Kampala Tatler #13: Other side of the hill, Society

Also known as the Selfish Lives of Honorary Doctorate (HD), Leather Case My Ass (LCM) & Fund Done Raiser (FDR)...


January 000002

11.00 am

“I only wish we could get support in form of funds and logistics for all this work we are doing,"prayed the doctor who was doing Community Health Work and outreach. 

200 sliders need immediate medication.  According to our needs mapping list for sliders who access our services: 12 have expressed need for training in small scale business enterprises;  13  need  cash boost in form of credit to improve on their businesses in used products; 35 are at different stages of study and 7 need support to complete University; 18 were evicted due to non-payment of rent; 03 were outed and evicted from houses; we have run out of preventive products and literature on various health issues; the utility bills need paying and; my car needs repair,” a volunteer who had worked quietly with sliders for the last 5 years was heard telling another about the current situation at this Samaritan center.

This center was unique in that it opened doors to mothers with children living with HIV, elderly people looking after HIV orphans and disabled persons. The community around knew it as a clinic and training center in skills development. They had sent proposals using the Livre, the biblio, the book and the Libra to Oversee. In all situations they got regrets. One of the reasons for not awarding these volunteers money: their proposals spelled out activities in list form yet they required tabular format presentations. For that, they were disqualified. Secondly, the only organisation eligible for support in Society was ‘see change.’ Try next time the letters ended with that endnote.

“I have prepared all the reports on mapped issues faced by sliders; I did upload them on the internet for anyone to access. I got requests from 3 countries to use our work. We need to raise money to support our work. I need to pay the volunteers, the utility bills and buy another car, this one is a broken down jalopy. It has served for over 3 years. The medication we have will run out by March 000002 if we do not get any funding support to purchase more. The gender neutral bathroom supplies are about to run out as well. If only funders knew that needs among sliders are vast and comprehensive, it would help a lot in providing cash grants to many more organisations,” the volunteer was sharing challenges with a colleague.

“Sure, we may be forced to close this place. We have exhausted everything we put in. We thought by now there would be funding but nothing is trickling in yet. No, we may end up closing as soon as March 000002 and instead concentrate on internet based counselling which has also picked up,” continued the volunteer.

“You too! Oh! That will be wonderful! It will take us through June 000002. Perhaps by then funders at Oversee will finally support us too. It is amazing why they keep on telling us they know ‘See change’ as the only organisation. We helped train many of the groups in health and HIV planning. Hopefully these leaders are mentioning this fact wherever they talk about experiences about sliders whether internationally or nationally,” observed the volunteer rather late.

“You know it costs the same amount of money used to buy one fancy state-of-the-art cell phone to provide medical care to 12 people for 2 months. I only wish someone, anyone slider leader could spare some of the money they use to buy very expensive accessories and invest in improving the life of other sliders,” he told the doctor on the other side of the phone.

“What? Sure, I understand. Some people gain leadership positions to selfishly horde and hedge all the trappings of their positions, they in the process are blinded about the needs of the people they are to serve and how they are to be cared for. It only remains for those who can talk about it to straighten things,” concluded the volunteer.