DanChurchAid
Uganda
The slow road home
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Jenny Williams, LWF-ACT
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| A boy farming in a camp for displaced people – even in the "decongestion" camps, there is always fear of attacks from the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, so families use all available land in the camps to plant food. |
Source: By Jenny Williams, ACT International
At just after noon on a recent day, 35 kilometers from Kitgum in Northern Uganda, some 20 people began their long walk from the fields along a road back to the internally displaced person (IDP) camps where they live. Though they were few, the fact that farmers have begun venturing from the camps at all is a sign of hope.
Kitgum has been one of the hardest-hit areas during the long-running conflict in Northern Uganda. Insecurity and fear of attacks from Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels as well as the Karamojong, a local group of pastoralists who have also been known to attack villages, have dislodged an enormous number of people from their homes, forcing them into IDP camps under the protection of the Ugandan People's Defense Force.
With more than 300,000 IDPs in Kitgum district alone, living conditions in the camps are crowded and degrading. Huts are spaced only a few meters apart, and there are inevitably five or more people living in each small shelter. Women wait in line for hours at boreholes and often end up with less water than is required by minimum sanitation standards.
The situation is improving
But the situation is improving. The past few months have seen no major incidents with the LRA, and people are slowly gaining confidence to move out of the densely packed camps into smaller "decongestion" camps closer to their parishes. Some farmers have started to tend their fields during the day and return to the protection of the camps in the evening.
The Lutheran World Federation - Uganda , a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, which is working in the area from a base in Kitgum, has made it a priority to provide support to people who are making the transition to move closer to home. With support from ACT members around the world through ACT appeal AFUG61 - Assistance to IDPs in Northern Uganda - LWF is providing access to clean and safe water, sanitation facilities, seeds and farming tools, and HIV/AIDS-awareness training.
LWF providing access to clean and safe water
In Oryang, a relatively small camp, LWF is drilling a borehole which will receive the first solar-powered motorized pump in the area's decongestion camps. The borehole will supply water to four sites with four taps each. There are currently 5,000 people living in Oryang camp, with an additional 2,000 more expected as many move in the direction of home.
"People want to go back home. That is our wish," said the sub-county chief for Palabek-Ogili IDP camp. "But people are still afraid. They have no security when they go to their fields." She added, "We are so grateful for what LWF is doing here. We cannot thank you enough for your support."
Ogili is one of the farthest camps from Kitgum Town Council. It lies just 40 kilometers south of the Sudanese border. Its location along the route from Gulu to South Sudan has made it particularly susceptible to attacks from LRA rebels moving between the two areas. It is only in the past few years that people have felt comfortable enough to move this far out.
In Ogili, LWF has drilled one borehole and is in the process of drilling another. LWF has also built several institutional latrines at places like schools and has trained 20 hygiene promoters to raise awareness in the community about sanitation practices-skills that will surely be useful as those families continue their slow road home.
Jenny Williams is a volunteer from the United States with The Lutheran World Federation-Uganda.
DanChurchAid is a member of ACT International - a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies.
