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Mak marks national breast cancer awareness month: Students join fight against breast cancer

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Over 400 Makerere University students assembled in the Freedom Square on Sunday 23rd October 2016 to participate in the Breast Cancer Awareness Run.

The Breast Cancer Awareness Run kick started the “MAK Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign” organized by Makerere University 82nd Guild Cabinet to disseminate information on breast cancer screening and treatment in several parts of Uganda.

A renowned local artist Mr. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine together with his wife Barbra Kyagulanyi, flagged off the Runners. The Mak Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign is also aligned to the commemoration of the National Breast Cancer Awareness month.

According to the Makerere University Guild President H.E Roy Ssembogga, the Mak Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign which is aligned to the commemoration of the National Breast Cancer Awareness month provides a platform to Makerere University students to join the fight against breast cancer, encourage people to go for cancer screening and to train them on self breast cancer check up and monitoring.

The Guild President H.E Roy Ssembogga together with the Former Guild President Ivan Bwowe and the Minster Gender, Ethics and Intergrity.“Statistics from the Uganda Cancer Institute supported by the World Heath organizations show that for every 1000 women, 45 do have breast cancer. The statistics show that the burden is going to continue and increase to the third world countries like Uganda with no strategic cancer treatment plan. Our aim therefore is to encourage people to go for the screening. Prevention is better than cure. It is important that people are diagnosed early and go for the treatment because cancer in its early stages is curable,” he said.

Highlighting the roll out of the screening exercise, the Guild President said:  “We will carry out cancer screening at the National Cancer Institute and at Makerere University Hospital. We also hope to extend the screening activity to Halls of residence so as to reach everyone. Screening is free and we vehemently invite people from outside to come and check for cancer,” he said.

Ssembogga said that they will extend the campaign to reach different people in several areas of Uganda under the umbrella of FACE OF MUK when he said, “our target in this campaign is to reach out to 10,000 people in the next five years. Therefore through Face of MUK initiative, we want to select an Ambassador who will lead a team of selected and well trained people to traverse the country disseminating information on breast cancer. The team will also provide cancer screening services to the people.”

The Vice Guild President, H.E Maria Ledochowska Nattabi added that the Ambassador will lead an awareness campaign in secondary schools and higher institutions of learning in Uganda.

Speaking to the chummy audience, Mr. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu who was the Chief Runner, applauded Makerere University students for joining the rest of the world to create awareness on Breast Cancer.

 “I have been invited to such activities and events by elderly guys, NGOs, Government but today I am delighted to have been invited by young and energetic people to join hands and fight for a good cause,” the happy Kyagulanyi said.Makerere University Cheif Security Ofiicer SP Jackson Mucunguzi  with some the participants ready for the run.

He urged the participants to utilize their youthful age and make a positive impact in their societies. “These are times when you are most passionate about what you believe in. These are the times when you look at the future, these are times when you still have the time to shape the future. I want to challenge you to be more of critical thinkers. The leaders that are leading us today, never sat back because they knew that the future was supposed to be set by them. They gave their best contribution during their youthful years. This is your time to give your contribution,” he said.

In an interactive interview with the Makerere University Public Relations Office, Barbra Kyagulanyi called upon women and men, girls and boys to go for cancer screening. This bold step would help them to know their status as early as possible and take up the right measures.

“You cannot hide from a disease. If you have it that is the truth and this will never change. The earlier you know the better. It is not true that when you are diagnosed of cancer you will die tomorrow. There are high chances of surviving if it is detected in its early stages. Cancer takes on several stages, there is a stage where it is treatable, there is a stage where you can have a surgery and there is a stage that is beyond, so the longer time you take to go for a screen and know your status, the worse it becomes,” she explained.

The event was sponsored by Africell Uganda, Brussels Air line, Care Hearts-Uganda, Firebase Entertainment, Uganda Female Muslim Students’ Initiative among others.

 

Article by: Mak Public Relations Office

Proscovia Nabatte

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Special Exam Results -Diploma in Performing Arts 2025/26

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The results for the 2025/2026 special entry examination for the Diploma in Performing Arts held on Saturday 17th May, 2025. Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the Examination and have been recommended to the university’s Admissions Committee for consideration.

Mak Editor

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Mature Age Scheme Exam Results for 2025/2026

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The Office of Academic Registrar, Makerere University has released full results for the Mature Age Entry Scheme Examinations for the Academic Year 2025/2026 held on Saturday 14th December, 2024.

The Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the examination and have been recommended by the Pre-Entry & Mature Age Committee to the University’s Admissions Board for Consideration.

The Aptitude Exam  Results for 2025/2026 Academic Year released in February 2025 can be found here.

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Call for Application: 2025 SNRM session 4 Summer School

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Participants in focused group discussions. Leiden-Delft-Erasmus East Africa Research Network (LEARN) in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab at Makerere University a workshop to deliberate strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change in urban centres in the East African Region, Theme: “Resilient Urban Futures: Adapting Livelihoods to Climate Change”, 4th-5th September 2024, School of Public Health Auditorium, Kampala Uganda.

