Mulago gets connected

THE German Ambassador to Uganda Klaus Holderbaum launched a sh30m (40,000 Deutsche Mark) computer laboratory on Friday donated by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to Mulago Hospital's department of Medicine, reports Lillian Nalumansi. "Today I feel privileged to inaugurate the Closing the Digital Gap project and to hand over this computer/internet laboratory which is a donation from the people of Germany through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). This project shows farsightedness of the coordinators and initiators since it will connect this department to the world of science," Holderbaum said. "For example, I am very sure that Makerere University physicians have a lot of practical knowledge in Tropical medicine which they can teach and share with physicians in Germany whereas Makerere or Mulago physicians might benefit from the vast experience in high tech medicine in Europe through this project," he said. He said this at Mulago Hospital's department of Medicine where nine Philips computers all connected to the internet were handed over to the department head Prof. J. Freers. Holderbaum also officially launched the US$10,000 (sh18m) clinical laboratory equipment which Germans donated to the department. Mr. Rudiger Osburg, the Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL) Chief Operating Officer/Data and ISP, offered three months free internet connection to the department. Dr. Kigonya of Makerere University's faculty of Medicine commended Germany's continued assistance to the department. "The people of Germany have helped us increase our human resources in a number of ways. For instance, they recently donated to us hospital beds that are very strong and likely to last us another 20 years. We are very grateful for this assistance but are still thirsty for human resources." Ends