US foundation injects sh20bn for health support

By Gloria Nakajubi

Segal  Family foundation, a United States based charity, has injected a total of US$8m (sh20bn) to improve health conditions in sub Saharan Africa, Uganda being the focal beneficiary.

Speaking during the Segal Family  2nd Annual Health Network dinner at Fairway Hotel in Kampala, Andy Bryant, the executive director said that their objective is to move beyond clinics and hospitals.

“We want to change the perspective of the common person towards health care, to empower them to prevent the most prevalent epidemics before they actually become real in society,” said Bryant.

He added that most epidemics in society are preventable but because people lack enough knowledge about them they have turned into serious and recurrent aliments claiming a number of lives.

Bryant added that the funding is to go towards youth friendly interventions, agriculture to reduce malnutrition and dissemination programmes directed to community health education in over six countries in sub Saharan Africa. These countries include Uganda, Liberia, Malawi, Burundi,Rwanda,Kenya and Tanzania.

He noted that the implementation of the programmes is done by local civil society organisations that share similar objectives and in Uganda 30 partners have been selected operating in mainly the east and western regions of the country.

While presiding over the dinner, the Minister of Health , Rukana Rugunda commended Segal’s contribution saying this will go a long way to supplement Government efforts to improve health care.

“Government has come up with a number of interventions for health care especially in rural communities and with such initiatives,the goal of quality healthcare will be a dream come true,” said Rugunda.

Rugunda also noted that it’s quite absurd that certain simple diseases like malaria which are treatable and more so preventable are still ranking high on the list of killer diseases in Uganda.

“Our community just needs to be sensitized on how to sleep under mosquito nets and keep their environment clean so as to avoid contact with mosquitoes that cause malaria,” he explained.

He added that investment in simple nutritional education will is also very effective in building a strong and healthy population right from childhood.

In his presentation, Erik Friedly, associate director for communication at the US Centre for Disease Control, said there is still a need to scale up ARV treatment, circumcision availability and accessibility in the country.

“We need to work together to ensure that the most scientifically accurate, culturally appropriate and evidence-based health messages are shared, embraced, understood and communicated effectively and consistently to the communities,” said Friedly.