UK NGO Employees Narrowly Escape Tragedy in Building Collapse in Uganda

UK-based charity Teach A Man To Fish Releases Statement After Tragic Collapse of a Building in the Capital, Kampala

A building on the 3rd floor of Kyaseka Plaza on Makerere Hill Road in Kampala has collapsed leaving 4 dead according to the latest count. At about 11.30am yesterday morning the staff of UK-based charity Teach A Man To Fish were alerted by employees from a neighbouring office about a large crack that had developed in the wall of the corridor and another in the public bathroom. Staff were then advised to leave by the management and began moving out around midday. At 2.07pm, the building began to collapse.

All of the Teach A Man To Fish staff had moved to a safe distance by then. Unfortunately, there were still several workers and other people trapped inside at the time of collapse. The authorities have put the death toll at 4 so far. James Love, Africa Regional Co-ordinator for the UK-Based charity was informed by a colleague at around 3pm and soon after phone calls began flooding in. “I called around the team to confirm everyone's whereabouts and safety and coordinated our response. I passed by the building or what was left of it at around 6pm. All three storeys of the building had completely collapsed into the basement. Nothing left but rubble."

There was an on-going rescue operation with the Red Cross and heavy excavation equipment with some people being rescued overnight.

Love continued to say, “We are deeply shocked by the events of yesterday but also thankful that none of our staff were injured. Our hearts go out to those families who

lost loved ones in the tragic events. We hope that the authorities will hold those responsible to account, including the engineers who constructed the building and the management who rented out an unsafe premises to organisations such as ours. We would also encourage the authorities to put in place measures to avoid such tragedies happening in future. As Teach A Man To Fish, we will be working to pick up the pieces over the next few days and start putting back together a strong base for our work supporting young people in Uganda."

Teach A Man To Fish is an organisation that tackles global poverty through entrepreneurship programmes with young people in schools around the world.

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Contact Details: Nick Monro – dikson@teachamantofish.org.uk