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World Pneumonia Day Activities in Uganda.
Though World pneumonia Day was marked worldwide on November 12th 2010, the Uganda Paediatric Association decided to have a week of activities to commemorate the day.

Flyer Distribution.
On 12th November, 2010, the UPA engaged a team of roller skaters to go around kampala in the morning and evening traffic peaks distributing flyers containing information on pneumonia. More than 1000 flyers were distributed to individual motorists that day

Free treatment to pneumonia children.
On 12th November, two prominent upscale private clinics, Ntinda Family Doctors and The Children’s Clinic Ntinda, offered free consultation and treatment to patients appearing with cough, fast breathing and fever, cardinal signs of pneumonia.

Public Dialogue.
On 15th November 2010, the Uganda Paediatric Association held a public dialogue to educate the public about pneumonia. This was held and the Indian Association Sports Grounds. About 300 persons attended, and helium balloons were released into the air at this public function.
The activity was reported in the local press.

Media Campaign.
On the same day, after lobbying, the national newspaper, The New Vision, released a feature on childhood pneumonia.

There was also a week long media campaign on 3 television networks (Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, National Broadcasting Television, and Record Television) and 4 radio stations ( Power FM, Vision Voice, Alpha Fm, and Radio one) talking about the pneumonia, and raising
awareness as a leading cause of childhood mortality.

Collaboration with My Baby Magazine.
The Uganda Paediatric Association entered a joint collaboration with My Baby Magazine, the oldest and one of the most widely circulated parenting magazine in Uganda, to launch a campaign to curb deaths due to both pneumonia and neonatal deaths through raising money to buy oxygen concentrators and incubators to be distributed to 30 district hospitals. The campaign so far has raised about USD10,000 .

The campaign, which continued up to 12th December 2010, included
•    A media campaign, with feature articles in My Baby Magazine concerning pneumonia
•    Placing 30 roadside advertising bill boards with the pneumonia message in 5 suburbs of Kampala.
•    Selling wrist bands with awareness messages to raise money for the campaign
•    Having members of the public send text messages with the word ‘baby’ to 6868

Continuous Medical Education.
On the 18th November 2010,  A continuous medical education symposium was held for nurses and doctors to inform the about the latest trends in childhood pneumonia as well as advocacy strategies. This was then followed by the launch of a pneumonia vaccine to be used in the
private sector as efforts continue to lobby to have a vaccine introduced in the public sector as part of the routine vaccination schedule. To enhance East African Regional cooperation, Professor Fred
Were, the president of the Kenya Paediatric Association was invited to give a key note on at this symposium.

On the whole, the activities went on successfully. There is growing awareness of pneumonia in among the population, and efforts are on going to consolidate these gains.