THE UNTOLD STORIES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
"You don't need to go far, it is all around us," said Robert Dijksterhuis, head of the gender division in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to a room mostly full of women. "Up to one in three women around the world has been abused in some way – most often by someone she knows," he added, quoting UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) numbers. The audience, a group of committed women – and men -, had gathered in Rome to discuss this widespread emergency and the role media have in relation to it in a conference organised by the IPS news agency and supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the city of Rome. The U.N.
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) reports in the paper "Violence against women worldwide" that up to 70 percent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime – the majority from husbands, partners or someone they know. Among women aged 15–44, acts of violence cause more death and disability than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined. And violence against women is pervasive. In South Africa, a woman is killed every six hours by someone she knows; in Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day. In São Paulo, Brazil, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds. Rape of women is widespread in armed conflicts such as those of Colombia and Darfur, Sudan. During the conference, IPS launched the handbook "Reporting Gender-Based Violence". Read more
http://www.ipsnews.net/2009/11/media-the-untold-stories-of-violence-against-women/
UGANDA REGISTERS 300,000 ABORTIONS ANNUALLY-WHO
A report by the World Health Organization has shown 300,000 abortion cases are registered in the country very year. However, the report does not show whether these abortions are safe or unsafe. But what is clear in the report is that 7.5 billion shillings is spent and 85,000 women treated every year to treat abortion related complications. Experts have always complained that many women die every year in the process of getting rid of unwanted pregnancies.
They have used this evidence to advocate for the legalization of the practice to save the women's lives. Almost all the abortions in Uganda are as a result of unwanted pregnancies which is reason and an expression of the need for the legalization of abortion. This revelation comes at a critical time when Uganda has suspended the recruitment of health workers due to lack of funds to meet the salary requirements. Read more
http://www.ugpulse.com/uganda-news/health/uganda-registers-300-000-abortions-annually-who/25821.aspx
ABORTIONS CLAIM 68,000 WOMEN IN AFRICA ANNUALLY
Uganda spends sh7.5bn each year treating complications resulting from unsafe abortion, a new study reveals.The World Health Organization guidance on abortion-related services reveals that in Uganda, about 300,000 abortions are carried out every year. "Abortion related complications are one of the leading causes of admissions to gynaecological wards in hospitals across the country," Professor Florence Mirembe, an associate professor at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at Mulago hospital said last week.
She was speaking at a three day national conference on reducing maternal mortality from unsafe abortion that brought together different participants in government and the private sector. Dr. Charles Kiggundu, a consultant gynecologist and obstetrician says many women, especially youth die from complications of unsafe abortion in Uganda. "There is evidence that whatever the law or restrictions attached to abortion, the practice only goes underground and kills more women," Kiggundu says. Read more
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/631950-abortions-claim-68-000-women-in-africa-annually.html
UGANDAN CIVIL ORGANIZATIONS ASK SUPREME COURT TO DECLARE DEATH THAT WOMEN'S RIGHTS ARE VIOLATED WHEN
THEY DIE IN CHILD BIRTH
In an effort to lower the maternal mortality rate in Uganda, activists from more than 50 civil service organizations on Tuesday asked the country's Supreme
Court "to declare that women's rights are violated when they die in childbirth," which could help make the government put more resources toward maternal health care and lower the rate of maternal deaths, currently about 100 per week, the Associated Press/Fox Newsreports.
"All we want is a declaration that when women die during childbirth it is a violation of their rights," Noor Musisi of the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development in Kampala said, according to the news agency. Uganda's Constitutional Court last week declined to make such a statement and "said the matter was for the country's political leaders to handle," the AP notes. In February, while visiting Uganda, Lois Quam, head of the U.S. Global Health Initiative, "said she had asked Ugandan officials to take 'greater ownership' of maternal health care and avoid sinking deeper into dependency on foreign benefactors," according to the news agency Read more
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20120615/Ugandan-civil-organizations-ask-Supreme-Court-to-declare-death-during-childbirth-violates-womens-rights.aspx
MOTHER RE - UNITED WITH HER KIDNAPPED CHILDREN
After a two-month hunt; the police have rescued two baby boys and arrested a woman kidnapper in Kawanda in Wakiso district. Sylvia Nakanwagi, in her late 20s kidnapped two children, 4-year Simon Kaizuka, a pupil of Kibuye Nursery School and his young brother, Prince who was one month at the time.
