Canadian Minister Peter Kent Visits AMREF's Work in Kawempe
August 18, 2010
The narrow crowded streets of Kawempe – a slum in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala – are a world away from the city’s Munyonyo resort hotel where Canada’s Minister of State of Foreign Affairs, Peter Kent was participating in the African Union Summit.
But Honourable Kent seems as comfortable in Kawempe as he is at the Summit. He graciously greets the community and asks how AMREF’s work is impacting their lives.
Home to 300,000 people Kawempe has approximately the same population as Windsor, Ontario. Most people settled here after escaping the 20-year conflict in Uganda’s north. The slum is on poorly drained land, which in combination with poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding leads to diseases such as malaria, cholera and diarrhea.
Few people in Kawempe have access to decent paying jobs. Women often resort to sex work to supplement their earnings, leading to a higher than national average rate of HIV and AIDS infections.
Honourable Kent and the Canadian team are warmly greeted at the AMREF office by staff and representatives from the local town council. They are first shown a water channel constructed by AMREF to prevent flooding. There are also AMREF built latrines which help to improve the community’s access to adequate sanitation. Minister Kent then visits an AMREF HIV/AIDS counseling and testing clinic, where he meets clinical officer Divina Aluka and peer educator John Okurut.
Finally, the team visits the centre where AMREF trains former commercial sex workers on hairdressing and tailoring to provide them with an alternative means of earning a living. At one of the project beneficiary’s salons, Honourable Kent speaks with her about the impact the AMREF training has had on her life.
Honourable Kent was pleased with the visit.
"I've watched AMREF evolve from the days of the East Africa Flying Doctors out of Nairobi's Wilson Airport,” he said on his return to Canada. “So it is wonderful to be able to drop in again to see a set of projects that are making a real difference in the lives of Africa’s disadvantaged,”
AMREF was honoured to host Minister Kent and his team in Kawempe.
View additional photos from the visit.
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