A local NGO Uganda Alcohol Policy Alliance has asked the government to ban companies dealing in alcohol from participating in school-related activities or sponsoring events targeting school-going children.
Juliet Namukasa, the Chairperson of the Alliance told URN in an interview that they are seeing a trend of alcohol companies getting involved in campaigns against drinking, sponsoring sporting events and offering scholarships which breeds a wrong impression among children that drinking is acceptable.
While most alcohol branding in Uganda bares warnings that drinking is not authorized for anyone below 18 years, she says rehabilitation centres are admitting children as young as 15 already who are developing addiction problems and worries that continuous exposure through adverts and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could only be worsening the situation.
Namukasa was speaking shortly after Olivier van Beemen, a Dutch journalist and author of the book Heineken in Africa addressed a press conference on Tuesday on his findings while investigating operations of the Amsterdam-based beer company in Africa.
He said that while doing his interviews which involved 400 individuals including company workers, policymakers and communities in 13 African countries, he found that Heineken had launched a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) campaign against alcohol consumption in Rwanda but was indirectly promoting the brand to learners.
Although he doesn’t share any statistics, Beemen says he found Africa a very profitable continent for alcohol. He said that in some countries like Nigeria foreign beers such as Heineken operate under local brands to attract drinkers to embrace the beer as their own. Also, he mentions that in Nigeria, the company corrupted legislators when drafting the alcohol policy to come up with lenient regulations.
Namukasa says that this story is relatable for Uganda, considering the struggles advocates against alcohol have had fighting alcohol companies from participating in regulations formulation.
The country has an alcohol policy in place having been approved in 2019 and now activists are pushing for the alcohol control bill to be passed into law.
For now, Namukasa says the biggest challenge they face is that policymakers treat alcoholism as a behavioural problem which can be handled at an individual level without paying attention to the environment that makes these products very accessible even to children.
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