Thank you and good bye!

Today I sat +National Harbor ballroom to attend the 2016 National Hospice Foundation of Gala which was held in conjunction with the +NationalHospice  31st Management and Leadership Conference.

All at the Gala was excellent. I tried American 5 star party sea food. I experienced an atmosphere of perhaps my most dressed up event of my life. I have not seen a people so smart. I think they dress to impress and they got me. Everyone was splendid, the ladies in black party dresses (majority) the gentlemen's tuxedos and bow ties. the ladies in high healed, the gentlemen in Sharp Shinning black shoes. Oh what a show of class.

The Mistress of Ceremonies Anita Brikman was excellent and the experienced Mark Murray and Linda Rock only served to make the whole MC thing memorable.

But the outstanding thing for me was the send off of J.Donald Schumacher the outgoing President and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organisation. What a splendid send off!  Good words from staff and colleagues. John Mastrojohn III the Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer led the rest of the Senior Management Team to speak about an outgoing boss. It was a show of thank you and good bye! They gave the man a painting of his face. They praised him publicly and wished him well.

I squeezed by self and fit so well in my chair. I kept thinking, how great it would feel for anyone to say thank you and good bye! I kept thinking why this is not common in my circles. I kept thinking what an opportunity it would be to do this for someone.

Farewell thee J.D.S and wish you all the best in whatever you want to do in your retirement.

Thank you for your words: "one thing I have learnt...is to know when to leave..."

I am still around but will try to honour the leaving. Perhaps someone will honour me when I am leaving: hehehehe

What a good day!

Seeing off Nyakwenkuru!

In March 2016, I lost my grandmother at one of the private health facilities in Kampala city. My grandmother was 87 years old at the time of her death. According to the hospital report, she died due to severe anemia. Like many other traditional women, my grandmother never sought medical attention early at the feeling of an ailment.  Very often, she would inform anybody who cared that she was week but would be well soon. At some point she started giving excuses of her advanced age as the reason for her ailing nature. For a long period of time, she stayed sickly but moving on with her chores.

But once in awhile, my grandmother sought medical attention. This was mostly whenever the pain in her constantly aching legs and back was severe. She would walk slowly (okushotooka) to local health facility. During most of such visits, the health care workers would confirm my grandmother’s belief that the aching of her legs and back were due to her old age. She would receive regular painkillers and go back to her house.  This would lead her to stay in the ‘comfort’ of her pain well knowing that it was as a result of old age.

Much as it was not entirely permitting to her will, my grandmother was convinced to come to Kampala for specialized care at the end of last year. According to all specialists who attended to her, my grandmother would have been better off seeking early medical attention. It dawned on her and all of us who were close to her that the cause her continuous nature was not old age at all. She had a disease killing her slowly. She sought special medicating very late.

The experience of my grandmother at the local health care facility upcountry is strange to many. In Uganda, there are few medical specialists in geriatric care. Given the high patient to doctor ratio, the majority of patients at lower health units are attended to by Nurses. In fact some simple privately ‘clinics’ are managed by poorly trained or not formally qualified medical personnel.  Even where there are qualified personnel at lower government health facilities, they are often overwhelmed by the high number of patients and lack of constant medical supplies. Such circumstances hinder medics from having adequate time and conscience to attend to unique conditions that for example affect the elderly.   

The recently released results of the November 18, 2014 National Population and housing Census showed an improved life expectancy to above 63 years. This means that more Ugandans can now leave longer and therefore the percentage of aging population will increase greatly in coming years. The statistics also showed a high age dependency ratio at 103%. According to the World Bank working definition, age dependency ratio is the ratio of dependents of people younger than 15 or older than those of working ages of 15-64 years. The Uganda Burual Of statistics also showed that 8% of the children in the country were orphaned. Just like children bellow the age of 5 years, it is common knowledge that the elderly face a high incidence of disease and require continuous medical attention.  

Without better systems established to support the elderly, the ‘burden’ of caring for them rests on the younger, working population. However, the working population naturally have the ultimate responsibility of their own children and sustaining the state through paying taxes. Such a scenario would literary leave some elderly people neglected to languish in suffering. There is need to integrate programs like geriatric care into the public health system in Uganda.  

2016, As Shaka Ssali:Let us Be Better and Not Bitter!

The year 2016 is here, and the year 2015 which some commentators have labeled a troublesome one is gone. The reasons advanced for this label include the atrocities by terrorists like the Al-Shabaab, the Boko Haram and others. The terrorists attack in Paris is perhaps the most mentioned of all worst things that befell the world in 2015.  The unfortunate unrests in parts of Africa especially in Southern Sudan and Burundi and in other states was also mentioned.

