Giving hope to the sick

Jane Namala writhes in pain. She tightly clutches her temple with both her hands. She cannot even speak but mutter a few words, expressing the intensity of the pain she is feeling. She has a dental problem and has come to have her two decayed yet painful teeth extracted.
A few metres away, Aisha Nalubega has brought Tatya Nankumba, her eleven-month old baby for medical check-up. The baby has an umbilical hernia (an elongated navel), which has given both mother and baby endless nightmares.
Doctor Patrick Kaliika, a Clinical Director, who examined Nalubega’s baby, referred them to Masaka district hospital for an operation. Aisha cannot help but say she does not have money for the operation.
All this unfolds at Mulabana centre, a remote area on Ssese Islands in Kalangala district. Many of the patients suffer silently for many months as there is no trace of a hospital or clinic nearby, but a Health centre III located many kilometres away. The Health Centre often lacks the drugs to meet the patients’ health needs, according to Richard Kirule, the President of Rotary Club of Kampala, Ssese Islands.
At Mulabana centre, patients are strewn all over. Their genuine search for medical examination and attention is written on their nostalgic faces. For some, especially the women and young children, pain, suffering and destitution are hidden beneath their smiling countenances.
Their wait for the free medical examination and free drugs, even when it’s once per annum, is worth it as they are now receiving free medical care from the members of Rotary Club, Ssese Islands. The opportunity is a God-sent to the inhabitants of this almost God forsaken area.
The patients are too willing to tell the two doctors, two dentists and the team of Rotarians examining them, of their sickness, woes and names.
Richard Kirule, says the free medical outreach extended to the people of Ssese islands, is conducted three times a year. The three times are allotted to different centres of the Ssese islands, in order to reach to a sizeable population of those in dire need of the free medical care.
“Coming here quarterly is not enough but it is expensive in terms of time and money,” says Richard. He adds, “We spend a lot of money like Ushs2 million on doctors and other expenses.” The drugs alone cost them Ushs1 million shillings.
The medical outreach covers all ailments like malaria, STDs like HIV/AIDS, typhoid, flu, ringworms and conduct counselling on nutrition and immunisation.
According to doctor Kaliika, they also do HIV testing and counselling.
“For those who are positive, we refer them to Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) in Kalangala town,” he says.
Besides, they not only de-worm the community members, but also give supplements and distribute condoms to those in need.
Despite the crowd of patients at Mulabana centre, dental cases were appalling. Most of the patients like Jane Namala and Francis Ziwa, a photographer, had their teeth extracted.
Before the extraction of Namala’s two premolar teeth, she was feeling acute headache. She was unable to express herself.
But, Francis Ziwa’s aching tooth took a dentist fifteen minutes to extract.
“It was my first time to come here for dental examination,” says Ziwa, adding “It was very painful.”
He developed the toothache a year ago, though he would not go to the Health centre in Kalangala town for check up because he could not afford the charges.
Doctor Barbarah Nabageraka, who is a dentist based in Kalangala district acknowledges many of the dental problems are due to the type of food like fish and bread accelerates teeth decay.
“Bad oral and personal hygiene, type of food like fish, which is sticky, makes teeth decay quickly,” says doctor Nabagereka.
The remedies she and her co-dentist handled were refilling, removal of scales on those with gum diseases and extraction of decayed painful teeth.
However, she says there were few cases of refilling as opposed to extractions.
By Joshua Masinde

In pursuit of an old passion

Retired Major Kaka Frank Bagyenda, who says ‘Kaka’ was for disguise purposes during the bush war, is a man who is “more less settled” on Kalangala Island in pursuit of tourism: his old passion. When he was a civil servant in the late 1970s, went for a workshop to Mauritius andSeychelles, where tourism was taking shape around 1978. The beauty and immense tourist potential of the Indian Ocean Archipelago inspired his passion for tourism. He vowed to set up a tourist business upon his return.
His passion kept burning until the 90s as there was no money to implement it in the previous turbulent years. He secured a plot of land around a hot spring in Bundibugyo and was in the in the final phase of implementing the project, which was caught up in a landslide around Mt Rwenzori. He realised there were serious logistical problems as the landslides affected even key routes to his nascent investment. He shelved the idea for about a year.
He later thought of Kiboga, which was not only lacking in tourist attraction but also had land tenure system problem.
In late 1991, I came to this Island,” he says, adding he was still a major in the army. Kalangala Islands had a lot of similarities with the islands of Mauritius and Seychelles, though Kalangala, with its natural forests, serene environment, nice beaches, was and still is very natural and unpolluted. (There were a lot of sugar plantations on Mauritius and Seychelles).
“There were few tourists those days because it (Kalangala) was virgin,” posited retired Major Kaka. “There was only one guest house called Andronicles Lodge, owned by a retired primary (school) teacher.
There were no mosquitoes then because it was very cold.” (Now, big mosquitoes are a common sight especially at night).
The local leadership was very supportive since they wanted tourist development on any of the eighty four Ssese islands in Kalangala district at any cost. The RDC (formerly Special District Representative) called Kaziibwe was particularly encouraging, not only by word of mouth but by helping in the allocation of 50 acres of land on Kalangala island, for the hotel and the golf course project retired Major Kaka can boast of.
“I am the pioneer of modern eco-tourism,” he asserts, as he takes a sip of charm from his glass. In August 1994, his Panaroma Camping Safaris was ready to accommodate guests. Yet, the political ambience at the time was antagonistic to gains in tourism: the fresh Rwanda genocide, the demonic insurgency in the DRC and the conflict in Northern Uganda.
This harmed tourism too much, although Uganda was relatively peaceful,” said retired Major Kaka.
However, the only modern linkage when he opened shop was Barbus ship, from Port Bell through Koome Island, Bukeke Island, Bukasa Island, Bufumira Island and Lutoboke pier. The Uganda railways suspended the operations of the ship, which had been charged with handling theshipping services. Retired Major Kaka regrets that Enos Tumusiime, “who was the Damaging Director of Uganda railways” indirectly damaged their businesses as well.
Hadn’t MV Kalangala, another link to and from the island come in 2006, people would have to continue braving all the difficult conditions of travel by going through Masaka. This was very tedious but it didn’t dim retired Major Kaka’s passion, acknowledging thus: “You must really be in love with the island.”
Now, at almost sixty, having been part of the first group to undergo official reduction from the army in 1993, he feels at ease for being an eye opener for those who followed suit in investing on the island.
“I am now more less settled as I see tourism taking shape.”
But, visitors are always on and off and communication infrastructure is still wanting. It is even lack lustre for the domestic tourists, whom he mainly targets for their reliability.
Besides, he still has to overcome obstacles like the land tenure system if he is to expand his passion for modern tourism. He attributes the intricate land tenure system for the sluggish economic development on Kalangala islands.
He came to the island with four other senior officers and all shared similar intentions of starting up tourist hotels. These were late Brig. Peter Kerim, late Col. Byemaro (former Director of Military Intelligence), late Lt Col Ssesanga and Col John Kasaija. However, retired Major Kaka says some of them lost steam because of the land tenure system.
“The potential for development has been in the strangle hold for the last seventeen years because of land tenure system,” he observed.
Sixty percent of the land mass of Kalangala district is Mailo land yet the owners of such land live on the mainland. Twenty percent of the other land is a forest reserve, which is coincidentally very beautiful and was curved out by colonialists in the 1930s for strategic reasons.
Twenty percent of the other land is public land, some taken by thepalm oil project.
There are few Basese who own land yet potential areas tourism are owned by the likes of Kulubya ‘Mwana wa Omwami’”.
But, he adds there will be change, given political will.
Joshua Masinde