Prince was found wrapped with some fetishes, allegedly given by a native doctor to Nakanwagi to help her prevent her arrest. Police said Nakanwagi was a neighbor to the parents, Kenneth Kaizuka and Mariam Babirye of Nabisaalu zone in Makindye.
She allegedly hired a girl, one Phiona Nassozi who posed as a nanny looking for a job to kidnap the the children. The children's mother owned a restaurant in Nabisaalu zone in Kampala and as she kept busy serving her customers, Nassozi was busy planning to steal the babies. Nassozi was arrested and confessed to the offence. Babirye screamed for help when she returned from serving food and did not find her babies. But she did not have an idea as to who the girl who kidnapped the babies was. Read more
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/632108-mother-re-united-with-her-kidnapped-children.html
GOVT ISSUES NEW RULES ON CHILD ADOPTION TO CHECK TRAFFICKING
Government has issued new guidelines for adopting children as a measure to stop increasing child trafficking as the country joined the rest of the world to mark the Day of the African Child on Friday. According to the new guidelines, government is going to set up District Alternative parents at all districts in the country to vet documents of obtaining an adoption certificate before obtaining the certificate from court. "Smooth operators manage to rush the process in courts to get certificates and get children for trafficking," Mr Mortz Magall, the head of Orphans and Vulnerable Children National Implementation unit at the gender ministry said in Entebbe.
He said they will also set up national panels for alternative care to follow up children who will be adopted to reduce cases of child trafficking in Uganda. Ugandan children are trafficked within the country, as well as to Canada, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation according to reports. Unicef puts the number of children trafficked internally and externally at 1.2 million. Government released crime statistics for 2007, which indicated that child trafficking crimes had increased over the previous year with 54 children kidnapped, abducted, or stolen during the year. Read more
SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKER ARRESTED
A boss of a marketing firm in Bwaise, a Kampala suburb, was arrested last week for allegedly being involved in human trafficking, police say. The suspect was arrested on June 13 for allegedly recruiting and extorting a number of unemployed hopefuls – through what authorities say was a front business that lured Ugandans in with the false promises of jobs abroad. "It is mixed with legitimate business, so we cannot always tell," Mr Umar Mutuya, the police officer in-charge of trafficking in persons at the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), said. Police say the accused extorted a number of victims from millions of shillings to pay their transport to non-existent jobs abroad. Many were left penniless along the way and at risk of death.
At least five are reportedly stranded in Swaziland, one is in detention in Zimbabwe prison and an untold number still unaccounted for, authorities say. The suspect acted as the managing director of a company that currently publishes at least two newsletters – both of which feature foreign job adverts prominently. Job listings in their publications range from English teachers in Rwanda to security guards in Iraq to babysitters in Canada. Read more
UGANDAN WOMEN GO TO COURT OVER MATERNAL MORTALITY
More than 100 women die during childbirth each week in Uganda, a heartbreaking statistic that has energized activists to go to the Supreme Court in a bid to force the government to put more resources toward maternal health care to prevent the wave of deaths. The activists say they want the country's top judges to declare that women's rights are violated when they die in childbirth, the kind of statement a lower court declined to give last week. In rejecting the petition, the Constitutional Court said the matter was for the country's political leaders to handle. The country's top judges have a serious role to play:
A declaration favoring the women activists would shame the government into action that drastically reduces mortality among childbearing women in Uganda, activists say. "All we want is a declaration that when women die during childbirth it is a violation of their rights," said Noor Musisi of the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development, a Kampala-based group that is championing the legal push. The groups presented the bid to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Uganda loses 16 women in childbirth daily, a figure some activists boldly emphasize on placards during regular marches in the streets of the Ugandan capital. Read more
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/18777164/ugandan-women-go-to-court-over-maternal-mortality
NEVIRAPINE BASED TREATMENT FOR HIV IS EFFECTIVE IN AFRICAN WOMEN
In African women, an anti-AIDS treatment regimen that includes the drug nevirapine is as effective as a treatment regimen with the more expensive drugs, lopinavir/ritonavir, according to a study by a team of international researchers published in this week's PLoS Medicine. This finding is important as it confirms the recommendations from the World Health Organization that an increasingly common nevirapine-based treatment regimen is an affordable and effective option for the initial treatment of HIV in resource-limited settings.
