Safari Cheza Africa

14/05/2024

06/04/2024

Yellow Fever
The fight against Yellow Fever witnessed a key milestone as Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, the Minister for Health, spearheaded the launch of the second phase of the Yellow Fever vaccination campaign. The event, held at Mehta Primary School in Lugazi Municipality, Buikwe District on the 4th of April, 2024, marked Government’s strong effort to combat the deadly Yellow Fever Disease by sensitizing and mobilizing communities for vaccination.

In her remarks, Dr. Aceng called upon pupils and students to get vaccinated against Yellow Fever. While interacting with the young audience, she asked them whether they are aware of the dangers of Yellow Fever and how it is spread. In response, they affirmed unanimously noting that Yellow Fever is spread from person to person through the bite of an infected mosquito known as Aedes species.

The second phase of the campaign commenced on April 2nd, 2024, and is scheduled to run until April 8th, 2024, covering 53 Districts across various sub-regions including Ankole, Buganda, Karamoja, Kampala, and Wakiso.

Addressing the gathering, Permanent Secretary, Dr. Diana Atwine called upon the leaders to focus on immunization coverage. “We request our leaders, as we are advocating for medicine, more [health] facilities, more upgrades of existing [health] facilities, we request that you pick special interest in the vaccination coverage of your district” she said. This comes against the background of low immunization coverage especially for new antigens resulting into sporadic outbreaks of diseases.

“The population increase that we are seeing, the reduction of the under 5 mortality we witnessed in the recent survey (UDHS 20222) was because we prioritized vaccination. If we don’t vaccinate people, we shall see more people getting sick, children dropping out of school. We want to reduce the disease burden of our country. We can only do that if all of us realise we have a common enemy” Dr. Atwine added.

Dr. Atwine also issued a call to action, urging the population to reject misinformation surrounding vaccines. She reassured the public of the safety and efficacy of vaccination, emphasizing that immunization efforts are crucial in safeguarding public health and reducing disease prevalence.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative, Dr. Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam, provided insight into the scope of the ongoing campaign, outlining a goal to vaccinate 14.4 million individuals aged between 1 and 60 across the targeted districts. He reminded the population that in 2023, Uganda conducted Phase 1 of the mass yellow fever vaccination campaign. During this period, we were able to reach 9.4 million people. “I hope that from the lesson learned in the last campaign, we will be able reach more than 90% of the eligible population this time” he said.

The global strategy to Eliminate Yellow Fever Epidemics (EYE) by 2026, initiated in 2017 by a coalition of partners including GAVI, UNICEF, and WHO, serves as a guiding framework for combating the disease. With strategic objectives aimed at protecting populations at risk, preventing international spread, and containing epidemics rapidly, the EYE strategy has been instrumental in immunizing over 226 million individuals against Yellow Fever since its inception.

The fight against Yellow Fever hinges on preventive measures and collective action, with a target of vaccinating at least 80% of the eligible population in high-risk and endemic areas. The implementation of routine immunization and preventive mass vaccination campaigns aligns with the EYE recommendations, reinforcing the global commitment to eradicating Yellow Fever by 2026.

As the second phase of the Yellow Fever vaccination campaign gains momentum, the Ministry of Health and partners remain committed in their dedication to safeguarding public health and mitigating the impact of this devastating disease. Through concerted efforts and community engagement, the vision of a Yellow Fever-free future draws closer, indicating a triumph of science and solidarity in the face of adversity.

02/04/2024

25/03/2024

In the heart of a peaceful countryside, there was a farm nestled between golden fields of wheat and vibrant patches of vegetables. This farm belonged to Safari Cheza Africa, whose passion for farming ran deep in her roots. Safari Cheza Africa farm was a piece of land for the livelihood, and her connection to nature.

24/02/2024

Pressure 24/7 apologizes for controversial TikTok videos, sent back to Luzira prison
Popular TikToker Ibrahim Musana a.k.a Pressure 24/7 has been sent back to Luzira prison until March.

The TikToker is facing charges of demeaning comments in the videos he published on his TikTok account that were against the Kabaka of Buganda and President Museveni.

The 27-year-old was sent back to prison after the Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate Ronald Kayiizi asked him to present his sureties for a bail application but it turned out that they had no National IDs.

When his sureties failed to avail the required documents, he was sent back to Luzira prison until March 7th for his next court hearing session.

