Uganda: Red Cross to Support 10,000 in Karamoja
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The Monitor (Kampala)
29 September 2008
Posted to the web 29 September 2008
Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa
Over 10,000 Karimojong will benefit from a new programme by Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS). Under the programme each household in Apeitolim, Lomaratoit and Nabwal resettlement camps will get farm implements and relief items to enable them start producing their own food.
Launching the relief operation that started with the distribution of relief items in Karamoja last Week, URCS vice chairman Robert Ssebunya said the exercise was part of a wider plan to alleviate the suffering of the Karimojong.
"We have not come to Karamoja for one month. We have come here to stay and we need your full support," Mr Ssebunya said while addressing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Apeitolim Camp in Lokopo Sub-county.
"Our target is to see you learn how to produce your own food and reduce the over-dependence on handouts. We know it is a hard task but it is good that we have laid the ground," he said. An assortment of relief items including blankets, saucepans, plates and cups were distributed to IDPs in Apeitolim and Nabwal camps.
Cattle rustlers and famine drove many inhabitants of the three camps away from their homes in January 2007. It is estimated that over 700,000 people in the region are starving and in dire need of food. There has been crop failure for two consecutive years in Karamoja and communities entirely depend on food supplies from humanitarian organisations.
Relevant Links
According to a recent report entitled Famine in Karamoja, Poverty and Hunger in the region have increased mental illnesses and suicide.
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