She has fought for healthcare
Feb 21, 2010
SHE holds her commitments with high regard. When she is determined to do something, she has to accomplish it, come rain or shine. Rosette Mutambi, the executive director of HEPS-Uganda, a coalition for health promotion and social development, is a woman with an untiring spirit.
By Chris Kiwawulo
SHE holds her commitments with high regard. When she is determined to do something, she has to accomplish it, come rain or shine. Rosette Mutambi, the executive director of HEPS-Uganda, a coalition for health promotion and social development, is a woman with an untiring spirit.
If it were not for her tirelessness and resilience, HEPS-Uganda would have remained an idea. When Mutambi, a former journalist with Radio Uganda, attended a women’s health conference in Kampala in 1996, her perception towards health changed.
Health Action International (HAI), a health advocacy organisation based in Netherlands, organised the workshop that interested Mutambi so much that she kept in touch and read documents about how to promote health.
About a year later, Mutambi thought about starting a health advocacy organisation at national level, an idea she has lived up to.
“I realised that health does not start at the gates of hospitals, but rather with the individual, family and community in which we live. I started looking at health in a holistic way,†she narrates.
Mutambi hatched the idea to start a health advocacy NGO in 1996 when she was still working with the Ministry of Information, but only formalised her idea in 2000.
Mutambi says she realised that there was need to promote access to essential medicine and look at accessibility, affordability and quality of the medicine to ensure that all those concerned play their roles. She then joined healthcare advocacy with the aim of demystifying the belief that health assurance was a preserve of health workers.
“I wanted to show people that you do not have to be a medical worker to promote health. Medics had been concentrating on treatment, leaving out the other aspects of health like the social and economic facets,†she notes.
Mutambi resigned her post at the information ministry where she worked as the assistant manager for the AIDS Control Programme. In 1997, HAI invited her for the African meeting on “access to essential medicines and rational use from a consumer’s perspective†in Nairobi where she presented a paper on what she wanted to do.
“Given the exposure I had garnered in health issues over time, I made a good presentation which made HAI realise that I was serious. I attended with some Ugandans with whom we were supposed to coordinate, but after the workshop everyone went their own way,†she says.
But Mutambi’s flame did not burn out. She kept on pushing for health advocacy until HAI appointed her on the six-man advisory board for HAI-Africa. With this appointment, Mutambi got the chance to regularly travel to Europe and learn a lot from similar organisations involved in health advocacy.
Mutambi has carried out research on access to medicines, an achievement that a beneficiary, Annonciata Kampire, says is not a mean one.
Kampire has been inspired to start an advocacy organisation, Executive Director Alliance for Integrated Development and Empowerment, where she is the executive director.
“She has mentored young graduates and community members to advocate for their health rights and to hold their leaders accountable for improved health service delivery in Uganda,†Kampire says.
Her struggle
When she returned after the first trip, Mutambi sold her idea to six friends, who each contributed sh200,000 as the first financial support to run the activities of the organisation.
Her contribution was her time and leadership she put in. Although Mutambi did not initially have leadership skills, she was able to attain them through reading and consultation.
At the start, HEPS-Uganda battled to win public attention until local practitioners like Patrick Mubangizi, a pharmacist, realised her point. With time, funders like HAI, Oxfam, DFID, European Union, HIVOS and Voluntary Service Organisation, among others, also started supporting the organisation.
“Some people laughed at me, asking what we do and our background,†she says. But this boosted her courage.
Mutambi is happy that policy documents that HEPS-Uganda drafts, influence decision-making at national level. “I am happy that health consumers in over 20,000 families can make right health decisions courtesy of our sensitisation,†she says.
Success stories
Citing the Industrial Property Bill and HIV/AIDS Bill, Mutambi says HEPS-Uganda has been able to fight for consumers’ rights by carrying out a policy analysis of Bills that they find not to be practical to the health consumer. “Our guiding question in our analysis is how this bill will affect the consumer. We look at flaws in these Bills and make suggestions. We also lobby line ministries and the Law Reform Commission.†Mutambi says because of their continued fight, the Industrial Property Bill was shelved because it was unrealistic.
