President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni met and held discussions with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Mr. Thomas Bach at State House Entebbe.
During the meeting that was also attended by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni, the President welcomed Mr. Bach and his delegation to Uganda.
He expressed gratitude to the IOC for its initiative in involving the refugee community in sports through the Refugee Olympic Team. The team is a group which is made up of independent Olympic participants who are refugees.
“I’m very happy with this initiative. I thank you for supporting that Olympic team. I’m very happy about how you have linked the refugees with sports.
This is a good innovation. I had not heard about it but for sure it will help to empower talented refugees to excel,” he said.
President Museveni also informed Mr. Bach that Uganda is doing well when it comes to athletics because of the favourable training factors.
“I invite other athletes from other countries to come and train from Uganda. We have built a higher altitude training Centre that could help them to learn how to economise oxygen,” he urged.
On the other hand, the President informed his guests that Uganda fully welcomes and supports refugees into the country.
He explained that Uganda decided to put up a favourable refugee policy due to its right philosophy and ideology.
“Currently, we don’t have any Ugandan who is a refugee. We have a very big diaspora; people who had run away because of insecurity in the past but now when Uganda stabilised, they are now outside the country and they send us a little bit of money in form of remittances. That is how we were able to reverse a situation here,” President Museveni said.
“Actually, we don’t have any problem with refugees, when they come, we give them security and we don’t also insist on putting them in the refugee camps. If they can move out and do business, it’s okay. If you go to town here, it’s full of people from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Congo. This is part of our ideology,” he added.
He however appealed to the international bodies that support refugees to offer more support to Uganda so that it can effectively look after them.
“The only problem we have is logistics; like the food and schools because they bring in extra needs. You had built a school of 1,000 people and now they are 4,000, so you must handle that effect,” he stated.
On her part, Maama Janet said they were very happy to receive the IOC Delegation to Uganda.
“Uganda is one of the five countries that you are visiting, we believe that this a testament to the progress our nation has made in advancing sports development and promoting the Olympic movement,” she said.
“Ever since Uganda became a member of the IOC, in 1954, we have strived to uphold the values and principles of the Olympic movement, fostering sports as a tool for unity, development and peace.”
Maama Janet added that over the years Uganda has progressed in enhancing their performance, citing an example of Uganda’s Olympic team that has made tremendous progress in international games.
“Our young people have been raising our flag very high.”
She also commended the IOC for the program it’s doing in the refugee community, saying that it’s empowering the refugees.
Mr. Bach informed the President that the Refugee Olympic team is a symbol of hope for all refugees in the world that aims at raising global awareness of the scale of the migrant crisis in the world.
The meeting was also attended by the President of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) Dr. Mustapha Berraf.