PICTURE OF MOTHERS ENROLLED TO KANGAROO MOTHER CARE IN INDIA. PHOTO BY AP

GOVT TURNS TO KANGAROO MOTHER CARE FOR PREMATURE BABIES

This Video from URBAN TV-KAMPALA

GOVT TURNS TO KANGAROO MOTHER CARE FOR PREMATURE BABIES

By Pascal Kwesiga                                                 

                             

The health ministry is rolling out a new program dubbed Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) to improve care for babies born prematurely.

The program is part of the three interventions the WHO has recommended for Uganda to save lives of 200, 000 babies born prematurely in the country each year.

This, according to the health ministry, implies that 14% of the babies are born prematurely each year. Premature births, according to WHO, is the World’s leading killer of babies, accounting for more than one million deaths each year, yet 75% of these babies can be saved without using high technology.

According to the health state minister in charge of general duties, Elioda Tumwesigye, the KMC that requires parents to keep babies born prematurely wrapped to their bare chests in blankets until they gain the required weight and capacity to withstand temperatures outside the mother’s womb, is being promoted along with steroid injections for mothers in premature labour and prevention and treatment of infection with antibiotics.

“Keeping preterm babies warm is important because their tiny bodies lose heat rapidly, making them highly vulnerable to illness, infections and death,” Tumwesigye explained.

Uganda and Malawi, the minister said have been identified by WHO to scale up the proven interventions to care for premature babies and serve as global and regional centers of excellence. The intervention is an alternative approach for premature baby care in countries where incubators are expensive.

“We are in the process of setting up neonatal care units countrywide starting with referral hospitals. We are also creating space for KMC at these hospitals,” Tumwesigye added.

In Malawi, he said KMC has reduced deaths from premature births by 40%. In Uganda, Tumwesigye explained that complications from premature births are directly responsible for 38% of neonatal mortality (death during the first 28 days of life).

Premature birth complications, he added, are the third largest cause of death of babies before turning five years after pneumonia and malaria. WHO ranks Uganda 13^th out of 184 countries with high number of babies born prematurely and 11^th for being with the highest number of deaths due to complications from preterm births. 

KMC, according to UNICEF, encourages the babies to start controlling their own body temperature, warmth and strengthens the emotional bond between mother and child. Since some of the babies are too weak to be breastfed, their mothers feed them on breast milk from a cup.
The babies, UNICEF, says have to gain a base weight of 2.5kgs and capacity to breastfeed without assistance before the hospital can discharge them.
A Malawian nurse, Netsa Gowelo told UNICEF officials during a visit at one of the hospitals “It’s rare for a baby to get sick or worse even after it has been discharged as long as they use KMC therapy at home. Keeping a baby wrapped to your chest does not only serve the purpose of keeping him warm, it also gives you the chance to keep an eye on him,”
Tumwesigye said facilities for KMC are established at all health facilities across the country. “We shall teach the parents on how to position the babies and help them to look after their premature newborns in those facilities,” he added.
Dr. Geoffrey Bisoborwa from WHO-Uganda said “These interventions are effective in saving lives of premature babies. We shall continue to give technical support,”
Enid Mwebaze, the commissioner nursing said “There is no specific time frame when one should stop KMC. It depends on how fast the baby is growing and we shall keep monitoring the babies in and outside the hospitals,”
Dr. Jessica Nsungwa, the acting commission child health said “KMC is simple and you don’t need high technology to use it. It will help us to care for the increasing burden of premature babies,” ENDS

Njangali School gives girls hope

Njangali School gives girls hope




Students of Njangali Girls Secondary School carrying out an experiment in a new lab

By Pascal Kwesiga


FLORENCE Spetume Njangali, the first female ordained priest had a vision for the girl-child. Twenty-seven years after her death, a school that was named after her is living up to this vision.

Canon Njangali Girls Secondary School which was named after Njangali has become a model school for orphaned and bright girls from poor families.

The school is redefining itself to focus on sciences following the construction of its first laboratory.

President Yoweri Museveni launched the school’s first science laboratory yesterday.

“As the A’ level pioneer students gear up for national exams, this fully fledged laboratory will help girls offering science subjects compete with candidates from other schools,” Bishop Nathan Kyamanywa, the founder of the school says.

