UGANDAN, MOBINA JAFFER, SHINES IN CANADA

March 15, 2003 – (New Vision-Kampala) Mobina Jaffer is a Ugandan-born Asian lady working as a senator in British Columbia in Canada. She fled Uganda in 1975 during Idi Amin's regime.

Patrick Luganda writes that she is an accomplished lawyer and special Canadian peace envoy to Sudan. She has also won several prestigious appointments in successive Canadian governments.If my grandfather Hajji Kasule was still alive, he would have brought a brass band to escort me from Entebbe airport to Kampala.

It would have been a hilarious welcome. I am a Ugandan by birth and deep in my heart I will always be a Ugandan," says Kasule's granddaughter in Canada.

Her smile is infectious. She smiles and you smile. Her father was the son of the late Hajji Musa Kasule, who owned several buildings in Wandegeya and many busses in Kampala. She lights up as she tells of her loving grandfather.

"He was very wealthy. He was a great man and very developmental. He would bring matooke and meat. I am sure that is what he would have wished me to eat today," says Mobina Jaffer.

Like her grandfather and father, she is a Muslim. However, her complexion is so light she passes for a white Canadian.

Then her hair is not curly like the Kasules of the Ngeye clan. It is like a European's hair.

"My father is Asian. Hajji Musa Kasule adopted my father when he was a boy. Since then, our families have been very close. I have fond memories of Kasule. He even came to Canada to visit us in the eighties with his wife," says Jaffer.

She is a citizen of Canada but cannot let go of her Ugandan roots: "I would take up dual citizenship if Uganda allowed it. Although I am a Canadian I am first and foremost a Ugandan at heart.

My sisters and brothers are here. I feel bad to hear of the suffering of my people in northern Uganda. My sisters and their children being abducted makes me sad," she says with sorrow.

She strongly believes achieving peace in Sudan will be the beginning of peace spreading throughout the region. Senator Mobina Jaffer, recently appointed by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien as the new special envoy for Sudan, wears a smile regularly, yet the task ahead of her is momentous.

"The suffering in southern Sudan is tremendous. It is unacceptable that after 40 years these people continue to suffer from the violence. I have travelled extensively and seen the people in the camps. I have never seen such levels of poverty. There were over 500 patients at the world's biggest field hospital at Lokichokyo in northern Kenya," says Jaffer.

I have seen hundreds of patients with missing limbs writing in agony. Although the people were not at the edge of starvation, they
had no roads, schools or health centres and lacked a semblance of civil administration. The sick and injured had to travel to the Red Cross field hospital in Kenya."

Her strategy to contribute to the peace process is to listen to all sides of the conflict. She has met Sudan's president Bashir, top government officials in Khartoum and rebel leaders in Southern Sudan. She has also met Sudanese refugees and exiles in Canada and other countries.

Her belief is that all the parties agreed on lasting peace. "I think there was a real breakthrough in the Machakos peace process in Kenya. I have not met a single voice that is not in for peace. Also, the international community is putting lots of pressure to ensure there is peace in Sudan," she says.

Her arrival in Uganda is part of her fact-finding mission. She will meet President Yoweri Museveni and share her views on the peace process in the region.

"We want real peace in Sudan. I believe it is the desire of President Museveni to bring peace in Sudan and northern Uganda. I want to learn how he views the Southern Sudan situation. I would want to know what Uganda is doing," says Jaffer. Mobina Jaffer, the senator for British Columbia, is passionate about relieving people of Sudan from suffering.

"It is important that we assess what contributions we can make after the war has ended.

Already Canada is providing resources to enable the conflicting parties to sit down and discuss. Other countries are also making their contributions. The United States is providing monitoring teams," says Jaffer.

Hearing her speak and knowing her high profile position in Canada makes one think she has been Canadian all her life.

She fled Uganda in 1975, no longer able to stand the unstable state of the country of her birth.

Tears rolled down her face as she left the country she had known as home for 22 years. Her two-year-old son and her husband were her worldly companions.

Once she gained refugee status in Canada, it was difficult for her to forget their plight.

Jaffer was born in Nsambya hospital in 1951.

"We as a family are very proud of the strides that Mobina has achieved since we left. She has risen to great heights and it really gives us pride as a family. It is a pride for Uganda," says her father Sherali Bandali Jaffer.

Sherali Jaffer, who has business interests in Uganda and Canada, owns Fairway Hotel off Yusuf Lule road. He lives part of the year in Uganda and the other half in West Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.

An accomplished lawyer, Mobina has won several prestigious appointments in successive Canadian governments.

It has been a long-steady climb to success. After earning her first law degree from London University in 1972, she went for an executive development programme at Simon Fraser University.

Since 1978, Jaffer has been a practising barrister and solicitor in British Columbia with Thomas Dohm.

The partnership has expanded to include baby Azool who is following in the mother's footsteps.

The law firm is now Dohm, Jaffer and Jeraj. Jaffer's daughter Farzana is a model in Toronto.

Jaffer was made Queen's Counsel in February 1998. Her popularity in the law profession is fast growing.

She has worked with refugees.

From 1994 Mobina has been working with the Immigration and Refugee board on gender and race issues. That is perhaps what makes her present appointment as Canadian peace envoy to Sudan very relevant.

"I have been involved in bettering the quality of life of the disadvantaged and the minority. These categories have less access to rights and welfare services," says Jaffer.

She is proud to have got fine education from the Aga Khan schools and the Uganda education system.

"I am lucky I had such a good education. I am also lucky to have a very supportive husband," says a smiling Jaffer.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200303180530.html