The clinical trial involved 500 HIV-infected African women who had not previously taken antiretroviral treatment in seven countries (Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). The researchers, led by Shahin Lockman from the Harvard School of Public Health, randomized half of the women to receive antiretroviral therapy containing nevirapine and half to receive antiretroviral therapy containing lopinavir/ritonavir, a more expensive combination. The researchers found that a similar number of women died in each group and each combination was as effective at controlling the level of HIV virus. In addition, similar proportions of women in both treatment groups developed serious drug-related signs and symptoms and laboratory abnormalities. Read more
NODDING FAMILIES ASK GOVERNMENT FOR SPEEDY ACTION
Relatives of children living with the nodding disease syndrome have asked the government to speed up the process of acquiring drugs to cure the mysterious disease due to the fear of severe mental strain. Bosco Oringa, a student of Gulu University, speaking to children during the commemoration of the Day of the African Child in Gulu District on Saturday, called on parents, medical workers and the government to work together to solve the spreading problem. "I am very sure these children suffering from nodding disease might one day developmental problems," Mr Oringa said.
Officiating at the function, the district secretary for production, Ms Caroline Rose Adong, said there is need for urgent action from responsible authorities because the children's future is getting ruined. "We are afraid that with time, they will become part of the children with disability because the disease attacks the brain and if we don't help these children, we shall not have a future for them," Ms Adong said. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Nodding+families+ask+government+for+speedy+action/-/688334/1429658/-/t7bdf3z/-/index.html
NGO WORKSHOPS IN NAKASONGOLA CRIPPLING SERVICE DELIVERY - LC5
The LC5 of Nakasongola District has warned NGOs over organising rampant workshops in the district, saying it affects service delivery in the area. Mr James Wandira Muruuli, while addressing journalists in his office last week, said majority of civil servants spend time attending workshops hence abandoning their duties. He said he was shocked to find few civil servants on duty during his monitoring survey in the district since they were attending workshops.
Mr Muruuli said some NGOs were duplicating resources due to fear of extending their services in remote villages. "We are organising a meeting with the programme managers of these NGOs such that we can harmonise the way forward on how these workshops can be organised and balance services," he said. A senior district official, who preferred for anonymity for security reasons, said workshops are vital because they help civil servants refocus on government policies. When Daily Monitor contacted the chairperson of Nakasongola NGO Forum, Mr Ronald Magado, for a comment about the matter, he said every NGO had its own design project which it must implement. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/NGO+workshops+in+Nakasongola+crippling+service+delivery+++LC5/-/688334/1429638/-/fu1wypz/-/index.html
THERE ISN'T AN HIV VACCINE YET, GOVERNMENT CAUTIONS CITIZENS
The government has cautioned members of the public on rushing for the new HIV/Aids vaccine recently reported in the media, saying there is no recommended HIV vaccine. The Director Uganda Virus Research Institute, Prof. Pontiano Kaleebu, on Monday said the media had carried reports that an HIV vaccine had been found.
This was after the Antiviral Drugs committee of the United States Food and Administration recommended that the Food and Drug Administration approve Truvada drugs for use to prevent HIV (pre-exposure prophylaxis). "Truvada is not an HIV vaccine and no HIV vaccine has yet been discovered. There are, however, ongoing studies and efforts to discover an HIV vaccine," Dr Kaleebu said at a press conference in Entebbe on Monday.
Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/There+isn+t+an+HIV+vaccine+yet++government+cautions+citizens/-/688334/1426968/-/15khb1n/-/index.html
HEALTH SECTOR CAN IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY DESPITE THE LOW STAFFING
As another pre-budget discussion passes by, many people are left discontented. Their hope that the government would recruit more health workers to fill the 51.7 per cent gap in the health sector was shattered as it emerged that the 2012/13 budget does not reflect any allocation for new recruitments. This comes at a time when the Health Service Commission is blaming poor service delivery on low staffing in public health facilities.
According to the 2010 Human Resources for Health Audit Report, there are about 40 per cent vacant positions at regional referral hospitals and a staffing gap of 47 per cent at district hospitals. At health centre level, the staffing gap is reportedly at 39 per cent at Health Centre IVs, 46 per cent at health centre IIIs and 58 per cent at health centre IIs. It has also emerged that the Ministry of Health cannot afford a 50 per cent salary increment for the 28,000 health workers currently in service. On average, an enrolled nurse receives about Shs270,000, while a medical doctor earns about Shs700,000. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Letters/Health+sector+can+improve+service+delivery+despite+low+staffing/-/806314/1417040/-/c42vugz/-/index.html
WHO SHOULD REALLY BENEFIT FROM OIL?
Since the discovery of oil wells in Uganda, the issue of who should benefit and by what percentage from the natural resource, has been a subject of controversy among the public. Issues arise right from the terms of the oil exploration contracts. However, the issue should be demystified by subjecting this matter to the 1995 Constitution.
Article 26 of the Constitution provides for the right to own property either individually or in association of others and deprivation of such is subject to public use, interest of defense, safety, order, morality and health upon payment of adequate compensation prior to the taking of possession of the property. Article 244(2) provides that minerals and mineral ores shall be exploited taking into account the interests of the individual land owners, local governments and the government. Article 32 provides for affirmative action in favour of marginalised groups on the basis of gender, age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom for the purpose of redressing imbalances which exist against them. Therefore, Bunyoro cannot qualify as a marginalised group created by history. If Bunyoro is favoured because of oil, other people will put pressure on government in many ways. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Letters/Who+should+really+benefit+from+oil+/-/806314/1417044/-/o6nxriz/-/index.html
THOUSANDS TO BENEFIT FROM PLANNED HIV/AIDS SCHEME
More Ugandans are set to benefit from free anti-retroviral treatment when the government rolls out a scheme announced by the Minister of Finance to increase the number of beneficiaries in the 2012/13 Budget. If implemented, the programme will raise the number of people currently benefitting from State-subsidised ARV treatment from 331,000 to 431,000. In her speech, Ms Maria Kiwanuka said the government has set out to further mitigate the effects of HIV/Aids by emphasising prevention strategies such as ABC, male circumcision, and elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission, in addition to enrolling an additional 100,000 people on free treatment.
The country's AIDS Control Programme Manager, Dr Alex Ario, said this will benefit those who are eligible. Eligibility criterion is advanced disease of Stage III and IV with a CD4 count of less than 350. He added that all children below two who are confirmed HIV positive will be started on ART. Current available statistics suggest that enrolling only an additional 100,000 will leave out at least 146,000 people of the eligible 577,000 individuals. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Thousands+to+benefit+from+planned+HIV+Aids+scheme/-/688334/1430456/-/bfur79z/-/index.html
FAMILIES OF 300 NODDING CHILDREN RECEIVE SUPPORT
Over 300 nodding disease children in northern Uganda have received humanitarian aid to alleviate their plight. Parents of the affected children received the items from health centres where their children have been admitted and at their homes. A caravan of humanitarian aid spearheaded by Uganda Women's Network distributed items in the districts of Gulu, Pader, Lamwo and Kitgum for the suffering families. The items were purchased by women rights activists in support of the affected children with nodding syndrome and their families.
