend took her to Hope Clinic and she testifies how the clinic restored her hope.Before, she used to get medication at Mulago Hospital where often she stood in a snake-like queue that didn't favour her failing health.Everyone, especially the poor, hope for free medical services in government hospitals. However, this is no longer possible since the collapse of the cost sharing scheme which allowed for citizens to receive free consultation but paid for the medicine.Seated outside Hope... 
from All AfricaNew Vision (Kampala)NEWS18 May 2008Posted to the web 19 May 2008By Frank Mugabi and Cyprian MusokeKampalaPRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has ordered officials of the National Agricultural and Advisory Services (NAADS) and Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) to use local radio stations to create awareness about the availability of funds to fight poverty.Addressing a well-attended Prosperity-For- All rally at Arua Primary School, Oli Division in Arua district on Saturday, Museveni advised the managers of the two organisations to mobilise the masses to access the funds."The most effective method of communicating is the radio. The Movement government liberalised the airwaves. Why don't you use them?" he asked.According to the Uganda Communications Commission, there are over... 
from The Nation By CHARLES KAZOOBAParliamentarians are pressurising Uganda to revoke the interim trade agreement signed between the European Union and the East African Community.The Ugandan MPs claim the partial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed at the close of last year entrenches “unfair treatment” of the five-member bloc. Uganda currently chairs the Community, and it is believed that Kampala spearheaded the negotiations that led to the agreement, also signed by Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.Last November, as part of the Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, EAC initialled — without parliamentary debate — an interim framework agreement with the EU ostensibly to avoid disruption of exports to the latter bloc following the World Trade Organisation-mandated... 
from All AfricaNew Vision (Kampala)By Patrick JaramogiKampalaAt least 7.5 million Ugandans live in chronic poverty, a minister has said. State minister for disabilities Suleiman Madada also said the majority of the population still lacked access to safe and clean water, health and education services.Madada, who was addressing editors during a breakfast meeting at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala on Wednesday, said income inequalities, high rising food prices, climatic change, environmental degradation and HIV/AIDS were some of the causes of chronic poverty.People living in chronic poverty cannot afford a meal a day or access education, health and other social services, he said. According to the 2005 Human Development Report and the Uganda Chronic Poverty Report, 26% of Uganda's population... 
from All AfricaNew Vision (Kampala)By Gawaya TegulleKampalaTitle: Credit and Reduction of Poverty in Uganda: Structural Adjustment Reforms in ContextAuthor: William MuhumuzaPublishers: Fountain PublishersWHILE the reduction of poverty has become a major development policy objective worldwide, the debate continues as to the most effective way to actually reduce poverty.The belief is that credit programmes are important in speeding up wealth creation among the poor and improving their welfare, and to this end, billions of dollars have flowed from the west into Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of the world's poor live.Credit and Reduction of Poverty in Uganda focuses on Uganda, where the NRM Government fully embraced credit as one of the policy strategies to reduce poverty - under the... 
from the Nation By JULIUS BARIGABASpecial CorrespondentUganda may boast a number of government and donor funded programmes to fight poverty but they are deficient, inadequate and do not reach the most needy of the poor, a new study reveals.The study, titled Social protection in Uganda: A call for action by private firm Development Research and Training, focuses on the Programme for Modernisation of Agriculture, National Agricultural Advisory Services and the Poverty Eradication Action Plan. Areas affected include water and sanitation, infrastructure, universal primary and secondary education as well as primary healthcare.The study says about 26 per cent of Uganda’s 30 million population is “chronically poor.” It adds that the government has failed to include 7.5 million poor people... 
from All AfricaThe East African (Nairobi)NEWS31 March 2008Posted to the web 31 March 2008By Catherine RiunguNairobiFIVE YEARS AFTER UGANDA introduced a vaccine to fight Haemophilus influenza Type B (Hib) meningitis, the disease has been virtually eliminated, says a study.Hib is a leading cause of pneumonia and meningitis - an inflammation of the lining covering the brain and spinal cord.Each year, Hib kills about 400,000 children under five years of age, most of them in the developing world. It is also responsible for about three million cases of serious illness resulting in long-term consequences such as deafness, paralysis, mental retardation and learning disabilities.The positive results are outlined in a study to be published in the April issue of The Bulletin of the World Health... 
from the East Aurora Advertiserby Alex Nye In 1971, Idi Amin Dada took control of Uganda in a military coup. He became a tyrannical dictator who oversaw political repression, ethnic persecution, and terrible violations of human rights. During his eight years of power, it is estimated that he killed nearly half-a-million people.Despite Uganda's unpopular portrayal in documentaries and Hollywood movies, it is a friendly country with much untapped potential. However, there are still many problems, including malnutrition, dire poverty and AIDS. Ugandans have had to live with this unfair historical stigma associated with Idi Amin. The landlocked African country is far from modernized-many villages do not have clean water or electricity.Kim Hanavan, an East Aurora resident and recent graduate... 
from All AfricaNew Vision (Kampala)By Joshua KatoKampalaEGGS are nutritious, and in a bid to increase the consumption of eggs, the Poultry Association of Uganda (PAU) is calling upon the Government of Uganda to introduce eggs into the school feeding programme. This, according to research, can create a huge internal market for local eggs, increase farmers' earnings and fight poverty in rural areas."Eggs can be produced all over the country, irrespective of region or climate," says Agha Ssekalala Sr, the managing director Uga-chick Poultry Breeders.The proposal is to start with at least three eggs per week for every child. Each egg will cost sh150, adding up to sh5,400 for a full term.Basing on 7.3 million children under the Universal Primary Education programme, assuming there are 250... 
from All AfricaNew Vision (Kampala)By Mathias MazingaKampalaTHREATS of war and genocide will be less pronounced if citizens are not extremely poor, Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala has said.He noted that the many wars in Uganda and the region were a result of economic and political injustices, which have their roots in tribalism and other social ills."All social groups should be given the opportunity to participate in the production and consumption of the goods of their country," Wamala said."If some people are excluded, they will blame their poverty on that tribe that controls the political and economic machinery, who they believe have denied them their share of the national cake."The former Archbishop of Kampala was speaking during the 17th Joseph Kiwanuka Memorial Lecture in Kampala last week.... 
from All AfricaThe Monitor (Kampala)COLUMNBy James AbolaKampalaAccording to the 2005/06 Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) report produced by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the national percentage of people living below the poverty line declined from 38.8 percent as per the 2002/03 UNHS report to 31.1 percent in the 2005/06 UNHS report.The absolute number of poor Ugandans according to the 2005/06 UNHS report is about 8.4 million people. That is a lot of people, to put it another way, almost one out of every three Ugandans is poor.The government of Uganda together with its development partners have not been oblivious to the level of poverty in Uganda; as a result they developed the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (Peap) whose principle goal is to provoke social transformation by...