In Uganda, we experienced the death of prominent personalities. Numerous road accidents claimed lives. Fires gutted some establishments and some buildings which were under construction collapsed on workers. There were some skirmishes between the police and politicians, the most pronounced being the undressing of a woman activist. The press curried reports of corruption, delayed payment of pension to senior citizens, conflict between Christians and their Bishop in Sheema District, depreciation of the shilling and poor social service delivery in some parts of the country. The deaths at Ugandan Beaches and the hunger pangs that raved Karamoja were also a bad taste.  Perhaps the most recent bothersome aspect of 2015 was the use of what some commentators termed as ‘abusive’ language by politicians against each other.

However ever, amidst the above, 2015 had a lighter side. The visit by the head of the Catholic Church in December was honorable. The unprecedented event united us as a country. The pearl of Africa was mentioned in world news. Key figures from different political divides shook hands for the first time in 15 years. Ugandans were thrilled!

In 2015, the Uganda Cranes worn some matches, our athletes won medals at international Level, the she cranes represented us well at the world cup! Uganda was listed among the Top 16 Best Destinations to Visit in the World by CNN. The 2015 Quality of Death Index, compiled by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit, found Uganda the 35th at offering palliative care in the world.

This is to mention but a few of the happenings of the year 2015. There were other people’s individual achievements of great weddings, academic graduations, job promotions, acquisitions of property and others.

Now that the 2016 is here let us embrace it with new hope. 

Let all public officials face every day of this year as a day to serve Uganda: after all they are civil servants. Let everyone working with a non-governmental organization face each day as an opportunity to serve humanity: after all they are working with humanitarian organizations. 

Let every politicians speak justly and act honestly: after all they are our leaders. Let all religious leaders offer to counsel, to guide, to reach out to, and to pray for the lost, the hungry and vulnerable: after all they are our shepherds. Let every husband and wife face each day with a resolve to express more love to their partner, to work hard and to nature their children: after all charity begins at home. 

Let everyone be optimistic and be full of faith; after all we are a godly nation and it is ‘For God and My Country’! Let us all resolve to leave in harmony with one another and at peace with our neighbors: after all we are brothers and sisters and we share the same colour of blood.

As one of the gallant sons of Uganda, Dr. Shaka Ssali says whenever he is signs out at his popular show on the Voice of America, let us resolve to be better and not bitter during 2016.

A happy and prosperous year to Uganda.

Please Respect the Senior Citezen!

The world commemorates a day for older persons 1^st of October. This year, it is the 25th anniversary of International Day of Older Persons (IDOP). Older persons face great challenges but older persons in Africa and other developing countries face even greater challenges.  According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, there are about 1.3 million persons above the age of 60 years in Uganda.

Most of these older persons live in isolation, they lack social protection, suffer the high burden of non-communicable diseases and face poverty. The scourge of HIV/AIDS which ravaged the sub-Saharan African countries is one of the major causes of challenges which face the elderly. 

The scourge led to high numbers of orphans left in the care of older persons. The other major cause of tribulations among older persons is war and instability that spread across many parts of the Uganda in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s for the parts of Northern and South Western Uganda near the DRC boarder. War and conflict cause displacement, they distort the labour cycle, cause stress and result into a future generation of disillusionment.  

The other cause and perhaps the most profound cause of suffering among the senior citizens in rural communities, is the erosion of social or cultural ties and values. Culturally the older persons were cared for by the young in communities. The cultural nature of communities respected the elderly and in sense that they were never left to live and die alone in homes while ‘their’ children lived in cities like today.

With the current trend of affairs therefore, the onus is on governments and civil society organizations to support the elderly. While the government continues to increase the bases of solicited taxes from those in employment, more investment in social services needs to be done. This is the only way that the young will be able to work for and to support the elderly. The government needs to ensure that essential and special services for the elderly. Services  as, social protection schemes for the elderly, general health care, palliative care and geriatric care should be introduced, strengthened and sustained.

There is also need for deliberate effort for government systems and civil society strictures to respect the elderly. It is disheartening for example to learn continuously from the press that monies meant for payment to pensioners is misappropriated. Of recent, there have also been reports that a number of pensioners have taken some months without receiving their monthly stipends. Such should be guarded against and instead the government and the National Social Security fund should initiate reforms that offer constant and decent income to the elderly during retirement.

The obligation of the government towards the senior citizens is embedded in article 32 of   the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda which states that “the state shall make reasonable provision for the welfare and maintenance of the elderly”. By ensuring better living conditions for the elderly, the current generation will only be preparing a soft landing for themselves, after all we all grow old as day follows night.

Do you offer to buy them a beer or not?

It was a great weekend spent in home! every evening whenever I am home, I like joining the discussions with the 'old lads' and youth at the shops near home, call them small separate bars. the 'old lads' (guys of my grand fathers and fathers age) will forever ask me to contribute a fee to their days liquor! I don't know if its right or wrong to offer small notes to them for this. they forever expect me to buy for them some whenever I am around, they somehow make it my responsibility by way of convincing me so more often than not, I will spend just UGX 5,000= on the evening that I have to join them and one can read the appreciation on the faces. I do not taste liquor my self and I always feel that its wrong to buy alcohol but I somehow commit the offence of my conscience and go away with it. Whet do you do to such lads?

