Makerere’s school of public health commissions its auditorium

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Makerere School of Public Health (MakSPH) has launched its multi-billion state-of-the-art auditorium as the second phase of the construction of itsew building at Makerere University takes shape.

The school is currently operating at Mulago with a growing population of students of over 1,000, leading to lack of space to carry out different learning and research activities.

Professor Rhoda Wanyenze the school Dean while speaking to journalists on Friday evening explained  that the auditorium will give them space for conferences and meetings. She added that the MakSPH has been spending a lot of money on hotels while conducting conferences and meetings because of a lack of space at their home in Mulago.

She added that they are now looking at expanding the building to get space for research and laboratories. She revealed that the school is carrying out research in air pollution and looking at a lot of contamination of water and food which calls for the establishment of laboratories to carry out that work.

Professor Wanyenze said that the 8-story building and its extension have cost 10 million US dollars. Currently, they have managed to raise 5 million US dollars from donors and staff just halfway through the amount they need to complete their new home.

Karin Boven, the Netherlands ambassador to Uganda and guest of honor said that the Netherlands noted that the development of the auditorium is by the support of many donors acknowledging the collaboration desired for many developments in Uganda.

She added that the Netherlands’ contribution of more than 400, 000 US dollars towards the auditorium is aimed at strengthening education and training capacity in sexual and reproductive capacity and rights.

The ambassador also noted that her country believes that academic institutions have a critical role in influencing sustainable and inclusive development.

Professor Barnabas Nawangwe, Makerere University Vice Chancellor, said that the school of public health has a vital role to play in ensuring that Uganda’s fast-growing population does not become a problem to the continent.

He also added that there is a need to keep Uganda’s population healthy by preventing disease outbreaks, and applauded the leadership of MakSPH for being farsighted to expand by building a new building to conduct research and studies to contain disease outbreaks.

He also noted that in the history of Makerere University, this is the first building where members of staff have taken money from their pockets to build a public institution. Nawangwe called on the parliament of Uganda to honor its pledge since they were impressed that it was the staff’s initiative.

Other donors include the Rockefeller Foundation which donated all the furniture in the building and funding, the United States government through USAID, and James Hopkins University. United States Center for Disease Control (US CDC) Makerere University council which gave them land and staff from the school of public health.

The construction is being carried out by Roko Construction Company which also constructed the School of Public Health at Mulago.

MakSPH was the first institute of public health in Sub-Saharan Africa in 1954 training in health started with medicine focusing on clinical and curative services.

The establishment of schools of public health is recent making MakSPH the first institute. Initially, it was supporting the regional level in generating data statistics for public health with a lot of collaborations and partnerships in Africa.

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