By Robinah Nanyondo/Umoja Standard.
Munyonyo, Uganda: Participants at the two-day Cross-Boarder Collaboration engagement at Munyonyo pointed out direct involvement of the local communities as the greatest tool in managing disasters in their countries.
The engagement highly involved Secretary Generals from Red Cross Societies of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, DRC, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Madagascar, and Comoros with an intention of developing a collective road map for cross-border collaboration on epidemic preparedness.
This includes, identifying technical tools and guidelines to facilitate peer-to-peer support, and Developing a National society health technical working group to lead on cross-border collaboration during epidemics.
Robert Kwesiga.
Speaking to media at the sidelines of the event, Robert Kwesiga, the Secretary General Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) highlighted because disasters start and end in communities, locals therefore need to be empowered as they clearly understand their communities best than anyone else. He added that there is need for enough human resource to fight in case of any outbreak.
“Foreigners are not going to be at the community level to detect it, raise alarm and manage it, they will come in at a different level,” Kwesiga said on Monday at the opening of a high-level meeting for Red Cross societies in Kampala.
“..We need to invest in the right human resource but at the same time we need to make sure that these human resources are equipped to take charge and that’s when we can manage these pandemics,” he said, adding that these should not be expatriates but locals.
Speaking during the same meeting, Dr. Daniel Kyabayinze, the Director Health Services at the Ministry of Health said that cross-boarder epidemics will always happen therefore the best way of fighting them is when they are handled at source, meaning that their should be surveillance going on so that every information they get, they can use it appropriately.
He added that Uganda is part of East African One Stop Boarder post and also employ health workers at those posts to fight in that Regard. He therefore hailed URCS for their collaboration that enabled them to defeat the recent Ebola outbreak in the country within just 69 days.
According to the World Disaster Report, 2022 disasters such as COVID-19 are likely to be on the increase and therefore countries need to prepare more effectively for future public health emergencies.