The World Has Changed So Much, Yet So Little, Since the 1972 Ugandan Refugee Crisis

By Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL, Founder and Chairman of Morningside Pharmaceuticals 

One hopes that the mistakes of the past are learned from and our history’s darkest moments are never repeated again.

Sadly, the War in Ukraine and recent conflicts in the Middle East and East Africa have once more led to millions of people becoming displaced and refugees, through no fault of their own.

As a child refugee myself during the 1972 Reign of Terror of then Dictator of Uganda, Idi Amin; I can still vividly remember the panic in my parents’ eyes as the country’s Asian minority were given just 90 days to flee, or suffer the most terrible of consequences.

As we mark the 50^th anniversary of the Expulsion of the Ugandan Asians, I can’t help but see parallels with the dreadful scenes of Ukrainian families clutching but a handful of belongings as they escape their homeland, but at a terrible cost.

My family found themselves in a similar situation, having fled Uganda for the United Kingdom; we established a new home in a temporarily refugee camp just outside of London.

We left with just two suitcases, which were all we could carry. Everything else – all of our worldly possessions – including our house, car and sentimental family heirlooms, were left behind to be pawed over as spoils of victory by Amin’s terrible regime.

So I know what it feels like to be homeless and I know what it feels like to go hungry, which is something no child should ever have to experience.

Despite my sadness at the wretched scenes coming out of Ukraine, there still is hope, and it is hope that often guides us through our darkest of times.

During my family’s struggles we were bowled over by the kindness of the British people and the UK Government who re-housed us in Leicester, which would become home to more than 40,000 displaced East African Asians by the late 1970s.

We were also immensely grateful for the help we received from the International Red Cross and other Aid organizations, which played a pivotal role in ensuring that our family were able to stay together during the chaos of August 1972.

Throughout my childhood, my parents forged a living where they could, and although our lives were very humble, we felt immense gratitude for the safety and services, such as good schools and education, provided by the state.

Looking back, it’s very much the case that the new arrivals have helped deliver economic and cultural prosperity to Leicester and other towns and cities where they settled.

Five decades on and Leicester is seen as the architype for how places can flourish by nurturing and celebrating diversity, ethnicity and inclusivity. This is vividly illustrated every year when the annual Diwali Celebrations are now heralded as the largest outside of India. They take place along the so-called Golden Mile, which ironically was the epicentre of the former slum districts of Leicester, where many Ugandan Asian families would settle.

The Ugandan Asians were a harmonious mixture of faiths and came to the UK already aware of English customs. They also came here highly educated and skilled, with good community connections, which would give rise to a new generation of successful entrepreneurs.

For my part, I was forever changed that fateful year when my family lost everything, but thankfully we still had each other. The lessons I learnt as a young child have stayed with me always and were central to the founding mission for my company Morningside Pharmaceuticals, which is “making quality healthcare an affordable and accessible reality throughout the world.”

More recently my charitable foundation, the Randal Charitable Foundation, has been able to directly save and significantly improve hundreds of thousands of lives through its work in the UK and globally, many of which have been people who find themselves in severe life-threating hardship through no fault of their own.

Despite the depressing parallels with the 1972 Ugandan Refugee Crisis and the current war in Ukraine, there have also been many heart-warming moments. The humanitarian response from global governments and the more than 150,000 UK households that expressed an interest in hosting a Ukrainian family, being just two that stand out.

My hope is now that the more than 8 million Ukrainian refugees and estimated 25 million who have been displaced, continue to receive the same support, which enabled the Ugandan Asians to thrive and give so much back, against all odds.

My head tells me this won’t be the last refugee crisis, and my heart tell me the UK and its people will stand ready to help if and when they’re needed.

Leicestershire County Cricket Club has partnered with Morningside Pharmaceuticals to help charities and good causes showcase their work during games, as part of a new sponsorship agreement.

Morningside continued as an Official Partner for the 2022 campaign, and has secured exclusive naming rights to the Club’s outdoor functions’ facility, which will now be known as the ‘Morningside Marquee’.

The marquee, which was introduced by LCCC last summer at the Upton Steel County Ground, in Grace Road, will host organisations and community groups during County Championship games to help with their fundraising and awareness activities, while also offering a platform to network.

Such events included the opening of the Club’s memorial garden with the Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, while the Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff of Leicester hosted a chosen charity, Healing Little Hearts, at the venue.

Pic caption: The South African Women’s Cricket Team pictured outside of the Morningside Marquee at Leicestershire County Cricket Club’s Grace Road Ground, before their match against England.

The 2022 partnership will be part of a dual naming rights agreement for Morningside, which will continue as sponsor of the Morningside Medical Centre, the Club’s on-site treatment facility.

Morningside has sponsored the medical centre since 2016. It provides an open-plan treatment space and an adjoining trauma room for players, featuring state-of-the-art match preparation and rehabilitation support, while also doubling as a crowd medical facility for use by St John’s Ambulance during match days.

Hundreds of junior cricketers aged between 10 and 18 will also continue be invited to the Morningside Medical Centre to receive further education on sports science and medicine.

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL, former Chairman of Morningside Pharmaceuticals, said: “We’re delighted to be able to enhance our partnership with Leicestershire County Cricket Club by sponsoring the Morningside Marquee, which will provide a valuable space for local good causes to showcase their work and fundraise.

