Uganda — Ethnic Supplies

Uganda at 50: The Condition of Ugandan Women

October 1, 2012 By idahorner

On 9/10/2012 Uganda will celebrate 50 years of independence from the British Government. In these series of Uganda at 50, I will give you a glimpse of life in Uganda today. In today’s post are a few facts about the condition of women in Uganda as reported in Uganda’s National Development plan 2010- 2015.

I have written about most of these facts on this blog. you will recall this post about a Ugandan woman who was left to die on a hospital ward because she could not afford to pay £66 and access to land in Kisoro SW Uganda and those affected by Kony’s War

The question I ask today is

What will the next 50 years look like for Women in Uganda?

Filed Under: African women, Latest, Politics Tagged With: Africa, African women, East africa, Kampala, KONY2012, MATERNAL HEALTH, Uganda

Can development happen without local community involvement?

August 15, 2012 By idahorner

Earlier this week I had to write an article for a magazine about the work of the Charity Let Them Help Themselves Out Of Poverty in Ruhanga SW Uganda. I was thrown back to that August day in 2008 when I arrived at project. It was a very hot and I couldn’t wait to Kabale, which is further, SW and much cooler.

Whilst at the project I met two women from the women’s group as well as a man (George) that was overseeing the project that day. At the time my colleagues and I here in the UK were in the middle of organizing a fund raising dinner and dance to raise money to get piped water to the village.

I asked George and the women what they thought the village needed the most. George told me that a nursery school was important and led me to what I can only describe as chicken shed and said

Look at this, this is where our children do their lessons and because of their age we can’t send them to the government school because it is too far away

I too could see that something had to be done about the conditions in which the children were learning. However when we rejoined the women and I asked them what they thought were the village priorities, the answer was WATER.

We desperately need clean water as we current have to walk several miles to access any water at all and that water is hared with livestock

Fast forward to 2012 and we do have a school that provides free education to 400 children thanks to our child sponsors and we completed the piped water program last year, there are 20 taps dotted around 3 village cells. We have a community resource centre where local teachers and the youth in the community are given computer lessons by overseas volunteers and a local women teaches women in the village the art of dress making. As of last month work has started on the construction of a Community Health Centre

As I put all this on paper I asked myself a question

Could we have achieved any of this without the community under the leadership of Denis Aheirwe the local chairman?

The answer is a resounding NO

How could we? Denis has negotiated any thing and everything that needs negotiating on the ground including getting the rest of the community on board and with the best will the world we could not have managed this regardless of how much money we might have had behind us.

The roles are very clear, we find the money the community does the work, they hire builders, engineers, get necessary permissions from local government and above all oversee all the capital projects as and when they arise and above all manage the project with minimal input from us on a day to day basis.

In mind therefore with all the money in the world the this project could not have happened with the involvement of the community and community leaders. If you don’t believe me, check out Madonna stories, with all the gazillions dollars to her name she could erect a school in a Malawi.

I would really love to hear your views and or experiences on this issue

Filed Under: Latest, Sustainable development Tagged With: AID, Kabale, MADONNA, Malawi, Non-governmental organization, Ruhanga, Uganda

Dave calls an Olympic Food Summit

August 11, 2012 By idahorner

Matoke

As the London Olympics come to a close David Cameron the UK’s Prime Minister has summoned World Leaders, International NGO’s and such like to a summit to discuss global hunger.

The lack of food is a topic I return to on this blog time and time again mostly because having grown up in Uganda I know what it is like to go hungry but also that it is something I can’t make sense of. Although this particular summit will focus on hunger and malnutrition in the developing world, Africa in particular, they are at least 1 million children going hungry right here in the UK . Yes, that is right that many children go hungry right here in the first world.

But why is that? We have the most generous welfare system in the world. Is it possible that it is failing the most vulnerable in society? Are our social workers failing these families or have they been priced out of the food market? I sincerely don’t know but I am one those that find this fact staggering and indeed some in the UK are resentful of the fact that so much AID is sent abroad and yet they are people in need right here. The rights and wrongs of this debate almost always depend on whom you are listening to as eel as your political persuasion.

Back to food shortage, another surprise that has been thrown up in the news headlines is that although India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it has the highest number of malnourished and starving children in the entire world. How can this be, after all food shortages in the Sahel, Niger and the Horn of Africathat are well documented and we have all seen the headlines on our TV sets? Is it possible that a country that has its own Aid program has more malnourished children than African countries?

Talking to people affected by drought in the 'Horn of Africa' (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The problem with food is those have too much are obese whilst others have none and are dying of hunger. How can we get the balance right? On the face of it the answer appears very simple: move food from where there is plenty to where there is none! That being the case, why aren’t we doing so?

In my minds eye, it boils down to WILL, this can be either political, social, economic and or technological will.

Technology is very important in securing food, but is the North ready to share the technical know how with the South?
The economics of food have to work for the poor as well as the markets. Does this explain why India and the UK have children going angry in spite of those countries apparent wealth? Should the West pay huge subsidies to its farmers to grow food for the sole purpose of using it as Food Aid?
Political will, unlocks blockages in the food chain by harnessing innovation, investing in ideas to secure food
Social- We should all be concerned about those going hungry and do what we can to ensure that this doesn’t become the norm

It all seems straightforward but I wonder why aren’t we doing it? Why do we allow food to be traded on world markets at prices that some in the world cannot afford causing them to die of hunger?

Initiative review

I recently became aware of an amazing product that almost encompasses all four points. If you are from Uganda or have travelled to Uganda you will have come across Uganda’s staple food MATOKE.

This is a green banana that is boiled or steamed and served with stew. Like all bananas its shelf life is limited and it has to be eaten fairly quickly preferably before it ripens. But a Ugandan woman set about changing this having observed how the life of a potato is extended using technology. The President of Uganda sanctioned the project and it became known as the President’s Banana Initiative. In applying technology to a simple banana in this way cuts out wastage, makes the banana more portable as such easier to take to market but also makes it easier to use in cases of emergencies.

The reason I shared this particular initiative is because whilst here in the west a lot of food is wasted between the supermarket- fridge and plate in most developing countries the wastage is between land and plate. This is due to lack of technology that would ensure value addition as well as preservation in order to prolong the shelf life of food. The consequence of this that folk have no way of saving food for lean times.

I have raised some ethical questions in the post and I am keen to hear your views so over to you

Filed Under: Food Security, Latest, Popular post, Poverty in Africa Tagged With: Africa, David Cameron, David Cameroon, food security, Horn of Africa, INDIA, Malnutrition, Olympics, Sahel, Uganda, World Leaders