World Vision Uganda Marks 30 years

BY RACHEAL NINSIIMA

Color, pomp and entertainment at Golf Course Hotel on Wednesday 27th July saw World Vision Uganda (WVU) climax its 30 year anniversary celebration. Reflecting on the message that several banners and pictures on display had, one could tell that the child-focused organization has come a long way to garner several achievements up its sleeve.

In his keynote address, Gilbert Kamanga, WVU’s national director told guests that the organization has invested about $850m in the last 30 years. This has been in the areas of health, education, livelihood, emergency response, child protection and water and sanitation.

“As an organization, we have made a commitment to stay in the communities for a longer time. We have over 700 staff at the moment and we hope to reach out to over six million children by 2020,” Kamanga said.

He challenged the audience to cooperate and ensure that there are no child marriages; no child drops out of school; every child has a birth certificate; no maternal death; no child dies before the age of five and that small holder farmers do farming as a business. This is in a bid to get Uganda to achieve a middle-income status.

Jacob Oulanyah, the deputy speaker of Uganda’s parliament applauded WVU’s achievement and urged the organization to take its ‘vision’ to another level.

“Impacting the lives of five million children is no mean achievement. However, laws, policies, money and more partners are still needed to enhance the organization’s vision,” he said.

Oulanyah also drew the audience’s attention to the relevance of the first 1000 days of a child which determine the wellbeing. He noted that there is need for more money to be thrown at the problem to prevent stunting and wasting which are one of the leading killers of children under five.

Rosa Malango, the UN Resident Coordinator in Uganda urged WVU to align its community based solutions to the new sustainable development goals, putting specific emphasis on the girl child.

She also called on partners to invest in vocational training in order to enable youth play a robust role to see Uganda’s low income status improved in the next 15 years.

To crown the half day celebrations, guests were treated to entertainment from Carol Nankoba and Mildred Nakanjako, students of Old Kampala secondary school and Mengo senior school respectively. The fete ended with cake cutting and guests signing on a signature board.