Red Cross societies agree on cross-border collaborations to end Ebola in Africa

22 August 2023, 3:46 pm

By Byamukama Alozious

Different Red Cross societies across 12 African countries have agreed to partner together to end Ebola virus and Marburg.

During the two-day meeting at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, representatives from the Red Cross societies agreed that working together is the only weapon to end Ebola epidemics and other viruses which have continuously broke out in the region.

The delegation included experts and professionals in managing disasters and Secretary Generals from Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Madagascar, Comoros and other countries and focused at building up a collaborative environment where innovative strategies and best practices for ultimately enhancing collective efforts in saving lives.

Dr. Josephine Okwera, Uganda Red Cross Society director of health and social services, said that the meeting also focused at epidemic preparedness, identifying technical tools and guidelines, how to facilitate peer to peer support, and develop a national society health technical working group to lead on cross-border collaboration during epidemics.

She said when Uganda was struck by Ebola outbreak in Mubende early this year where 59 people lost their lives, Uganda Red Cross in partnership with Ministry of Health managed to end it in only 69 days and now she believes that more efforts can be done to save lives on the continent.

‘’We deployed nine ambulances during the Ebola response to support two call and dispatch centers in Mubende and Jinja districts. Overall, we carried out 1,333 ambulance evacuations/transfers within the seven districts of response’’, Dr. Josephine Okwera said.

Robert Kwesiga, Uganda Red Cross Society Secretary General, highlighted the importance of letting affected communities themselves take charge adding that outbreaks start in communities and end in communities. “Foreigners are not going to be able to detect it and raise the alarm. They will come in at a different level. So we need to empower communities by capacity building with training and awareness so that the can report to authorities in case of outbreaks”, he said.

‘’If the leaders get the right human resource, then we can manage these pandemics and other emergencies because we can easily work with the communities in any case, we are part and parcel of the communities. It starts there. It ends there and we are their customers.”

Dr. Daniel Kyabayinze, Director of Public Health while speaking to delegates emphasized that experts need to empower communities with awareness and skills to manage epidemics. ’’Communities do not know what we call borders. Diseases don’t respect these borders, therefore as we talk about epidemics preparedness and response. We must critically put the community at the center.”  He said the Ministry of Health appreciates Red Cross Society’s efforts and still wants the partnership to continue to save the lives of people.  

Naphtal Baguma, URCS director supply chain procurement and estate management, said at least all the items that are exported to Uganda in form of humanitarian goods should be approved by National Drug Authority faster and appealed to government so that items that have to do with materials be approved quicker because they be heading to respond to emergencies and different disasters.

National Red Cross societies normally face challenges in the disaster response such as lack of contingency funds, logistical delays and personal protective equipment stock, community resistance, among others. The meeting agreed to do more training of trainers, have a centralized control of logistics for easy coordination and supervising and for better communication.