“We lack a health center in Butungama Sub County”, Bob Mugisa.

On 6^th July 2014, local citizens appeared on BETTER FM to discuss the state of service delivery in their sub counties. “Butungama Sub County lacks a health center. Local citizens have to walk as far as Rwebisengo Health Center IV to get health services. Even the roads are very poor and impassable during the rainy season, yet our leaders have not come up to lobby and improve the services”, said Bob Mugisa, a local citizen of Butungama Sub County in Ntoroko District, during the ‘Listeners Forum’, a 2hr weekly live radio discussion supported by ToroDev that discusses issues of accountability every Sunday (08:00 – 10:00) pm.

Yoweri. K. Museveni, President of Uganda

Mr. Bob also went ahead to indicate other challenges that are being faced in Butungama Sub County. “Schools in Butungama have no staff quarters yet the Sub County is a hard to reach area. This makes teachers move long distances to access the schools, which later affects their efficiency at work, leading to the poor performance of their pupils. We also lack a secondary school in Butungama, all primary school leavers have to walk long distances to access secondary schools that are in different Sub Counties”.

The live radio discussion was also attended by Mr. Asiimwe Julius, a local citizen from Kyabaranga Sub County in Kyenjojo District and Mr. Silver Kamihanda, a local citizen of Kabarole District.

 Mr. Asiimwe participated in the live radio discussion by highlighting the wide spread unemployment among the youth. “There is a lot of un employment among the youths, which has been caused by government negligence. The government has not included youths in developmental programs, even those that have been introduced are full of bias and have not helped the youths. I therefore appeal to our local leaders in Kyenjojo District to play their role and lobby for the youths”.

Meanwhile, Mr. Silver called upon leaders to lobby for more money in the youths livelihood program. “I call upon leaders most especially Members of Parliament to lobby for more funds for the Youths Livelihood Program. The program should also be extended to other districts and not only operate in few districts because all youths in the country need to be catered for”.

The live radio discussion was moderated by Mr. Mukonyezi Wilfred and is supported by NED, SIDA/CIPESA on a project aimed at using radio and social media to improve service delivery and accountability in the Rwenzori Region, Western Uganda.