Friday 22nd September, the SPH had a privilege of hosting 2 Irish Parliamentarians, the Head of cooperation at the Irish Embassy and an Administrator in the Irish Parliament. The MPs were Hon James Lawless and Hon Neale Richmond. The official of the Irish Embassy was Mr Frank Kirwan and an Administrator in the Irish Parliament was Mr Simon Murtagh. Their visit was coordinated by the IRISH AID funded NOURISH project which is a collaborative effort between Trinity College Dublin in Ireland and Ugandan Institutions-Makerere University, Infectious Disease Institute, Gulu University, JCRC. The country coordinating office is in department of EPI-BIO, School of Public health. The visit was in response to a visit to the Irish Parliament in June by Prof Martina Hennessy the PI from Trinity College Dublin and Prof Nazarius M Tumwesigye one of the Co-PIs. The project, which has both a PhD training and research component, is coming to an end and the investigators were sharing the achievements and a possible way forward with the visitors. It focuses on issues of food supplementation, food security in Karamoja and nutrition and health status of people living with HIV. The meeting was attended by the Ag Principal of the College of Health Sciences.
Dr Rose Chalo, Prof David Serwadda, Prof Fred Wabwire-Mangen, Dr Susan Kiwanuka, Dr Henry Wamani, Dr Andrew Kambugu of IDI(another Co-PI) and several other staff of the school of Public Health and the PhD students on the program. The Irish Parliamentarians appreciated the work done and advised the research team to push for translation of the knowledge into policy.
