Outgoing UN boss hails Covid-19 heroes

The outgoing United Nations Resident Coordinator to Uganda, Ms Rosa Malango, has hailed various players as heroes in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.
The country is currently facing a second wave of Covid-19, with the infection rates rising and deaths growing each passing day.

“I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate our current heroes in the different sectors, in particular the healthcare providers who have been in the frontline battling the Covid-19 pandemic despite the high risks,” Ms Malango said as the country marked the National Heroes’ Day celebrations on Wednesday.

She added: “I also wish to recognise the sacrifice of Ugandan sportsmen and women who have flown the flag high and brought honor to the country; the diaspora community who always remember to send money to keep families alive and build the motherland.”
Ms Malango also hailed Uganda for its heroic acts as being the second largest country to host refugees in the world.
As of June 7,  the country’s cumulative Covid-19 cases stood at 55,511, cumulative recoveries were 47,760, active cases on admission at health facility at 784 and cumulative deaths at 402.

Ms Malango also used this event to say bid farewell to Uganda after spending five years. She will be leaving to the New York where she has been  redeployed.
“I first came to this country as UNDP Representative in 2016 and accepted the honor to serve as UN Resident Coordinator and do reporting to the President and the UN Secretary General following the UN reform in 2019. After five cumulative years of service, the UN Secretary General has promoted me to serve as Director Economic Affairs for the Regional Economic Commissions at UN Headquarters in New York,” Ms Malango said. 

“Today is likely to be my last official function in my current capacity. To the people of Uganda, thank you for letting me become part of your communities during the past five years. I will leave in my UN capacity but return in my private capacity as Uganda will remain a second home for my family, especially having adopted my second son from Sanyu Babies home,” she added.
She also said she was humbled to witness the President launch a national civic education campaign titled “Uganda - This is Home” developed by the National Initiative for Civic Education in Uganda (NICE-UG) and partners.
 
This, she said was the first ever national mindset change campaign aimed to inspire a new generation of citizens informed by the PanAfrican value system of Ubuntu and a new world in which knowledge economies and digital platforms play an important role for all nations. 
The campaign aims at rallying citizens to celebrate diversity, increase appreciation of Ugandan values and transform society through citizen participation including of its mostly youthful population. 

The campaign will also influence a shift towards a more harmonious co-existence of the various tribes as a modern state. 
The executive secretary of the National Initiative for Civic Education in Uganda, Mr Crispin Kaheru, said the civic education is much needed as the  country experiences the second wave of Covid-19.

“Civic Education is a national emergency now.  We needed it yesterday, but more importantly we need it today more than ever before. We are at a place where as a country; we are challenged by the low response rate towards the Covid-19 SOPs, testing and vaccination,” Mr Kaheru said.
 He added: “At one level, people are not conscious about how deadly the pandemic we are dealing with is and at the other level; we are faced with occasional trust issues – between the people and our government.”