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Showing posts from September, 2019

Calling On Men To Style Up!

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Displacement and Inequality are two life threatening experiences likely to follow are wars, famine, political unrest and strife. Winnie Byanyima, the current UNAIDS Executive Director makes her argument so well. As well as Adukata John in an article at the East African Daily. Both Winnie and John challenge the narrative that aggressive tendencies should be left to take their full course. They challenge the notion that we should accept losses, that we should not challenge the status quo and that we should accept to be oppressed. They are the champions of hope. At SAI, we have the same message for men. They should challenge the normalized tendencies of aggression, violence, selfishness, looking women down and engaging in negative precarious masculinity sadism.   We can change all that and instead promote self-esteem and dignity affirmation. For more about the connections between the Byanyima and Aduta stories to tranquility, dignity and respect read: “BYANYIMA: Inequality’s

Uganda makes slight progress on maternal, child health-UN Report

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This article by Tadeo Bwambale was picked up from the New Vision of 20th September 2019. Indeed men can do something about reducing Maternal deaths and vulnerabilities, especially during pregnancy. Read this article and find out why, when and where. “Infant deaths also reduced from 56 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011 to 43 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016, the report observes. Uganda has recorded ‘slight progress’ in reducing child and maternal mortality, according to new child and maternal mortality estimates released by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. However, the estimates released on Thursday indicate that the country still ranks among the top 40 countries in the world for high maternal, newborn and child mortality rates. The estimates on Uganda are derived from recent surveys with data on maternal and child health, including the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2016 and the 2011 survey. The former shows that Uganda had 368 deaths per 10

We are So Happy After Hearing News of The Support Public Health Initiatives In Uganda Will Receive

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According to the New Vision  's Carol Natukunda in a story titled: "Uganda to benefit from $100million public health initiative," of September 28th 2019, "by empowering health workers with timely, relevant and easily actionable information, this would enable health workers to provide the services and save lives.  Data can save lives.  We believe that by enabling frontline health workers with simple, inexpensive data analytics tools, we can together save at least 6 million lives between now and 2030, in 10 countries starting with India and Uganda.  The Rockefeller Foundation is science-driven philanthropy that seeks to inspire as well as promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world by identifying and accelerating breakthrough solutions, ideas, and conversations." We are so thrilled that ideas can be supported by financial and logistical boosts. Our work is at the intersection between social work, public health and enshrining quality life pract

Fort Portal City, Draws Out A Nostalgia For Tranquility

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The People of Uganda are very hard working and that is an understatement. Well! A well worn cliche! The cities in Uganda can have many descriptions depending on administrative intentions or which side one finds means to put food to table or for other reasons.  The reason for this very short blog is to draw on the reader's artistic intelligence. As well, a moral for gratitude, self esteem and dignity affirmation.  Nature respects humans and she provides us gifts generously. Imagine if men dropped their precarious masculinity hegemony tendencies and instead strove to ensure a tranquility for women and the children? There is a moral Fort Portal tries to convey to all of us. The moral is written in short chapters whose subheadings are: Child Protection, Culture, Dignity Affirmation, Female Power, Fort Portal, Male Involvement, Self-esteem, Social Empowerment and Social Support. Cities are some of the fall back places as far as aesthetics and practicality go. If one jus

Situka Alliance Initiative, A Flag Bearer In Formulating And Rolling Out SGBV Prevention At Grassroots in Uganda

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We believe in Zero Tolerance to Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). To this end, we propose to offer services to advocate for enabling environments for gender mainstreaming targeting indigenous/residents/citizens and refugee-related policies by Local Government Councils in Uganda.  The inception is through action plans and tools known as District Wide SGBV Action Plans (DWISGBVAPs) through which it is possible to implement, enhance and track the impact of the advocacy-activities undertaken between. These advocacy activities are then formulated into products which shall be handed over at the end of the project. There is a link between how people occupy themselves and frequency of conflicts that threaten to derail quality of life for all. The way land, settlements, social-political structures and cultural contexts are accessed plays an important role in addressing SGBV.  We train gender equality champions and change agents. They will be provided skills to formulate id

A No nonsense Mother of Four Has Worked At A Quarry As A Stone Chipper For a Decade!

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Meet a mother of four, determined to see her children go to school. Well, not only go to school but also complete school! The mother works at one of the quarries adjacent to a high scale Kampala neighbourhood. We met, talked and she allowed us to share her story of resilience. She has done this kind of work for over 10 years now and has been able to take care of herself, children, relatives and.............the husband. Yes! The husband! She is phenomenal, daring and a gender-expansive practitioner. In this story one reads or sees an example of a woman bending the axis of expectations. We have been wrongly normed, that women do particular types of work, you name them. I am sure your list goes all the way to 100 names. I am sure too, there are jobs missing on that list...... especially not stone chipping! Well, not this one buddy! Women are increasingly crafting ways to add to the list of social support mechanisms leveraging their connectivity or inclusion in pro

Men Are Key To Ending The Violence in Households And Communities In Uganda

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What Situka Alliance Initiative (SAI) anticipates is a Uganda, where it is possible to provide opportunities for self-esteem and dignity affirmation (SEDA) to thrive.   These opportunities include turning men into agents of good and respectful living. In this short article we also present to you what constitutes the perceptions we identify as negative and those we feel are positive.  We go on to show the consequences of these negative and the positive perceptions to the relationships between men and women. We want to emphasise common conversations around which individuals can promote self-esteem, dignity affirmation and societies which are violent free. We shall work with various institutions, i.e., government, NGOs, Civil Society, and Private sector, the domestic workforce, local health systems and other service point. We are targeting men to constitute the primary vehicles and bulk initiators or change agents through whom our health and development programmes and service