Posted on August, 30 2021

The scientific handover event held at Mbarara Joint Medical Store was witnessed by the Kinkizi East Member of Parliament, James Kaberuka. Others present were the Executive Directors of the two health centres, District Health Officers (DHOs) and the Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) that represented the Covid19 district task forces of the two districts of Kasese and Kanungu.

The donated equipment included; personal protective equipment, patient monitoring systems, blood oxygen concentration detection machines among others. The supplies were based on the needs of the health facilities in those areas.

According to the WWF Uganda Country Director, David Duli, the donation was intended to support health centres in the communities that were affected by COVID-19 and securing the lives of Ugandans in the region especially in this period of the pandemic.

 “COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the world and has claimed lives of many people in Uganda and one of the ways of responding is to strengthen these hospitals to be able to catch up with the challenges they have in providing the services,” said Duli.  

“We believe in one approach; looking at biodiversity, climate challenges, food as very important and also looking at prosperity of people, they need to be healthy and contribute towards conservation. We are here to demonstrate that we are part of the solution to the health challenges,” he added.

Duli also challenged leaders of all kinds around protected areas to engage with communities with an intention to change their mindset towards appreciating the importance of protecting nature.

Hon. Kaberuka called for the need to build capacity of the communities living near protected areas to enable them co-exist well with nature and build their resilience in situations like this of COVID-19.

“The human population is growing day by day as the wild animals increase too. However, the protected areas are not expanding. The current tough times we are facing is the human-wildlife conflict as a big problem around protected areas,” he said. 

He added that the human-wildlife conflict can be dealt with only if the social economic welfare of the people around protected areas is boosted.

The DHO Kasese district, Dr.Yusuf Baseka, applauded WWF for the continued trusted partnership that has seen communities in Kasese appreciate nature conservation. 

Ketty Tushabomwe, the acting DHO Kanungu district, urged the government to adapt to the approach of an insurance scheme for all Ugandans in all hospitals such that when people fall sick can get free medical services.