Last week, I was in Jinja with my colleagues from UAPA.
We were there to meet and interact with the leadership of Jinja district on the issue of alcohol regulation.
Everything went so well on my part!
It felt so good being back in Jinja after 5 years!
The team that travelled from Kampala included we from the Secretariat, officials from both the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health respectively.
We shared what we had prepared for them in the form of presentations…I am talking from statistics of victims of alcohol harm, money that they can save as a district and country at large from alcohol harm mitigation etc.
They shared with us their pains and struggles with alcohol harm in their community especially, amongst the youth.
We also listened in to 2 testimonies from people that are now living sober (very touching if you ask me)!
It reminded me of those times, when I was trying much more to balance out everything in my life.
Most of all, we shared meals together!
(It is even a sin to me not to share food with those around and next to me!)
One particular submission caught my attention so much and left me thinking….
It must have been the Deputy Town Clerk of Jinja South if I’m not mistaken.
She paused a question to us all that I am paraphrasing now,
“What do you want me, that is interested in taxes to develop our district, to do when you send me all these people from Kampala? These people come here and tell us they are investors, and I don’t have the power to stop them from doing what they are want?”
Big alcohol, we are told, comes with big buckets of taxes with them.
It is known taxes paid are good for us all, right?
Where then, do we strike a balance between public health, investment in big alcohol and taxes collected?
I want you to think about that!