That a side, the discussion at the bars this weekend was mostly around politics, women and money.

Politics: ngu Amama and Museveni nibamanyana..they are just confusing us the voters. Ngu Amama is wise, he has bought all the foreign currency (essente zamahanga gaheeru) from Uganda and he is trotting the outside countries. By his actions, the USD has lost value. ngu Amama has an army and if Museveni is not careful he will start a war..Tokureba okwarikugambisa amaani, aine ekyarikwesiga.. etc ectc
Local Politics & Religion: ''Ebyokurwanisa Bishop bitutamire..." Omuntu atemba ekituti kyekanisa kwanika Bishop?.. "kwonka Katonene nawe nomusheija mubi munoga!" The impact of the conflict between the Bishop and his flock is great at the local church. "mbwenu abaana oburonde baburugireho?" Tihakiriho kutebwaho?'' Those who have stood the fight against the Bishop seam to have an upper hand in contesting the upcoming political elections.

Women: ngu "abakazi nibo barikutegyeka Uganda hati.." owenguuto nomukazi, owemishooro nomukazi, owamajuta na oil nomukazi, orikutegyeka kampala momukazi, nangwa na AWIST erugireho orutaro na Katonene netegekwa omukazi" hahah this was a killer from an old Kajabago ka Rubanda! He added: ''go to Kabwohe and count how many cars are driven by women Vs those driven by men! That was his analysis!

Money: Apparently fewer homesteads have coffee in our place because of the "infamous Toduura disease" I was educated that the disease attained its name from its nature of being not discrimitave..toduura! The money discussions centered around, the current good price of coffee, matooke, cattle and Boda Boda. In fact serious youth in boda boda business seam to be doing well. The SACCOs have also had their way. People are using them!

I liked the discussions this weekend but came along thinking: Will the ultimate measure of a choosing any leader in Sheema District be the contending leaders stand and effort to the fight against Katonene?

This Should not Happen again Anywhere !

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/669608-mother-of-two-held-over-child-torture.html

Restore the Church of Uganda Leadership in Sheema District

Christians of the Anglican Community in Sheema District resolved to secede from Weste Ankole Diocese. Christians met at Saturday 30^th May at St. Emmanuel Church in kabwohe and appealed to the Province of the Church of Uganda to split the current Diocese of West Ankole to form another Diocese of ‘Central Ankole’. The meeting was well by many including Cabinet Ministers of Government hailing from Sheema District, Members of Parliament, prominent former leaders and members of the District leadership. 

Bishop Y. Katonene the reigning Bishop of West Ankole Diocese had a media briefing in Mbarara the following day where he described the decision by the section of Christians as ‘null and void’.  Accordingly, the Bishop went on to state that the resolution by the Christians “was dangerous and poisonous to the flock.”

Expressions of disgruntlement between a section of Christians in Sheema and the reigning Bishop are not a new thing. The wrangles have taken over two years and they stem and rotate around the Bishop’s wish to transfer part of Ankole Western Institute of Science and Technology (AWIST) to another location in Bushenyi District. The Bishop’s desire did not go well with a section of Christians who formed a task force and it “Sheema Stakeholders”. The ‘stake holders at one time petitioned President Museveni who chaired a meeting between the two parties. For some time, after the meeting with the president, there was a semblance of calm in the land but this is no more!

The Bishop has since been escorted by Police to attend boycotted church functions. Some church leaders have been chased away from church premises or humiliated for being loyal to the bishop. In some parts of Sheema District, the churches are run on the sole advice of the ‘Sheema stakeholders’.

The strategy of the leadership at the Diocese to resolve the impasse has been confrontational. Amicable dialogue through conflict resolution strategies has lacked and a war of verbal abuses, accusations and threats have persisted. There is a semblance for lack of leadership in resolving the conflict.

As this conflict rages, some prominent Christians and leaders have decided to keep quiet about it. This is in disregard of the high importance of a proper functioning church in not only Sheema but also in our country. The church was instrumental and still holds the founding status of key educational and health institutions in this nation. Without a proper functioning church, the governance bodies of some of these institutions are in limbo. This has a greater impact on our education system. A proper functioning church is the headlock of morals to a christian dominated community like ours. What will be the explanation to the current generation of young children who have watched their fathers run after, abuse or humiliate church leaders? What should be sacred alters in church premises are now pulpits of castigating messages against church leaders.

As the Bankole say ‘’eka eteine nyineka etembwa ebikyere’’ literally translated; a family without a head will crumble one day.  

It’s high time the Province of the church of Uganda stepped in the gap to resolve the impasse. The Christians in Sheema and one can easily say that Anglican church community in Sheema district is at cross roads of a revolution or distraction.