The Monitor (Kampala)
Harriet Anena
26 June 2009
Kitgum — Close to seven years have hastily gone by, since some of the earliest displaced persons at Amida Camp in Kitgum District begun returning to their original villages.
But in Anyuka village, one of the areas where former internally displaced persons have now settled, silence welcomes you as you enter the scattered homesteads.
The occasional sound of dogs barking, cows mooing and cocks crowing is heard. The atmosphere is serene and lifeless.
But beneath that calmness lies the silent challenge of starting a new life at home.
Francis Ocaya, 39, left Amida Camp for Anyuka village with high hopes of making money out of cattle keeping. His dreams soon faded away because he does not have enough money to buy medicine for spraying and treating his animals.
"I have lost four cattle due to disease because I cannot afford the medicine required for treating them," Ocaya explains.
Other than disease attacks, the cattle are feeling the pinch of water scarcity. In Anyuka village, one well is shared by both locals and their animals. And according to Ocaya, this has resulted into increased cases of diarrhoea and dysentery among residents.
"We have only one well in this village which is one mile away," adds Ocaya.
The dry spell currently being experienced has withered the crops.
"I was expecting to harvest four sacks of groundnuts and simsim from my two gardens but the insufficient rain will make that impossible," said Samuel Olak from Amida Sub-county.
Christine Aber, 28, is in a farming group with five other women.
Their one acre of simsim was also destroyed by the sun. "I have fears that my family will starve because our crops are all drying up in the garden," Aber says.
"Government should supply us food for three months so that we can adjust to life at home," Aber adds.
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