Context:
Natural resources in Africa are being depleted at an alarming rate due to several factors, including unsustainable human activities, climate change, and population growth. A primary condition of sustainable development is to ensure that the pressures do not exceed the environmental limits, and that demand for the resources does not exceed levels that can be sustainably provided by nature. Therefore, there is a pressing need for transformative, systems-thinking approaches and tools that can tackle the diverse challenges facing these systems. In Africa, this need is compounded by a lack of data and monitoring, which significantly hinders sustainable decision-making.

Investing in young scientists who are committed to take lead in sustainable management of Africa’s natural resources is very important. Capacity building of young scientists will enhance their knowledge and skill on sustainable natural resources and their involvement for implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDG’s) in Africa. To this effect, SNRM summer schools have been implemented in three sessions in 2019, 2020, and 2022 with support from Volkswagen Foundation; to build a critical mass of skilled and competent young natural resource scientists in Africa through training, capacity building and mentorship. Session 4 (2025) will target competent young scientists (MSc and PhD students) in Africa and Germany to further develop their knowledge and skills in systems thinking, advanced data collection and analysis, and application of emerging digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), and embracing transdisciplinary approaches. In addition, we include an ideation workshop where students can work on real problems to come up with solutions for sustainable transformations in natural resource use.

Organizers: Leibniz Universität – Hannover (Germany), University of Antananarivo, University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana (Ghana), University of Parakou (Benin), The Technical University of Kenya, with financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).

Venue and dates: Nairobi, Kenya, 16-28 November 2025

Target: MSc and PhD students, early in the program of less than 35 years of age from any university/research institution in either sub-Saharan Africa or Germany with an interest in natural resources management.

Participants and Scholarships: The course is fully funded and open to 20 MSc and PhD students from Africa, and 5 from Germany. Funding will cover the costs of air ticket, accommodation, meals, visa, and transportation. However, participants will cover the cost of their travel health insurance.

Topics

SNRM Summer School Session 4: Transformative pathways in biodiversity management and conservation.
This summer school is designed to deliver four modules over a two-week period. The modules are designed to enable the students to acquire new ways of designing data collection protocols and analysis for transformative sustainable natural resources management.

Module 4.1: Data collection I
Skills in data collection for a transformative and sustainable management of natural resources (water, wildlife, forest, land, livestock, crops) monitoring and data collection techniques; remote monitoring tools, earth observation system data, e.g. satellite data sources, LIDAR, and UAV aerial images. Collect and analyse In-situ data on biotic and abiotic parameters, map and analyse data using R or Google Earth Engine, field data collection and retrieving data from online databases.

Module 4.2 Data management and processing
Introduction to tools and methods of managing large and diverse data sets of natural resources such as time series, spatial, directional, and multivariate data. Practicals will include data storage, organization and conversion into various formats using databases such as PostgreSQL and statistical programming software such as R and Python; scripts.

Module 4.3 Ecological monitoring, modelling and management
This module aims to teach participants how to anticipate and validate trends that can be observed in various ecosystems. Lectures include ecological monitoring and its design; population monitoring studies; metrics in population monitoring; methods for monitoring and assessing marine ecosystems; human ecology to socio-ecological systems; climate change impact of ecosystems; suitability assessments; overview of the principles underlying wildlife monitoring and prediction systems for climate change adaptation. Practicals will include field data collection (individual and group); ecological data analysis using R or PAST; modelling and experiencing the behaviour of complex systems using Vensim.

Module 4.4 Natural habitat restoration ideation lab
This module is designed to spur students’ innovation and creativity, and to help students comprehensively identify interdependencies across the 17 SDG goals. Participants will be trained on ideation processes for solutions and intervention for transformative natural resource management. They will work collaboratively in small groups on case studies and develop pathways of transformative sustainable natural resource management. Examples of projects include forest (mangrove) ecosystem and habitat restoration, improved technologies for agricultural production, nature-based solutions for improving water quality, and reversing land degradation.

Language: The course will be delivered in English. Participants are expected to be fluent in writing and speaking the English language.

How to apply

Applicants are kindly requested to fill in the application form available from https://snrmafrica.com/ and submit the following documents in English through the system.

  • a curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
  • a letter of motivation (maximum 1 page)
  • a confirmation of university enrolment
  • a reference letter from the academic supervisor
  • project summary of MSc/ PhD project (1 page including objectives, methodology
    and key findings or expected outcomes).

Important dates
Application deadline: 30th June 2025.
Announcement of accepted applicants: 15th August 2025.
Confirmation of attendance by selected participants: 12th Sept 2025.
Summer school held: 16 – 28 Nov 2025.

Further information is available from

The secretariat info@snrmafrica.com
Dr Lydia Olaka lydiaolaka@tukenya.ac.ke
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stuetzel stuetzel@gem.uni-hannover.de

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