"We were prompted to raise funds for victims of nodding disease since they were mainly children and their mothers taking care of them needed support," Betty Kugonza, the support officer of human rights unit of Action Aid Uganda said. The items worth sh20m included beans, sugar, posho, soya, clothes and soap. Dr. Francis Okumu a senior medical superintendent of Padibe Health Centre IV said the affected children needed nutrition supplements and the humanitarian aid came in time. Okumu said families affected by the nodding syndrome can't afford nutrition supplements because they are expensive and the parents don't have any source of income. Read more
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/632032-famillies-of-300-nodding-children-receive-support.html
NODDING FAMILIES ASK GOVERNMENT FOR SPEEDY ACTION
Relatives of children living with the nodding disease syndrome have asked the government to speed up the process of acquiring drugs to cure the mysterious disease due to the fear of severe mental strain. Bosco Oringa, a student of Gulu University, speaking to children during the commemoration of the Day of the African Child in Gulu District on Saturday, called on parents, medical workers and the government to work together to solve the spreading problem. "I am very sure these children suffering from nodding disease might one day developmental problems," Mr Oringa said.
Officiating at the function, the district secretary for production, Ms Caroline Rose Adong, said there is need for urgent action from responsible authorities because the children's future is getting ruined. "We are afraid that with time, they will become part of the children with disability because the disease attacks the brain and if we don't help these children, we shall not have a future for them," Ms Adong said. Statistics indicate that about 1,200 children from Pader, Lamwo and Kitgum districts have dropped out of school as a result of constant break down and their mental incapacitation to learn since 2010. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Nodding+families+ask+government+for+speedy+action/-/688334/1429658/-/t7bdf3z/-/index.html
MPS ASK GOVT TO RELEASE REPORT ON NODDING DISEASE
Members of Parliament have asked Government to release the report on nodding disease so as to curb the epidemic. "Government should seriously consider releasing its report on the findings by the Centre for Disease Controls (CDC) about the nodding syndrome," Dr. Medard Bitekyerezo (NRM), the chairman of social service Parliamentary Committee said. Over 200 children have been affected by the nodding disease since its outbreak early this year. A team of researchers from Atlanta Georgia have been researching on the cause of the nodding syndrome since last year and have not made their findings public.
"People have been speculating a lot about the disease therefore, Government should ally peoples' fear and save the situation," Serere Woman MP Alice Alaso (FDC) said. The lawmakers who were on Saturday on spot assessment of the nodding disease in the districts of Pader, Lamwo, Kitgum and Gulu stressed the need of finding the lasting solution to the epidemic. Alaso noted that even it meant declaring the four districts disaster areas so it be. The MPs were backed by the Kitgum LC5 chairman Luke Nyeko who said the situation is worrying because some people are already associating the disease with witch-craft. The legislators expressed concern about Government's food supply to the affected families saying it was inadequate.Read more
http://allafrica.com/stories/201206170247.html
MINISTRY WANTS NODDING PATIENTS IN TREATMENT CENTRES
Families affected by nodding disease in northern districts should take their children to the established treatment centres, the Ministry of Health has said. The call comes after reports that parents from Pader, the most affected district, have been unwilling to move their children to Atanga Health Centre III. The parents claim the medicine available at the centre has failed to curb nodding symptoms. However, Pader Vector Control Officer, Mr William Sam Oyet, on Wednesday, said when the children are taken to the health units and put on treatment, their conditions improve. He added that sufficient food was also available for all the victims.
The treatment centres in Pader, Lamwo and Kitgum were established early this year to screen and offer symptomatic treatment to nodding disease. The cause and treatment of nodding disease remains unknown but victims are given anti-epileptic medicines to reduce symptoms, which include nodding, seizures, physical and mental stunting, running saliva, among others. On May 26, President Museveni flagged off the mass drug administration for the treatment of river blindness. The government plans to conduct aerial spraying against the black fly that is believed to be linked to nodding. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Ministry+wants+nodding+patients+in+treatment+centres/-/688334/1427894/-/7jgmqgz/-/index.html
PREGNANT WOMEN ON ARVS INCREASE, RESEARCH SHOWS
Pregnancies among women on anti-retroviral treatment in Uganda have increased due to availability of anti-retroviral therapies, trend experts have said. Experts are also worried that the increased pregnancies could lead to a rise in HIV positive babies. Out of an estimated 1.5 million women who get pregnant in Uganda annually, about 160,000 are HIV positive. Speaking to journalists that were attending a short course training in health reporting in Kampala last week, the acting HIV/Aids Control Programme manager, Dr Alex Ario, said women on ARTs had become more complacent accounting for a rise in pregnancies.
