Staying Alive into 2018

Uganda Cancer Institute | December, 2017

With financial support of an Engaged Anthropology Grant from the American Wenner-Gren foundation“Staying Alive”, the seventh book in the Ebifananyi series was launched in Kampala earlier this year. Simultaneously two exhibitions were held. Book and exhibitions present some of the outcomes of a years long research by Marissa Mika on the history of the institute. My investigations on its visualisation was based on historical materials Marissa had come across.

Marissa and I do not only look back but also into the future. We hope to continue to explore how to positively contribute to the visibility of cancer treatment and research in Uganda. For now this ambition was translated into a desktop calendar that is exclusively available to all the UCI staff members. The calendar takes its users through 2018, but also serves as a small photo exhibition with reminders of past moments from the institute.

To share the content of the calendar beyond the UCI staff members, the different pages of the calendar were photographed on some of the desks it will live on during the year that is yet to start. Each of these desks can be found in one of the buildings on Mulago Hill in which cancer patients are treated or from which this treatment is facilitated. The calendar was initially distributed amongst staff members during the Institute’s end of year party.