By Frank Kamuntu
President Museveni on Thursday met and held discussions with Gomba and Sembabule district leaders at his Kisozi farm in Gomba District.
The meeting sought to outline how the nine villages from Gomba and Sembabule Districts have benefitted from the project given to them by the President in 2011 and to see how the remaining districts can be brought on board to benefit from the program with the help of the leaders.
During the meeting, President Museveni emphasized the need for leaders to prioritise the household income of the communities they lead, explaining that once the issue is dealt with, the rest of the development can follow with ease.
“The roads, electricity and other infrastructures are not the medicine for poverty. The medicine for poverty is household income or a good salary,” he asserted.
In 2011, President Museveni donated cows, goats, coffee seedlings, pigs, money, among others to households in nine villages in Gomba and Sembabule to generate incomes to improve their livelihoods. The villages which benefitted include Kirasi, Kisozi A, Kisozi B, Obutugu, Lutunku A, Lutunku B, Kajumilo, Kasozi and Kikuumadungu.
President Museveni said that from the 1960s, he has been fighting poverty, starting with Ankole region where he advised cattle keepers to stop nomadism, settle down, fence their lands and graze friesian cows for dairy farming. He added that the Ankole people embraced his message of wealth creation and therefore he wants the people of Gomba and Sembabule people to embrace it as well.
“When I came here in the 1990s, I found all people here democratically poor; their only job during that time was to wait for me along the way and beg for money from me. They had no source of income,” the President said.
“I called the parents here and told them that I don’t want to be neighbours with poor people. We gave them entandikwa in the form of cows, coffee, pigs etc. We moved slowly until when these Nalwangas finished school. I told those of Nalwangas that all households should benefit,” he added.
President Museveni further informed the leaders that the project in the nine villages, was a pilot study and since it has been successful, it should now be taken to the rest of the villages in Gomba and Sembabule Districts.
He also assured the leaders of the necessary support to improve the livelihood of the people they lead but asked them to mobilise their people to embrace government programs such as Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga to fight poverty.
The President also promised to further support the project beneficiaries who have been able to ensure that the program is successful.
“We are going to continue adding more resources to the project,” he said, before pledging to add more money to their SACCO.
The Gomba West Member of Parliament, Hon. Robina Rwakoojo thanked the President for his visionary leadership and will to change the lives of the people he leads. She added that as leaders, they are already preaching the President’s message of increasing household income to the people through several government initiatives like PDM.
Hon. Shartsi Musherure, the Member of Parliament for Mawogola North, thanked President Museveni for bringing forth the projects which are causing development in Gomba, Sembabule and the whole country. She assured the President that the people of Sembabule have embraced the PDM project and the money is being utilised well for the right cause.
The Project Coordinator Ms. Sarah Nalwanga, told the President that his entandikwa scheme has done tremendous work in changing the lives of people in the nine villages. She added that people who started with one cow now have like 8 cows and those who started with an acre of coffee have also been able to expand and now they are harvesting a lot, hence transforming their lives.
“So far 2035 households have benefited,” she revealed.
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