UGANDA: Poverty, Hunger Looms as Uganda’s Lockdown Continues

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Relief food distribution at Hope Center Uganda Office in Gulu Municipality.

GULU –UGANDA: As Uganda’s lockdown in controlling the spread of COVID -19 continues, poverty and hunger looms on locals who used to survive from hand to mouth, a  majority being widows, people living with HIV/Aids disable, and single mothers who used to rely on petty business.

What scares these people most are not the news they hear on the infection rate of the virus or the number of fatalities, but the fact that they may sleep hungry, since food, money and other essentials have become very scarce.

Gulu district COVID -19 Taskforce is overwhelmed with the number of poverty and hunger stricken locals who from time to time storm the district headquarter begging for food aid of which in most cases, they don’t get.

I took trouble and moved around to see the impact of the lockdown on the local community whose livelihoods have been interfered with.

Kasubi Central Sub –Ward, Bardege Division in Gulu Municipality is a unique area among many. It harbours many categories of people including South Sudanese nationals, secondary school students trapped in hostels, commercial sex workers and casual labourers to mention but a few.

Unlike back then, when they would wake up in the morning and begin planning on what to do to earn some money, today it’s a different thing all together. They now wake up and sit to wait for what the day may give them.

68 year old Santa Akongo, a resident of Kasubi Central Sub –Ward, Bardege Division in Gulu Municipality is a widow who looks after six children. She reveals that her household now survives on porridge which they eat once a day after food became very scarce.

Akongo says on a good day, she brews waragi, a local potent gin, and use the money to buy cassava and firewood. “I am living a hard life not like in those days before the pandemic ripped us off our livelihoods.” She disclosed

“Those days I had planted some cassava at the airfield to feed my family but now I brew waragi once in a while and use the money to buy some essentials and food to feed my family. I pray that God yields our land so that our lives go back to normal.” Akongo cries out

Okello Prosy aged 64, another elderly woman who is the Director of Acholi Youth Traditional Dancers, a dance group that brings together over 40 youths, equally shares her plight saying the dance group that has existed for ten years is in a brink of collapse as there are no more gigs following the lockdown.

Okello revealed that they used to earn between UGX 200,000 to 400,000 every weekend out of their performances of which the money is distributed among members, but it is no more and the members are now suffering from hunger and poverty.

“The dancers now have nothing to eat in their homes because their only livelihood has been paralyzed following the outbreak of the pandemic. We are crying out to good Samaritans to help us with relief items to save us from hunger.” Okello appeals

The 40 youths that make up Acholi Youth Traditional dancers comprise of child mothers, former street children, single mothers and causal labourers. Majority of these dancers now feed at their director’s home in Kasubi Central in Gulu Municipality.

Christine Anena, aged 30 a single mother of three, is a member of the dance group. She told me that poverty coupled with hunger forced her to walk 60 kilometres on foot from Gulu town to Palaro to plough her garden with the hope of getting some yields after three months.

Anena also revealed that her landlord is soon throwing her out of the house since she has not paid her rent for the past two months. She now wants any form of support to bail her out of the situation.

Pauline Ayore, the Village Chairperson of Kasubi Central, says her community has never received any donation despite the fact that it harbours different categories of people like South Sudanese and Congolese refugees.

She revealed that her office registered four cases of people defaulting on paying rent, two cases of gender based violence and countless cases of theft, all attributed to the lockdown that crippled people’s livelihoods.

Although the efforts of the local community to solicit food aid from Gulu District COVID -19 Taskforce have hit a snag, a number of Non –Governmental Organizations –NGOs have come out to help.

Among them is Hope Center Uganda that has so far supported over 50 households with food aid like beans and maize flour.

Kevin Anena Okumu, the Program Director of Hope Center Uganda which is a charity organization established in 2015 revealed that she is forced to change the course of the project to donating food items to the vulnerable after her neighbours picked up a fight in the middle of the night.

“I was heartbroken at one point when one of my neighbours was chased away with her two children by her husband in the middle of the night reason being her husband was not providing for the family, a misunderstanding that led to a fight.” Anena reveals

“I called some of our clients in different Sub –Counties and found out that they were also going through hell. You find the mother seated watching at her husband and the husband too seated watching at the wife and the children at the end of the day there are blames everywhere which ends into fights.” She went on

According to Anen, knowing that hunger is the main reason as to why there are many Gender Based Violence in the community, Hope Center Uganda resolved to begin donating food items to the vulnerable community members after fundraising from Good Samaritan abroad.

“They were able to donate money and we identified the vulnerable before we started the food distribution with the help of the Gulu District COVID -19 Taskforce.” Anena points out

Up to date, Hope Center Uganda has so far donated food items to over 200 vulnerable locals including child mothers and widows. Their target is to donate to 1,000 locals who have been greatly affected by the lockdown.

As of Friday 15th May 2020, Uganda has registered 160 cases of COVID -19, majority of whom are cargo truck drivers. Out of that, a total of 55 patients recovered.

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