19/02/2024

he East African region is currently battling with the menace of human trafficking. Men, women and children are trafficked from rural communities to large cities like Kampala, Nairobi and Dar-el-Salaam for Labour and s*xual exploitation for example, the Banyarwanda commercial s*x workers in Nairobi and Kampala are often trafficked from Rwanda with promises for better jobs, and children in the Karamoja region, and Northern Kenya are always seen begging on the streets of Kampala and Nairobi. Where do these young kids get transport to come to these major cities? And urban authorities in these cities often don’t care about the enslaved young kids!

Others, who seek better job opportunities in the Middle East, are often recruited under vague contractual conditions that can encourage subsequent abuse by human traffickers. According to victims, they are convinced at lower monetary costs to dodge the high costs and bureaucracies associated with licensed Labour recruitment companies and often offered visit visas to go and work in Middle East Countries of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar among others

An increasing number of East Africans are being lured through online job scams that promise to pay well in Southeast Asia. For example, a ‘sales specialist’ is promised US$2 098 a month, while a bilingual translator is promised up to US$3 000. These job opportunities overseas are particularly appealing to youth in East Africa, where recent studies show that up to 80% are unemployed and the average monthly salary is around US$634 a month. Are the ICT regulators in the respective East African nations aware of these scams? Undoubtedly, yes!

Trafficking young people is a growing and profitable business in East Africa. At times, these are often aides by respective Immigration officials to enable the transit of victims.
In June 2023, the INTERPOL issued a global warning on the increased activities of human trafficking networks, fuelled by fraud. In particular, INTERPOL noted an escalation in human trafficking networks using online scams to lure victims, who are then forced to commit cyber-crime, and financial crimes on an industrial scale. Have the East African governments acted to this warning yet? Not convincingly, if not at all!

According to the Global Alliance against Traffic in Women, there is an increase of East African human trafficking victims in the Southeast Asian countries of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines. It said that on arrival at the border and airports, victims are often driven to deserted hotels, where they are forced to work in ‘fraud factories’, conducting love scams, money laundering and illegal gambling. Victims who try to leave are often asked to pay back a debt that can be as high as US$10 000.

Well, most states tend to focus on state security as the only key security concern. There is an urgent need to adopt human security awareness and protection initiatives in order to guarantee survival of human beings. There should be efforts to counter human trafficking, and also to repatriate hundreds of thousands of East Africans from the Middle East, and Southeast Asia through the required collaboration between Southeast Asian countries.
East African governments should adjust their cyber legal regimes to ensure that technology companies embrace more robust scanning practices to detect cons that result in human trafficking online, for example Google, Meta, Twitter, WhatsApp among others.

It is also important that vulnerable groups are made aware of these cons and scams for example University graduates, commercial s*x workers, children, and the entire population, and protected from the consequent harms. In this case, the target group for the Middle East and Southeast Asia traffickers is educated youth desperate for employment, and the rest of the categories are trafficked and enslaved internally within East Africa.

13/02/2024

The Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC) aka National Theatre has for years not only entertained music lovers through The Jam Session but also greatly contributed to the music careers of the music stars whose music you enjoy today.

After a big break, the live music show returns tonight at the UNCC partnered with Music, Life Skills, and Destitution Alleviation (M-LISADA), a non-government organisation that uses music to rescue children and young adults from destitute.

Unlike the previous sessions where the floor was for everyone, The Jam Session returns with a different setup according to Edwin Mukalazi, the production manager at the UNCC.

“The set-up is going to be different. We are going to do scenery design with more lights. For Tonight, we have selected performers already but coming Monday, we shall register people who are interested in performing and they will be coming here for rehearsals first because we want to up the quality,” he said

He further explained that Forty minutes will be given to musicians who lack the skill for live performances. This however will not be happening at every session.

“The purpose is for such talents to learn to perform live therefore the forty-minute sessions will happen for a short time.

Mr Daniel Ssettaba, the lead consultant of M-LISADA explained that they chose the partnership with UNCC purposely to revive the discipline of music by calling back the session’s old audiences as they also attract the new audiences and also create more partnerships.

“We would like to rebuild the discipline of music and give it a more kind of hype. We are not doing anything new; rather we are using a new team and a new generation of young people with a passion for music who have already achieved so many things with music. Some of them are doctors, engineers and nurses,” he explained

Mr Ssettaba also believes that the program with the Uganda National Cultural Centre is not only about reviving the long-standing music program of singing and enjoying music but also a platform where people with a common goal can meet, recap about life, solve problems and talk about who they are.

“When people meet with a common goal, they can plan, dream and help each other because so much can happen in a week. We believe that every new week we will meet, there will be a new story to tell,” he said

In tonight’s session, the band from M-LISADA will be playing alongside the selected performers.

03/02/2024