“Thanks so much for what you are doing for the MoMoKla. I loved it when i saw presentations together with hot Q & A. After this, I interacted with some delegates and they were [of the opinion that] if MoMokla had come earlier on, Uganda could be a different country…tremendous change in Technology  with the use mobile phones which  most Ugandans can [more easily] afford than buying a laptop or desktop PC which is  expensive. Such comments lifted me and in my heart [I would] like to say thanks to [the] team for making MoMoKla now stand in Uganda.”

“It was a great meeting, same as usual. The Mobile Monday Kampala is growing very fast… It spreads very fast among both technology lovers and those people who are not interested on technology.”

“Great job bringing the event together last night – we had a very strong group of speakers with really interesting results and discussion topics to present, and what was especially impressive was all the representation in the audience from MHealth project implementers, medical professionals, Ministry people, people working at community level with genuine interest in the challenges/benefits of incorporating technology with their work, people with commitment to gender-equity in technology – the crowd brought just as much to the event as the speakers, I thought. Congratulations.” 

I think that those comments sum up pretty well what I and colleagues have heard from many of you. We thank the Minister of Health for Primary Health Care, Hon James Kakooza for his opening remarks, constructive comments and promise of support by his ministry for MoMoKla and M Health initiatives.  We thank the Chair, Mr John Nagenda and Moderator, Mr Michael Niyitegeka, for their masterful management the meeting, and speakers, UNICEF’s Sean Blaschke, Makerere Faculty of Computing’s Laiton Namutebi, Malaria Consortium’s Nayantara Wijayanandana, FIND’s David Gelvin and Text To Change’s Hajo van Beijma, for their insightful and provocative, often passionate, presentations.  We would also like UNICEF for hosting the event and their team, led by Terra Weikel and Sean Blaschke in providing excellent organizational support.  We would also like to thank SMS Media for their continued support in providing the Reception Team, led by Edward Kasalirwe.  Heartfelt thanks to Dr Ashis Brahma for taking the lead in coming to the fore to announe the formation of the Mobile Health Uganda SIG (Special Interest Group), and to UNICEF’s Country Representative, Dr Sharad Sapra, who offered that UNICEF would host the SIG’s monthly meetings.  Thanks to Esther Nakazzi and others of you who tweeted and blogged.

The comments really say it all, that it is the active participation by you MoMo delegates, including of course the speakers, that makes each of our meetings so sizzling hot, contributions with lively debate, intense Question and Answers sessions, constructive criticisms, timely proposals for topical problem solving, and further discussions, such that we somehow always end up – how shall I say it? May I say that we are perhaps not so sure of ourselves as we were when we entered the meeting?  I would opine that that is probably quite a healthy predicament to find one’s self in.  And yet we are energized, on a high, if you will, challenged by another, sometimes scary, glimpse of what a tremendous amount of work is yet to be done, but with a renewed vigour for tackling issues raised during our meeting. Who could ask for more?  Please let us hear your comments.

The first Mobile Health Uganda SIG is scheduled for 21st June.  Be sure to check the MoMoKla.ug website for news and updates.  We expect to get Monday’s presentations up on the website shortly.  For descriptions of the presentations and
bios of speakers please see the attached copy of the programme.

Here is a link for some of the photos from Monday’s meeting:
http://picasaweb.google.com/terraw/MoMoKlaUNICEF#
And another link for the MoMoKla launch Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeYl-0bahtI

If you or your company would like to host a future MoMoKla event, or suggest a topic or theme for discussion, or propose a presentation, let us hear from you. I should tell you that some future meetings are already in the early planning stages so please get your requests in early.

With best wishes, on behalf of MobileMonday Kampala,

By Daniel Stern