What inspired you to enter the World NTD Day Story telling competition?

Spending my holidays with Prossy and knowing about her experience with sleeping sickness, I saw the story-telling competition as the perfect opportunity for her to share her story and for me to work on my film-making skills. She was willing and enthusiastic to work with me, and without her I wouldn’t have had an entry.

Why does fighting NTDs matter to you?

Fighting NTDs matters to me because it is a problem happening in my backyard, to people I know and love. In a world where so many occurrences are out of our control, there is no acceptable reason that diseases that are preventable and able to be eliminated should continue to cause suffering and rob people of the chance to have healthy fulfilling lives.

How do you intend on continuing the fight against NTDs after this competition?

Through the research I did for this competition, I learned a lot more about NTDs that I was oblivious to before including the various diseases, their causes and current efforts to eliminate them. After the competition, I hope to use this knowledge to create more pieces of media and tell more stories to sensitise and spread awareness in Uganda, particularly to audiences that might be unaware. I believe it is a worthy and urgent cause, and hope to use my digital media interest to add more voices to the fight.

What would be your request to your country’s leaders regarding fighting NTDs?

My request to the leaders in Uganda fighting NTDs is to make it a priority, as the suffering happening is needless and avoidable. I would also request them to educate local communities (especially medical professionals) on these diseases so as to avoid misdiagnoses and ensure everyone gets the medical help that they need.