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| The Karamojongs live in small circular villages – so-called manjatas – fenced mainly by thornbushes. Traditionally, the cattle are kept in the innermost and safest space in the circle. |
Karamoja in the northeastern Uganda is a racked region.
A ten-hour jolting drive from the capital and far away from the neighbouring region’s fertile soil the traditional nomads are living in small communities on a bone-dry, flat plain.
People in this region are poorer than people in the rest of Uganda and they experience hunger more regularly. In this region fewer children go to school than in other regions.
Therefore, in Karamoja the level of education is much lower and the number of illiterate much higher. For decades, conflicts between nomad tribes and violent harassment committed by Idi Amin’s soldiers and Lord’s Resistance Army have repeatedly kept the population on their knees.
Growing number of droughts
Now the Karamojongs have got one more problem: climate changes.
Before, the people knew the rainfall pattern, but now nobody knows what to expect of the weather.
Before, the men could follow the cattle, the livelihood of the families, to the green areas that had benefitted from the rains and could offer grazing for the animals. And the women could plan the planting and sowing according to the rain, just like Danish farmers do according to the seasons.
But those times are history. Today it rains when it rains, unpredictably.
Some years, it is pouring down on the dry soil for up to two months at a time, washing away crops, houses and fences. It is whirling on and does not percolate into the ground to nourish the crops or penetrate to the ground water to be pumped up for drinking water later.
In other years – e.g. 2008 – it does not rain at all. This means drought from New Year to New Year.
The soil dies
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Still more years are rainless years. People in the region remember the times when drought was rare. In the 1970s and 1980s Karamoja experienced drought once or twice in ten years. In the 1990s the drought came approximately every three years. And since the turn of the millennium every year has been a drought year.
The many dry years are exhausting nature in various ways. Without any crops, the population is forced to procure food from other sources. So, every day women and children are cutting trees and burning them to charcoal to be sold on the market.
Charcoal is used as fuel in most households. But when trees and bushes are cut, there is nothing to prevent far too quick evaporation and too much heating resulting in further drying of the soil – and thus higher temperatures.
People’s future is ruined
When drought and rain are out of sync, people and animals can no longer live according to the cycle they have been used to for centuries. The consequences are disastrous, and people may die from hunger.
The crops die or drown, and there is nothing to harvest and store for the lean seasons. Grown-ups and children survive on berries and leaves, some vegetables, a little meat now and then and the food aid distributed from time to time by e.g. World Food Programme.
The children eat once a day – the better-offs maybe twice. The grown-ups eat less often. In the short term, too little food will result in malnutrition and make people tired and not feeling up to the mark. However, as described by a number of international scientists, the consequences for the starving children are much more serious. Childhood starvation is stalling a child’s development both physically and mentally.
Wells and education help the region
In order to protect whole generations from serious deficiency diseases over the next few years and to reduce the devastating effects of the climate changes in a not foreseeable future, DanChurchAid and her local partners are working in a number of areas such as access to clean drinking water, animal health and better agricultural cultivation methods.
DanChurchAid activities in Karamoja
1. Working for access to clean drinking water
New wells have been drilled, ponds have been dug including separate watering ponds for the cattle. The work is done by the local people, and DanChurchAid’s partners have trained the local people in maintenance of the water supply.
2. Strengthening the general health of the cattle and combating contagious cattle diseases
Small drugstores have been established, so that the Karamojongs have access to buying medicine for the sick animals. Groups of young male volunteers have been trained in diagnosing and treating the most common cattle diseases.
3. Establishing women’s groups
who learn new cultivation methods and are introduced to new crops that are drought resistant and can be harvested several times a year. The women are also trained in how to improve the health of the families’ goats.