National Drug Authority partners with Church of Uganda to end drug and substance abuse.

In an  effort to end drug and substance abuse in Uganda, the Church of Uganda (COU) together with the National Drug Authority (NDA) on April 20th signed a memorandum of understanding.

The archbishop of Church of Uganda Most Rev. Steven Kazimba Mugalu said the partnership has come in handy as the Arch Bishop inspected the National Drug Authority’s quality control laboratory in Mulago hospital.

Lately, the National Drug Authority (NDA) has been deploying a multipronged approach that includes creating and enhancing collaborations, physical and virtual engagements, using of ICT tools and conducting of research to end drug and substance abuse amongst the youth.

The NDA has also been working with the COU especially with the Northern Uganda diocese and the board hopes that this MoU will widen the collaboration with the church that is also affiliated with several other institutions including schools, Universities and media platforms.

In his speech, Kazimba Mugalu applauded the Drug Authority on this move and he pledged to use the church based platforms to preach this gospel mostly on Sundays when they have services.

“The church also has about 630 secondary schools, 5Universities and over 5000 primary schools which is a great platform that can surely spearhead this campaign on drugs” Kazimba added.

“I also call upon all members of the church to put emphasis on the boy child recently because its only girl children that are mostly cared for which has caused havoc in society”.

Faith based institutions are well positioned to reach almost all Ugandans as most of them have a religious inclination and according to NDA the long exhibited strong stand against drug and substance abuse by the COU is what has mostly made this MoU a success.

As the biggest contributor to the current spike of mental illness to the young people of Uganda being drug abuse, the NDA has been working with key institutions like the Ministry of Health, Ministry of internal affairs, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, community based institutions and institutions of learning to create awareness about this challenge that is continuing to pose a serious threat to health.

As a drug regulator, NDA is committed to safeguarding the appropriate use of drugs as a way of promoting and protecting health care as emphasized by the National Drug Policy and Authority Act Cap 2000.