The USC Institute for Global Health met with partners in Uganda in late January to facilitate research, foster collaborations and reconnect on existing projects.
IGH Associate Director Heather Wipfli and Program Manager Nivvy Hundal met with the Honorable Madam Amelia Kyambadde, Ugandan Minister for Trade and Industry and Member of Parliament for Mawokota County North in the Mpigi district. Kyambadde is also the founder of Twezimbe Development Foundation, a non-profit for which IGH Director Jonathan Samet chairs the board of directors and board of trustees.
In the coming year, IGH aims to develop a multidisciplinary student placement program to assist TwezimbeÕs development initiatives and to provide students with hands-on fieldwork experience. Kyambadde’s team took Wipfli and Hundal on a tour of Mawokota County North, where they visited health centers, maternity wards, a local midwife and traditional healer.
In addition to their meetings with Members of Parliament (MPs), Wipfli and Hundal met with Minister of Health Dr. Christine D.J. Ondoa and sat down with leaders from theMinistry of Health Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory, Parliamentary Forum on Non-Communicable Diseases, World Health Organization’s NCD Division, Uganda Cancer Institute and Center for Tobacco Control in Africa. They also met with Dean William Bazeyo, of Makerere University School of Public Health, to identify new—and move forward with current—research collaborations.
At the Parliament of Uganda, Wipfli and Hundal checked in on the successful gym IGH helped build for MPs in 2010 and which has since been taken over by the Parliament. In addition to offering high-tech machines and equipment, the gym—which is free for MPs and staff to use—now offers three daily exercise classes and is slated for expansion in the near future.
