Latanya, Pader
My Global Health practicum in
Kitgum and Pader has given me unimaginable opportunity to traverse this huge
district. In my sojourn, I have been humbled by people’s resolve to self
mobilize so as to build their communities from the debris of over 25 years of
anarchy.
In Latanya subcounty of Pader
District, deep under the mountains, an impoverished community is silently
struggling with an aspiration and a priority to start a secondary school. It
has resolved to grow the secondary school to the point where government may
take it up. In the whole of Latanya, there is no secondary school and yet there
are so many Primary schools.
The lack of a nearby secondary school also means
that the children from these impoverished rural peasantry households are
limited to primary school education. This Latanya Community seed secondary school
represented by two small buildings peripheral to Wiliwili government primary
school, is all that CARITAS and USAID sponsored for them.
This year, senior
three is to be introduced, which means they may not have a classroom to
accommodate this growth. It is amazing how community members are willingly
donating land for the expansion of this school.
Listening to the narratives of the
parents, the principles of community empowerment and community networking comes
alive. However, the lack of imagination and concrete realities of poverty
strains such resolves.
Beyond Latanya’s community
initiatives, I was taken aback at the amount of alcohol being consumed here.
Residents have complained of crude waragi being imported from Lira called Gur
and other crude drinks in sachets.
Here, death occurs by the sachets. In one
week, over seven funerals had been associated with deaths from alcohol.
Drinking alcohol has potential negative implications across these communities.
It is lessening the workforce as would-be able-bodied folks turn to drinking
the moment they are awake. This behavior sets a wrong tone for children and
youths who may have to grapple with bad role models. Domestic and gender based
violence are on the increase. Cases of murder resulting from petty quarrels at
drinking joints are rampant here.
Another major challenge here is
that men are not actively seeking health care services. This means that women
have become the gatekeepers to healthcare, nutrition and to security for the
household. Women in the post conflict Acholi have become the pillars of homes
and communities, which is unusual because in Acholi tradition, men have always
shaped social and economic discourses, while women played supervisory and
support roles. Today, women are doing it all while the men are drinking.
It is disheartening that women are the
ones actively seeking for HIV tests and HIV care. The men, who are most likely
to have multiple partners, acquire and spread HIV, TB and other diseases, are not
involved in healthcare seeking. You will only find women at antenatal clinics.
Stories have been told where some men living with HIV have the audacity to
forcefully grab the ante-retroviral medication from their wives to share the
dose.
One of the major problems of this
post conflict Acholi region is the lack of imagination among local leaders. As
pre conflict leadership now yearns for a transition to post conflict societal
engagement, there is a huge vacuum of leaders with imagination. Here, people vie
for leadership position as routine job seeking venture.
There is need to eliminate from
society the obviously unhelpful symbols of past conflict. People need to be
re-connected and wired to a hopeful future. The dusty and bumpy roads that
confront us daily are definitely a major setback to this imagination and economic
development. The environment here is rapidly diminishing due to inadequate
deliberate preparation to contain extreme weathers; flooding during rainy
season and prolonged dry season. Communities should be prepared to build water
reservoirs to harness the excessive flooding during dry spells.
In short, post conflict Acholi is
badly in need of characters with imagination to catapult this region to a new
economic order. These leaders ought to mobilize the bludgeoning resolve of the
people and harness it to spur development, to break from the traditions of fear
and pessimism. Unfortunately, everything here is linked with politics which
renders most elected leaders ineffective.
END
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