George Bita And Donald Kiirya
2 November 2009
Kampala — THE Government has secured a $600m (about sh1.2b) loan from the World Bank to renovate health centres countrywide, the Minister of Health, Dr. Stephen Mallinga, has said.
Mallinga also said the Government will soon provide ambulances to all health centres because they have the capacity to maintain the vehicles.
He was speaking at the Safe Motherhood day celebrations at Kigandalo Primary School in Kigandalo in Mayuge district on Friday, where he represented the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga.
Ugandan women are giving birth to many children, she said, which fans a high population growth and endangers women's lives.
This year's theme was, "Healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies."
Kadaga said with the current trend of population growth, it is anticipated that Uganda's population will double by the year 2015.
She noted that many pregnancies are making women susceptible to maternal deaths which stand at 435 per 100,000 births.
"The current death rate is 3.4% annually. It is aggravated by the fact that only 24% of the women in their reproductive age of 15-49 years embrace family planning techniques," she stated.
Mayuge resident district commissioner John Kasenge decried the poor health services on the district's six islands on Lake Victoria.
"There are no family planning services on the islands as well as in some villages in South Busoga Forest Reserve," he said.
Kasenge said these obstacles to safe motherhood had led to the deaths of many women who mostly rely on traditional birth attendants.
The gender state minister, Lukia Nakadama, and the Bunya East MP, James Kubeketerya, attended the celebrations.
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