They have been dubbed Uganda's silent killers. Boda-bodas, the country's ubiquitous motorbike taxis, snake through gridlocked traffic, navigate potholed roads and provide much-needed employment for young people. They are also maiming and killing thousands every year, monopolising hospital budgets and wiping out livelihoods.
Lorraine Ololia is 10. She lives in Kampala, Uganda. And she recently came up with a new career goal. A TV show about science, produced by teachers from her junior high school, has inspired her. She's watched an episode on computer programming, another where two young explorers visit her country's Lake Victoria to talk about wetlands and learned how to make a model of a digestive tract at home using bowls, crackers, water, food coloring, bananas and oranges.
In Luwero district, about 37 miles (60km) from Kampala, has 614 students and 12 teachers this school year, which began in February. The headteacher, Moses Kyambadde, hopes 2014 will be productive now that the school has taken on one of its biggest challenges, teacher absenteeism.
According to figures in Transparency International's global corruption report on education, published last year, teachers in Uganda were absent from their classes 27% of the time, the second-highest rate among 21 countries. The study describes the problem as one of the most serious forms of corruption in education.
Amy Fallon is a freelance journalist who has reported from Australia, the U.K., Africa and Asia for the Guardian, the Sydney Morning Herald, AFP and many others. Follow her on Twitter @amyfallon. Under a tarpaulin tent pitched in the world’s largest refugee settlement, a pair of newborn twins is cause for celebration. “They will grow fat,” midwife Christine Ajidiru says, gushing over the mother, Maria Gire, who is breastfeeding one of her new baby girls. The tent houses the maternal and child
Before the vehicle that she was travelling in flipped over and trapped her right leg, Leakhena Laing was a happy teenager who enjoyed climbing trees...
Conservative politicians in Uganda say that a music video by singer Jemimah Kansiime has broken the country’s tough new anti-pornography laws. The 21-year-old has already spent five weeks in jail for appearing in a foam-covered bikini in the video, promoting her single, Ensolo Yange. Under the new law, which took effect in February, Kansiime faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty of “wilfully and unlawfully producing, trafficking, importing, selling and abetting pornography”. But critic
This story includes downloadable print-quality images -- Copyright IPS, to be used exclusively with this story.
KAMPALA, Uganda—As the voice of Uganda’s gay community, Frank Mugisha has met scores of dignitaries from all around the world while fighting for equality. There’s...
ALL Allan Ssembatya wanted for Christmas was a new soccer ball. Like most Ugandan boys, the 10-year-old is football mad and loves to play his...
Ugandan broadcasters calling themselves “rap-orters” are changing the way news is delivered, after a team of hip-hop artists teamed up to deliver a weekly TV...