Mutambi says the bill favoured medicine suppliers at the expense of consumers.
HEPS-Uganda has trained 800 local leaders in 10 districts countrywide to empower their communities to make good health decisions for themselves, their families and communities.
The organisation identifies three female and two male local leaders in each parish whom they train for two days. “We monitor how they train their communities.â€
She says HEPS-Uganda runs three basic programmes; health policy advocacy, community outreach and the complaints and compliments desk programme, where they identify problems within health centres and notify those concerned.
HEPS-Uganda has offices in Kampala, Lira, Pallisa, Ntungamo, Budaka, Kiboga, Mbarara, Kamwenge, Masindi and Arua districts.
Background
Mutambi is a resident of Zana, Entebbe and is married to Stephen Mutambi and they have four children.
She went to Rwemiyenje Primary School and Mary Hill High School in Mbarara for O’ level. She joined Bweranyangi Girls’ School for A’ level and enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in political science and literature at Makerere University. Mutambi also did a diploma in journalism at the Uganda Management Institute and a diploma in management at Leicester University in the UK.
She is the first born in a family of two. She is a daughter of Margaret and Eria Kajungu of Rugando, Rwampara, in Mbarara district. She was born in 1964.
The organisation has 16 permanent staff, two part-time consultants (in legal and communication affairs), two support staff and three volunteers. The membership fee ranges from sh1,000 for students to sh100,000 for platinum members. The organisation has about 900 members. When one is a paid-up member, he or she can stand for an elective post on the HEPS-Uganda board during the annual general meeting.
When Mutambi is not at her workplace, she is at home tending to her dog, gardening or writing poems. She also likes travelling.
HEPS-Uganda will make 10 years this year. Mutambi dreams of acquiring a permanent home with all the required structures to run even in her absence. Her challenge is insufficient funding.
Do you know any woman who has made a difference in her community through innovation, value addition in medicine, research, science and technology? Send your nominations to features@newvision.co.ug, or write to the Features editor, The New Vision, P.O.Box 9815, Kampala
SHE holds her commitments with high regard. When she is determined to do something, she has to accomplish it, come rain or shine. Rosette Mutambi, the executive director of HEPS-Uganda, a coalition for health promotion and social development, is a woman with an untiring spirit.
If it were not for her tirelessness and resilience, HEPS-Uganda would have remained an idea. When Mutambi, a former journalist with Radio Uganda, attended a women’s health conference in Kampala in 1996, her perception towards health changed.
Health Action International (HAI), a health advocacy organisation based in Netherlands, organised the workshop that interested Mutambi so much that she kept in touch and read documents about how to promote health.
About a year later, Mutambi thought about starting a health advocacy organisation at national level, an idea she has lived up to.
“I realised that health does not start at the gates of hospitals, but rather with the individual, family and community in which we live. I started looking at health in a holistic way,†she narrates.
Mutambi hatched the idea to start a health advocacy NGO in 1996 when she was still working with the Ministry of Information, but only formalised her idea in 2000.
Mutambi says she realised that there was need to promote access to essential medicine and look at accessibility, affordability and quality of the medicine to ensure that all those concerned play their roles. She then joined healthcare advocacy with the aim of demystifying the belief that health assurance was a preserve of health workers.
“I wanted to show people that you do not have to be a medical worker to promote health. Medics had been concentrating on treatment, leaving out the other aspects of health like the social and economic facets,†she notes.
Mutambi resigned her post at the information ministry where she worked as the assistant manager for the AIDS Control Programme. In 1997, HAI invited her for the African meeting on “access to essential medicines and rational use from a consumer’s perspective†in Nairobi where she presented a paper on what she wanted to do.
“Given the exposure I had garnered in health issues over time, I made a good presentation which made HAI realise that I was serious. I attended with some Ugandans with whom we were supposed to coordinate, but after the workshop everyone went their own way,†she says.
