Latest news from Uganda
Presidential and parliamentary elections concluded with a victory for the incumbent. The opposition leader has organised a number of walk to work protests against the rising cost of living, and there have been a number of violent scuffles between protesters and the police. These have been described as the biggest anti government protests in sub-Saharan Africa this year, and the situation continues to make headlines in the UK.
According to Juliet Sentongo of Sightsavers in Uganda the atmosphere in Kampala is now calm, with attention drawn towards the swearing in ceremony of different members of parliament.
“The walk to work demonstration has been called off by the opposition,” she commented. “They have come up with a new strategy of hooting every week on Friday at 5.00pm by every road user for five minutes. Opposition Members of Parliament have since been seen walking to work without any police interference. The situation has been contained and business is back to normal."
Highlights from our projects
- Uganda has pioneered the development of guidelines about low vision services in sub-Saharan Africa. With support from our Childhood Blindness Project, the guidelines were recently given to key stakeholders including ministries of Education, Gender & Social Development, Health, NGOs, disabled people’s organisations, educational institutions and district leadership. The guidelines, cutting across the areas of health, education and social development, will provide a framework for developing and delivering services for people who have low vision, and making sure their needs are met.
Mass awareness campaigns have been intensified to mobilize community involvement in addressing child blindness. - A hundred and seventeen district leaders and technical staff received training on V2020, the global initiative to combat avoidable blindness. This resulted in annual and five-year district plans to contribute to ongoing in-country V2020 activities.
- Initial contact has been made with the Education Standards Agency, a unit within the Ministry of Education responsible for quality assurance. Further discussions are planned around mainstreaming quality special needs education into their operations.
- Sightsavers in Uganda will build on the Ministry of Health Village Health Team (VHT) concept. We engaged with the Ministry of Health / district government to ensure VHT members integrate blindness prevention into their regular activities. Our childhood blindness project provided training of VHTs in blindness prevention in the regions of Busoga and Bunyoro.
- A vision centre is now up and running at Jinja Regional Hospital.
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