He adds that the school is promoting a culture of encouraging girls to do sciences.

Rekindling lost hope
Oliver Kanyunyuzi lost her father when she was in senior two. After her father’s death, the 18-year old girl was left with two options; to drop out of school or get married.

“My mother did not have money and she asked me to drop out of school,” she says.

Kanyunyuzi who hails from Kyebando village in Kibaale district pleaded with the school administration to allow her continue her with school.

“I decided to try out this option because I did not want to drop out of school or get married,” she says.

Luckily, Kanyunyuzi was placed under Jeremiah Orphan Ministries of Bunyoro Kitara diocese.

Under the ministries, orphaned and bright children from poor families are assisted to find people who can sponsor their education.

As she prepares to sit for her senior six final exams this year, Kanyunyuzi cannot hide her gratitude for the school that she says has brought her closer to realising her dream.

Kanyunyunzi is not alone, Robinah Nyamaizi, 18 left her former school to join Canon Njangali when she was in Senior two in 2007.

She says her father told them he did not have money to pay school fees.

“Someone advised him to come to the diocese and look for help. He was told to pay half of the school fees but has never paid and they have never chased me away,” Nyamaizi says.

After completing Senior four in 2009, Nyamaizi, who hails from Dwoli cell in Bujumbura division, Hoima Municipality, was uncertain whether she would continue to Senior five because her father had not cleared fees arrears.

“The headteacher called my father asking him to tell me to pick my admission letter for Senior five,” she says.

The two girls are just part of hundreds of girls who drop out of school due lack of school fees but have been rescued at Canon Njangali SS, a brain child of Bishop Kyamanywa .

Kyamanywa says he hatched the plan to start a model girls school under the Anglican Church foundation before he was elected bishop.

He established the school when he served as education officer for the diocese between 1989-1992.

Kyamanywa who was appointed Bishop in 2002 says he got funds from a friend in the UK to start the school.

He notes that Canon Njangali Girls SS was established on strong Christian core values, discipline and high academic standards.

“The idea was not to make money because we did not want to limit our vision to money,” he says.

The school has an enrollment of 251 students and 28 teachers. It has six classrooms, two laboratories, and a revision room, a multi-purpose hall with a sitting capacity of 700-800 people, a standby generator and a computer laboratory.

Located near the diocese headquarters in Duhaga, the school has three water tank reservoirs and a borehole to ensure a constant supply of water.

The headteacher, Esau Muhumuza explains that the school runs a normal secondary school curriculum enriched with Bible study, home management packages and practical agriculture.

The bishop says there is a plan to construct two new dormitories and two staff houses.

Challenges
The head teacher says one of the major challenges is changing the student’s attitudes towards science subjects and poor reading culture.

Another challenge, Muhumuza notes is the inability for parents to pay up the school fees despite the fact that they want to educate their children.

He says: “Sometimes, innocent, bright and disciplined students drop out of school after being impregnated during holidays.”

Who is Canon Njangali?
Florence Spetume Njangali was born in Parajwoki village in Hoima Municipality in 1908 to Nyakwebara and Eva Kacungira Amooti.

She began school in 1920 as one of the Pioneer students of Duhaga Girls’ Boarding, a church founded school.

In 1928, Njangali was appointed a
teacher and later promoted to deputy head mistress of the school.

In 1938, she became headteacher. In 1942, Njangali enrolled for a two-year lay reader’s course at Bishop Tucker Theological Seminary in Mukono.

In 1953, she was appointed a member of the Native Anglican Church Synod in Uganda. During her time, the Synod objected to the ordination of women.

In 1957, she resigned her position at Duhaga Girls and returned to Bishop Tucker Theological College for an ordination course.

She was not easily accepted in class by her male counterparts.

Upon graduation in 1960, Njangali was posted to Ankole Diocese as a church commissioned worker before being transferred to Rwenzori diocese in 1965 and then Bunyoro diocese in 1972.

Despite her good track record, Njangali was denied ordination on grounds that she was a woman.

However, 1973 when her former classmate, Bishop Yustus Ruhindi, ordained her as the first deaconess in East and Central Africa.

In 1980, after taking a close look at Njangali’s ministry as a deacon, Bunyoro Kitara diocese decided to make the ordination of women into priesthood as an official practice of the church.

Njangali passed on January 20, 1984.