The head of research at Joint Clinical Research Centre, Dr Francis Kiweewa, said ARTs besides raising confidence of HIV positive women, the drugs also reduce the load of virus in the body as well as reviving the fertility rate of women who are infected. "We used to discourage HIV positive women from getting pregnant but with the advent of PMCTs in 2006 and the three-drug combination of ARTs, there has been increased hope that such women can give birth to health negative women after counselling and guidance," Dr Kiweewa said. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Pregnant+women+on+ARVs+increase++research+shows/-/688334/1429774/-/9jjlmjz/-/index.html
UGANDAN WOMEN GO TO COURT OVER MATERNAL MORTALITY
More than 100 women die during childbirth each week in Uganda, a heartbreaking statistic that has energized activists to go to the Supreme Court in a bid to force the government to put more resources toward maternal health care to prevent the wave of deaths. The activists say they want the country's top judges to declare that women's rights are violated when they die in childbirth, the kind of statement a lower court declined to give last week. In rejecting the petition, the Constitutional Court said the matter was for the country's political leaders to handle. The country's top judges have a serious role to play:
A declaration favoring the women activists would shame the government into action that drastically reduces mortality among childbearing women in Uganda, activists say.
"All we want is a declaration that when women die during childbirth it is a violation of their rights," said Noor Musisi of the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development, a Kampala-based group that is championing the legal push. The groups presented the bid to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Uganda loses 16 women in childbirth daily, a figure some activists boldly emphasize on placards during regular marches in the streets of the Ugandan capital. Most of these deaths happen in villages where bad roads and poverty make it difficult for women to reach health centers. Even when they get there, some say, the available care is poor. Health centers have been built in villages across Uganda, but the structures are usually devoid of equipment and medicine. Read more
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/18777164/ugandan-women-go-to-court-over-maternal-mortality
STUDY LEADS TO INTRODUCTION OF RAPID SYPHILIS TESTS TO HELP PREGNANT WOMEN AND BABIES
The study, published today in PLoS Medicine, was so successful that it resulted in China, Peru, Brazil, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania introducing the tests to help save the lives of unborn children before the research was published, demonstrating the value of including policymakers throughout the process. The research, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sought to determine the feasibility of introducing new point-of-care-tests for pre-natal syphilis screening into a range of different countries.
The project has shown that these new simple tests can be effectively introduced into a range of locations, from urban areas in China and Peru, to remote villages in East Africa, and even more remote indigenous populations deep in the Amazon rain forest - and that the lives of up to one million children could be saved every year if they were rolled out globally. It is estimated that two million pregnant women are infected with syphilis every year and that over half of these pass it on to their unborn child during their pregnancy. If untreated during pregnancy, syphilis is associated with spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, premature delivery, low birth weight, and perinatal death. Read more
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-introduction-rapid-syphilis-pregnant-women.html
300,000 UGANDA WOMEN CARRY OUT UNSAFE ABORTIONS EVERY YEAR: HEALTH WORKERS TIP GOVERNMENT ON SAFE ABORTION
Medical practitioners have urged government to relax restrictions on abortion and make reproductive health services available to the youth, if abortion is to be managed in the country. The health workers during a national conference on safe abortion last week said most foetal terminations are as a result of unwanted pregnancies yet little guidance is offered, especially to young women in schools. The young women always end up in desperate measures to get rid of the pregnancies. Currently, the Ugandan law does not permit abortion except when the mother's life is in danger and neither are medics facilitated to educate young girls about reproductive health issues and rights.
