News 2021
42: 42 Essays & 42 Pictures
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Chris Read, CEO of Dunstan Thomas and Founder of SGP, was commissioned to write a weekly opinion piece on the thoughts of a business leaders during this time. These 42 pieces have been authored as short essays into the book, ‘42’. Each one of these 42 essays is accompanied by a picture of characters, personalities, and the reality of day-to-day life in rural Uganda, the home of the charity Singing Gorilla Projects.
Read the 42 Booklet here
November 2021 - COVID-19 In Uganda
A mix of low social mobility, a young population and stringent lockdown rules with severe punishment for those breaking the rules have ensured that Uganda’s weak healthcare system has not been overloaded by COVID-19. There are 55 ICU beds in Uganda for a population of 42 million. This means there are 1.3 ICU beds per million people. In the UK there are 275.55 ICU beds per 100,000 people!
After a slow start, the vaccination programme has gathered pace. Today, around 9% of the population have been vaccinated, with enough vaccines for 22 million people as of the end of November 2021.
However, there is long-standing vaccine hesitancy due to fears of side effects. Some groups believe vaccines lead to infertility while others imagine vaccines are made from animals and taking one will make a child behave like an animal. Most of this can be attributed to cult practices across the country and misinformation on social media platforms. Just like in the west, conspiracy theories about vaccines as a means of acquiring authoritarian control have, in part, created a whole new generation of anti-vaxxers. I suspect the government will make vaccinations mandatory in the not-too-distant future.