But Mutambi’s flame did not burn out. She kept on pushing for health advocacy until HAI appointed her on the six-man advisory board for HAI-Africa. With this appointment, Mutambi got the chance to regularly travel to Europe and learn a lot from similar organisations involved in health advocacy.
Mutambi has carried out research on access to medicines, an achievement that a beneficiary, Annonciata Kampire, says is not a mean one.
Kampire has been inspired to start an advocacy organisation, Executive Director Alliance for Integrated Development and Empowerment, where she is the executive director.
“She has mentored young graduates and community members to advocate for their health rights and to hold their leaders accountable for improved health service delivery in Uganda,†Kampire says.
Her struggle
When she returned after the first trip, Mutambi sold her idea to six friends, who each contributed sh200,000 as the first financial support to run the activities of the organisation.
Her contribution was her time and leadership she put in. Although Mutambi did not initially have leadership skills, she was able to attain them through reading and consultation.
At the start, HEPS-Uganda battled to win public attention until local practitioners like Patrick Mubangizi, a pharmacist, realised her point. With time, funders like HAI, Oxfam, DFID, European Union, HIVOS and Voluntary Service Organisation, among others, also started supporting the organisation.
“Some people laughed at me, asking what we do and our background,†she says. But this boosted her courage.
Mutambi is happy that policy documents that HEPS-Uganda drafts, influence decision-making at national level. “I am happy that health consumers in over 20,000 families can make right health decisions courtesy of our sensitisation,†she says.
Success stories
Citing the Industrial Property Bill and HIV/AIDS Bill, Mutambi says HEPS-Uganda has been able to fight for consumers’ rights by carrying out a policy analysis of Bills that they find not to be practical to the health consumer. “Our guiding question in our analysis is how this bill will affect the consumer. We look at flaws in these Bills and make suggestions. We also lobby line ministries and the Law Reform Commission.†Mutambi says because of their continued fight, the Industrial Property Bill was shelved because it was unrealistic.
Mutambi says the bill favoured medicine suppliers at the expense of consumers.
HEPS-Uganda has trained 800 local leaders in 10 districts countrywide to empower their communities to make good health decisions for themselves, their families and communities.
The organisation identifies three female and two male local leaders in each parish whom they train for two days. “We monitor how they train their communities.â€
She says HEPS-Uganda runs three basic programmes; health policy advocacy, community outreach and the complaints and compliments desk programme, where they identify problems within health centres and notify those concerned.
HEPS-Uganda has offices in Kampala, Lira, Pallisa, Ntungamo, Budaka, Kiboga, Mbarara, Kamwenge, Masindi and Arua districts.
Background
Mutambi is a resident of Zana, Entebbe and is married to Stephen Mutambi and they have four children.
She went to Rwemiyenje Primary School and Mary Hill High School in Mbarara for O’ level. She joined Bweranyangi Girls’ School for A’ level and enrolled for a bachelor’s degree in political science and literature at Makerere University. Mutambi also did a diploma in journalism at the Uganda Management Institute and a diploma in management at Leicester University in the UK.
She is the first born in a family of two. She is a daughter of Margaret and Eria Kajungu of Rugando, Rwampara, in Mbarara district. She was born in 1964.
The organisation has 16 permanent staff, two part-time consultants (in legal and communication affairs), two support staff and three volunteers. The membership fee ranges from sh1,000 for students to sh100,000 for platinum members. The organisation has about 900 members. When one is a paid-up member, he or she can stand for an elective post on the HEPS-Uganda board during the annual general meeting.
When Mutambi is not at her workplace, she is at home tending to her dog, gardening or writing poems. She also likes travelling.
HEPS-Uganda will make 10 years this year. Mutambi dreams of acquiring a permanent home with all the required structures to run even in her absence. Her challenge is insufficient funding.
Do you know any woman who has made a difference in her community through innovation, value addition in medicine, research, science and technology? Send your nominations to features@newvision.co.ug, or write to the Features editor, The New Vision, P.O.Box 9815, Kampala