Thanks a lot Christine, for the summary of the proceedings of the last Science
Cafe. I particularly liked the suggestion of taking the discussion to WestNile.
A lot of people could benefit. I remember there was once such an initiative in
Arua at the West Nile Golf Club some two or so years ago and it has since died.
This initiative could be revived and enriched with your experience in
organising
the event in Kampala. I understand the next event is on 26th March. May I know
where the venue is? I could make a deliberate effort to attend one of the
sessions.
Thanks.
Dr. Anguzu Yumaa Patrick
P.O.Box 701 Arua, Uganda, East Africa.
Telephone: +256476421367 - Home
+256772696200 - Mobile
e-mail: [email protected]
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's
called the present. ”
There's never a "right time" to wait for. So whenever you get the chance, take
a
risk.
________________________________
From: Christine Munduru <[email protected]>
To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile <[email protected]>
Sent: Sun, February 27, 2011 9:58:36 AM
Subject: [WestNileNet] Yesterday'sScience cafe
Dear all,
I would like to thank all the members who attended the science cafe of
yesterday. The turn up was good and blessed with the presence of our two newly
elected MPs; Hon Bako Christine and Hon elect Engineer Dr. Aridru(forgive me if
I have not placed the titles well). We also had two elders who were very
embraced and attentative to the end
The topic Alcohol and the community was handled very well by members under the
leadership of Dr. Bhoka George who took charge in the abscence of Fr. Vundru
who
got committed in the last minute. Thanks so much to Dr. Bhoka for doing it very
well even when not prepared.
We had a moving testimony from Adomati Dickson who finally made a decision to
control alcohol after seeing what it had done to him plus many others that made
the discussion very interesting.
Sharing those experiences was very important to remind us.
Keys issues put forward;
* Individuals should know that alcohol has more negatives than
positives and
each person should take charge of himself or herself and know the personal
limitations while drinking.
* We need alcohol policy in place and the police makers should take it
on.
* Women generally have less capacity to consume alcohol than men and
they
should take note of that.(this is a scientific fact)
* We should be our sister's/brother's keeper and come to advice when we
see
alcohol is taking over the brother or sister
* People want to know about the rehabilitation centers and what
packages they
have
* We need to take these discussions to Westnile because many of us are
taking
care of families of drunken brothers/sisters and therefore we need to address
the issue right from the roots
* Government needs to understand the causes of over drinking in Uganda,
propbably research needs to be done in this area to inform policy.
Way forward
We need to have a development agenda for westnile and address these issues in
the broader framework of our development agenda
This therefore gave rise to the next topic for science cafe discussion which is
"Setting development agenda for West Nile". This will be led by our members of
parliament. Hon Christine Bako and Hon elect Engineer Dr. Aridru will take lead
in organizing their colleagues and the link for mobilization between us and
the
MPs will be Aggrey Adrale(Aggrey is my own suggestion given his strategic
position and thinking).
The suggested date is 26th March 2011 from 3pm in the usual place.
We shall keep reminding you but please book that date on your calender, any
adjustments will be communicated.
What made me impressed was the fact that everybody including our MPs were
talking the same language; development and togetherness. We are not talking
about parites but development and Science cafe will not encourage any party
tone
in the discussions, those will be reserved for places where they belong.
Therefore nobody should come there with that intention. All the MPs are our
brothers and sisters and all the positions they have taken are very strategic
and this was well elaborated yesterday.
On another note, yesterday's Monitor carried the Entebbe fishermen story where
our brothers were killed. Tabu of Monitor sent the reporters to me and for two
days we were documenting the story.The story was long and traumatising. You
dont
want to know what is going on there.
The thing I want to bring to people's attention is that the situation is still
very volatile. Attempts to attack the westnile community after that incidence
has happened twice and the most recent was four days ago where about 60 people
armed with pangas were ready to come to attack the westnile fishing community
after false report to the police by a Muganda man. The police were also ready
to
come to arrest the westnile fishermen based on the false reporting. It was only
after the victim, whose head was badly shattered reported to the police that it
was the westnile community who saved his life and he was beaten by the Baganda
,not the westnile community.
There will soon be a civil war between the Baganda and Westnile community if
there is no intevention and with the high tension in the country, this could be
misinterpreted and could result into serious loss of lives.
We had made attempts to make a broader intevention into the issues,
unfortunately we were betrayed by our own brothers on this forum and out just
because of love for money. This was becoming an insecurity source for me. I
pray
that we put humanity first before money and try to help our vulnerable members
of community. I throw it to our concerned members to take note.
Thanks so much
Christine
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