This is in addition to government ratifying several international treaties, conventions and agreements including the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action that recognises that abortion should be safe and available to the full extent of the law. "Restrictive laws do not prevent abortions. New technologies like the vacuum aspiration and Medical Abortion bring safe abortion care closer to women and governments need to honour their obligations to protect, promote and fulfil human rights," said Dr E. Brookman-Amissah, the vice president for Ipas Africa, one of the leading organisations in reducing maternal health in the continent. Read more
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/06/300000-uganda-women-carry-out-unsafe.html
RAISING LIFE EXPECTANCIES OF UGANDA MOTHERS, CHILDREN
Samaritan's Purse has launched a new health project in Uganda to raise the life expectancy of children under five and their mothers. The project has the support of aid from the Department for International Development after the charity won its bid for funding under the UK Government's Global Poverty Action Fund programme. The million pound project got underway in April and will run for three years, bolstering the health work that the charity has undertaken in the country since 2006. The project will focus primarily on providing essential maternal child health services in the Napak district of Karamoja, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Uganda.
One in five children die before they reach their fifth birthday in this district, a much higher rate than the rest of the country, which is one in ten. Funds will also be used to provide services aimed at improving the health of mothers and pregnant women by resourcing them with information and skills. Samaritan's Purse aims to establish 200 care groups and reach an estimated 32,000 pregnant women and caregivers of children under five. It is hoped that men will also come on board to help women improve their maternal health. "The main thing is that the health of mothers and pregnant women will improve and more children under five will survive," said Samaritan's Purse executive director, Simon Barrington. Read more
http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase.php?cat=society&id=1906
'HAND WASHING CAN REDUCE INFANT MORTALITY '
The commissioner rural water supply and sanitation, Eron Kabirize has asked head teaches to emphasize proper washing of hands saying, effective hand washing with soap can reduce infant mortality by 60 percent. The commissioner rural water supply and sanitation in the water and environment ministry said some of the leading causes of mortality among infants below five years were diarrhea and acute respiratory infections but the incidences could be reduced significantly by washing hands with soap. "Statistics show that effective hand washing can reduce diarrhea among infants by up to 40% and acute respiratory infections by up to 30%."
"Parents and teachers need to know that after wiping a baby's buttocks, they need to wash their hands with soap thoroughly to avoid transferring of pathogens (germs that cause diseases).'' The commissioner said this during the launch of the hand washing campaign at the Grand Imperial Hotel. The campaign, targeting 210 primary schools in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono, is expected to last 21 days during which teachers and pupils in these schools will be taken through drills of hand washing and its importance. Read more
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/631864--hand-washing-can-reduce-infant-mortality.html
GOVERNMENT URGED TO ADDRESS HIGH MORTALITY RATE PUBLISHED IN: LEGALBRIEF AFRICA
More than 100 women die during childbirth in Uganda every week. As a result, activists have approached the Supreme Court in a bid to force the government to put more resources toward maternal healthcare to prevent the wave of deaths. According to a report on the News24 site, the activists say they want the country's top judges to declare that women's rights are violated when they die in childbirth, the kind of statement a lower court declined to give last week.
In rejecting the petition, the Constitutional Court said the matter was for the country's political leaders to handle. Activists say a declaration favouring the women activists would shame the government into action that drastically reduces mortality among childbearing women in Uganda, the report notes. 'All we want is a declaration that when women die during childbirth it is a violation of their rights,' said Noor Musisi of the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development, a Kampala-based group that is championing the legal push, according to the report.
KAKOOZA: THE POLICEWOMAN WHO HAS SEEN IT ALL
She is not your simple lady. Josephine Kakooza, currently the Head of the Police Music, Dance and Drama Department, has for the last 42 years been a force to reckon with and a shinning example of those police women never underrating themselves at any time but instead fighting heaven and earth to emulate the men in the force.
Little wonder that she has come all the way to become the first woman since independence to head the Music, Dance and Drama department in the Uganda Police Force.
Kakooza, who was recently promoted to Assistant Commissioner of Police does not only deal in music at Uganda Police, she has undergone a number of important courses which has enabled her contribute to the well being of the force.
For instance, being equipped with a TASO certificate in counselling HIV/AIDS patients, Kakooza has at times found herself counselling and offering advice to police women infected with the disease. Read more
http://www.monitor.co.ug/SpecialReports/ugandaat50/Kakooza++The+policewoman+who+has+seen+it+all/-/1370466/1428832/-/qqqak3z/-/index.html
Compiled by
Sandra Nassali & Esther Namitala
Public Relations Department
Action For Development