“At Morningside, we’re keen to support community projects which promote the benefits of healthy living, sport and team work, as well as giving back to the communities they serve. The cricket club is doing some great work to promote all of these endeavours, which is why we have decided to grow our partnership with the club this year.”

Tracey Branson, Leicestershire CCC Commercial Manager, said: “We are delighted to continue our long-running partnership with Morningside. To have our Marquee now known as the Morningside Marquee is fantastic and I look forward to working with them throughout the season.”

By Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL, Chairman of Morningside Pharmaceuticals 

“The Covid-19 pandemic led to many healthcare systems in both the western world and lower-middle income countries being completely over-whelmed.

Tragically, the coronavirus did not discriminate between political borders, but what did differ immensely was the response from individual nations.

The UK created the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca jab, which was heralded as a vaccine for the world, and has so far seen 2.5 billion doses distributed at-cost to 170 countries, globally. Almost two-thirds of these have gone to lower-middle-income countries, including more than 30 million doses donated by the UK through COVAX or bilaterally.

This breakthrough and the ability to manufacture on home soil, led to the UK being one of the first nations to emerge from the harsh pandemic lockdowns and draconian restrictions on freedoms, which still dog some parts of the world.

But where perhaps every country did align, was the national focus on investment in their healthcare systems, as well as medicine supply chains, in order to fight the surge in infections and to treat sick patients.

It is this cross-border effort between nations and the national focus on healthcare investment, which must now continue to ensure healthcare is improved, and the supply of safe quality medicines increased, significantly, in lower-middle income countries.

This season I was honoured to speak at the UK-East Africa Health Summit, which was headline sponsored by my company Morningside Pharmaceuticals and the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The annual summit was hosted at the British Medical Association’s HQ in London, and brought together global leaders, including a number of East African government ministers, senior civil servants and high commissioners; alongside representatives from the House of Lords and senior NHS delegates.

During the event we focussed upon finding proactive solutions to improving the healthcare of African communities and strengthening private sector engagement in the region, post covid. This included promoting more collaboration between our NHS in the UK and healthcare colleagues from East Africa.

I have been doing business in lower-middle income countries for almost 30 years and in that time my company has supplied cost effective, quality medicines directly to African countries by working with the Private sector, Ministries of Health, and through large aid agencies such as UNICEF, The World Health Organisation (WHO), MSF and the Red Cross.

During this time I have seen areas where private sector investment can establish and build sustainable processes and healthcare systems in Africa. Firstly, there are great opportunities to set-up local manufacturing facilities in Africa to ensure the supply of cost effective quality medicines is improved and maintained. This is starting to happen, but still most of Sub-Saharan Africa’s pharmaceutical imports comprise of as much as 70% to 90% of all drugs consumed.

This comes with its own challenges, as the supply chain is fragmented and often has an excessive number of intermediaries between the facility where the medicine is manufactured and the dispensing outlet.

Counterfeit, or ‘fake’ medicine is also a huge problem. It’s estimated that fake anti-malarials contributed to 116,000 additional deaths a year from Malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. While governments need to do more to stop these medicines coming into the system, the private sector has an opportunity to invest in innovations, such as 2D barcoding and tamper evident packaging.

Supply chain resilience offers another investment opportunity to western businesses. Quality medicines require secure transportation and a temperature controlled environment. There is a great opportunity for UK businesses to invest in the infrastructure around the whole supply chain of medicines, as inadequate transportation and storage will lower the quality of the products.

One African healthcare issue that is also a concern to the West is antibiotic resistance, which includes finding new ways to fight drug-resistant super-bugs. Many African communities are still using the older antibiotics. These antibiotics are used less in established economies because newer antibiotics have been introduced. Resistance is a big problem mainly because there has been so much over prescribing of antibiotics. Not enough Research and Development is taking place to allow us to come up with new molecules.

Some of the newer drugs work better than the older ones. But that’s the nature of these types of medicines, there will always be resistance of some sort when trying to treat these diseases. It means you need investment in new molecules and medicines to take place, which is where private sector businesses have the answers and will play a pivotal role.

One of the ways to address this is to significantly increase spending on Research & Development (R&D), which the BMJ reports only accounts for 1.1% of global investments in Africa, despite the continent being home to 15% of the world’s population. Another way to illustrate this disparity is to show that there are only 375 drug manufacturers in Africa that serve 1.1 billion people. Whereas in India, there are 10,000 serving 1.4bn and China around 5,000 serving about 1.4bn people.

Africa has a highly intelligent and skilled population, but significant investment is needed from the international private sector to help mentor, guide and train medical professionals to fully utilise their skills. This is why a summit of this kind is so important. An outcome will hopefully be that skills and expertise that we have in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) will be provided to our African colleagues, and we are also learning from some of the great work that’s happening in Africa. Nursing was a particular focus of the summit, with health and political leaders looking at ways to help our African partners reach their full potential.

I hope to see some collaborations where we can send NHS nurses and doctors out into Africa to help with techniques and knowledge bases there, as well as invite people from East Africa here for training.

It’s clear there are no easy answers to some of the healthcare challenges faced by the African nations and other lower-middle income countries.

But if politicians, healthcare professionals, Aid agencies and business leaders can work more closely together, then we stand a great chance of making significant progress.

The opportunities are out there, now let’s work together to ensure everyone has access to essential healthcare, no matter where they live in the world.”