ARTICLES

BWINDI RECOVERY ON

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Kanungu district was a remote area with no electricity or any other sign of civilisation. The Joseph Kibwetere cult which claimed hundreds of lives in a 2000 inferno and the attack on tourists by Rwandan Interahamwe rebels a year earlier had caused a slump in business.

But this has since changed. The area is developing fast and the latest addition is a state-of-the-art multipurpose community telecentre run by Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a non-profit organisation.

The park is popular for hosting the endangered mountain gorillas. Zikusoka said a 128kb high-speed satellite would facilitate communication between the local population and the outside world, public health and wildlife management organisations, eco-tourists and enterprises that support them.

Nnabagereka Sylvia Nagginda, the project's patron, was all praises for the efforts Dr. Gladys Kalema and her husband Lawrence Zikusoka have put into conserving mountain gorillas. She said the project is setting up an early warning system to prevent disease outbreaks among the gorillas while at the same time strengthening community-based health care and improving TB treatment.

"I hope the CTPH will continue to empower local communities, while preventing and controlling disease transmission where wildlife, people and their animals meet," she said.

The centre, operational since June 2005, has seen about 30 students graduate in various computer programmes. It is funded by the World Bank, Uganda Communications Commission, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Uganda Wildlife Authority, WYSE Technology, Multichoice, UNIDO, Caltex Uganda, Uganda Telecom and Coca Cola, among others.