Mother receives cash prize for delivering at shunned health centre

KABAROLE: Ms Josephine Katusabe, 27 has received Shs250,000 cash prize as an award after she delivered at the

in Mugusu Sub-county, Kabarole District.
Pregnant mothers in the hilly areas of Mugusu and Karangura Sub-counties had avoided going to the health facility maternity ward that was constructed years ago over cultural beliefs.
There is a myth in the area that the first woman who delivers from a new health centre dies and as such, pregnant mothers have been attending antenatal clinics at Nyabuswa.
For the time of delivery, women travel all the way to Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital.

During the monitoring of the government programmes in Mugusu Sub-County and Mugusu town council in January, the area LC III chairman, Mr Jorum Tumusiime told the district leaders that cultural misconceptions by the local mothers had led to mothers shunning the facility.
This prompted the district chairman, Mr Richard Rwabuhinga to stake a cash prize to the first woman who delivers at the health centre.

READ:

Mr Tumusiime revealed that no mother had delivered at the facility’s maternity ward since it was established by the district about three years ago.

During the International Women’s Day celebrations on Wednesday, the district leaders commissioned the health centre and the district chairman, Mr Rwabuhinga handed over Shs250, 000 cash to Ms Katusabe and her husband.
Other five mothers who also delivered at the facility this month were each given mattresses by the health in charge, Mr Henry Kagaba.
Mr Rwabuhinga said, “The Shs 100 million maternity ward, well equipped with water and electricity was like a white elephant in the district but I thank Katusabe for being a brave woman to offer her life to deliver at a health centre that mothers had shunned and resorted to giving birth in the hands of Traditional Birth Attendants”.

Mr Kagaba described Katusabe as “A woman who broke the York of cultural beliefs in the area and I thank her for being courageous to accept to die at the hospital but survived dismissing the cultural myth,”
Mr Kagaba revealed that the number of mothers delivering at the health centre has reached six since this month started.
Kabarole woman MP, Sylvia Rwabwogo cursed the cultural beliefs in some communities in the Rwenzori mountain that endanger the lives of mothers but thanked the district leadership for the campaign against such.