11. 8. Statement: Wales for Africa

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:18 pm on 22 November 2016.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 6:18, 22 November 2016

I thank Darren Millar for his positive and constructive comments about this programme. Of course, I do recall the aftermath of one of his visits to South Africa, when he returned with a notable injury. I think many of us enjoyed the sight of him with his leg in the air in a wheelchair rather more than he did. But you’re right, in particular—to take your first broad point about the role of faith and faith communities—lots of the people whom we met and saw were driven by their faith to do the right thing. That includes people who go out as volunteers, as well as people who are local leaders on the ground. In fact, our key contact in the Mbale Coalition Against Poverty, pastor Apollo Mwenyi—a lot of his status and standing comes from the fact that he is a pastor and lots of people recognise him. In lots of the areas we went to, the local pastor was a key person in keeping people honest and keeping people going and actually drawing together different people. So, I’m happy to recognise the significant role of faith communities. In particular, in the Namatala slum—the main slum that I referred to—the Child of Hope school is driven by a coalition and a coalescence of faith communities within this country working alongside faith communities in Uganda to actually deliver something in a really terrible part of the world where children really are left to really significant and truly appalling risks.

On your point about the Welsh diaspora, actually I met with the Welsh diaspora in the leaving event that the High Commissioner hosted. We met members of the Welsh diaspora in Uganda, some of them more recent arrivals than others, but there were some really useful conversations about what we can do to further improve the programme. So, it is something that we do actually think about with all of our different engagements. I'm not sure whether meeting me was of more interest than the fact that the High Commissioner invited them for a free drink, but who knows. But, yes, it's definitely something that we want to take advantage of in the future.

The final point you make, about the link between health boards, I'm happy to recognise, because every health board has a link with a part of Africa that is aided and assisted by this particular programme. So, many of them actually do focus on maternal care as well, because there are real risks in the rates of mortality for both mothers and babies, and there’s a really significant job that we can do to help them do that, and to work alongside people when we get there. But there are challenges about how that programme and exchange of knowledge works, because, unfortunately, we are running up against some visa problems with visitors from different parts of Africa to come and work in our healthcare system. I note that Betsi had a real issue recently. We're in correspondence with the Department of Health and the Home Office to try and understand how we work through that, because I think the exchange of knowledge has to go both ways—about people from NHS Wales, who are tremendously positive and motivated about their experience, as well as providing some of that professional interchange and knowledge to go back to staff who will then return to their own country as well.