Thousands braved the morning coldness to take part in the the fourth edition of the Makerere Run, an event aimed at supporting students living with disabilities and enhancing inclusivity within the university community.
The run organized by the Makerere University Endowment Fund was flagged off by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, at the Makerere University Freedom Square.
The proceeds from this year’s run will go towards the construction of a state-of-the-art Students’ Centre and Disability Support Unit at Makerere University
Flagging off the runners, Tayebwa lauded Makerere for the efforts made towards being an inclusive University. The Deputy Speaker also launched the the Makerere University Disability Support Unit. This is a centralized service Unit that mainstreams the seamless integration of students with disabilities into the University teaching and learning environment.
Barnabas Nawangwe, Makerere University Vice Chancellor said the Support Center is crucial for students living with disability. “We have got quite a number of students with various categories of disability, and we, of course, have been supporting them in the best way we can. But this run has been organized in order to raise money to improve the services that we offer to them.”
Nawangwe noted that they are establishing a one stop center where students with disability who have got any issues that they want to resolve, can just walk in and get served.
“There will be people there to help them. They do not have to go around many offices looking for any kind of support. Therefore this particular run has been organized in order to support this cause,” he said.
Maggie Kigozi the chairperson of the Makerere University Endowment Fund, said proceeds from the run will go towards supporting students living with disability.
“ They are very special, You know! Others can see, hear well, others have no legs, others have no hands. So everybody is differently abled, so they really need support. Otherwise, they cannot compete against the regular students, and we want them to be able to do that. So we are raising funds.”
She noted that in the future they are looking at a bigger unit and one stop center with a decentralized system across the university.