Vision Group joins malaria fight

By Joyce Namutebi             

VISION Group has teamed up with the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Malaria and United Against Malaria (UAM) to fight against the disease, which claims 140 people daily.

They have organised a photo exhibition to be held at Parliament Building from Monday August 12 to 16.

The objectives of the exhibition are, to advocate more investment for malaria care - prevention and treatment, to appeal to the parliamentarians and the private sector to advocate for investment in health and focusing on malaria as it is a major killer disease.

 Uganda UAM Team Leader, Kenneth Mulondo said that there is a lot progress made in the fight against malaria but there are gaps.    "We are losing 140 people daily due to malaria, so we lose about sh25b annually due to the disease. That money can be diverted to other sectors," he said.

The exhibition he said will show what has been done, the gaps, challenges and what can be done to improve the situation.

The photographs have been supplied by the Vision Group. People targeted include policy makers, and other major stakeholders including donors, parliamentarians and the private sector corporates specially CEOs and directors (decision makers) from the private sector.

"Through this exhibition we expect private sector corporates to join in the advocacy efforts for allocation of additional funds to malaria as well as allocate part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for health specifically for malaria programs within their organizations," Mulondo said.

He also appealed to the Legislators to advocate not only for additional funds for malaria but also to ensure judicious use of resources so that the vulnerable population can get quality services at all levels.

The chairperson of the Parliamentary Forum on Malaria, MP Moses Balyeku said, "We can't accept malaria to be part of us.

We have countries in Africa that do not have malaria. Why can't we do it," he said, citing Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. He commended the Vision Group for joining the fight against Malaria.

United against Malaria (UAM) is a global partnership to raise awareness and galvanize commitment to end malaria deaths by 2015, a target date set by the United Nations.