Teacher ventures into training health workers – Daily Monitor
by Wilson Kutamba
After. Confronted with the HIV/Aids scourge, Benoni Mugume used his retirement package to set up a health training facility. Wilson Kutamba finds out Mugume’s story.
Lyantonde School Of Nursing and Midwifery
Benoni Mugume welcomes guests with a warm smile to Lyantonde School of Nursing and Midwifery, a venture he started after his retirement.
Unlike most health training institutions which are owned by health workers or practitioners, Mugume a retired teacher of English went against all odds to set up the nursing school.
Education background
Mugume who started his teaching career at St Peter’s Katukuru SS in Rwampara District was enrolled on the government payroll as a licensed teacher in 1991. Between 1995 and 1997 he taught at Muntuyera High School, Kitunga in Ntungamo before being transferred to Lyantonde SS, Kasambya in 1999.
“I was transferred to Lyantonde, then still part of Rakai District, because I was pursuing a Master’s at Uganda Martyrs University,Nkozi at the time. The distance between work and school made it difficult for him to juggle books and work,” he reminisces.
When Mugume got to Lyantonde, he was confronted with the HIV/Aids plague.
“Most of the people I met had patches all over their bodies,”’ He says: “Rakai District was the epicentre of the HIV/Aids scourge at the time, and the situation was bad because a classroom would only have 20 learners present of 70 learners because the other 50 would be attending to sick relatives and parents,” he reveals.
This worrying situation, Mugume says, made him conceive the idea of being part of a health team because they were the only people who could help struggling...
