Ugandan Update

Well it's been a few days since  was online. A mixture of internet outage, and an inability to charge the laptop, has cost a few days of news.

The week concluded with visits to the field and reformation of story so that the group could harvest our joint knowledge as part of an informal assessment of the village we visited. The combined stories, knowledge and information were put together and it is hoped that future projects will evolve to help the communities concerned.

We visited Kyirandongo, in the north of Uganda (about 4 hours drive north of Kampala). This village includes four refugee camps. One is for those that have fled the DR Congo. One is for those that have fled from South Sudan. The third is for those that fled the Kenyan election conflict last year. The fourth is for internally displaced Ugandans that were the victim of the Kaabong landslides in 2010.

Each of these groups have been resettled in the area. The government have helped with some housing (about 100 homes so far for 600 families just in the Ugandan section) and the people have been encouraged to get on with farming. However there are many difficulties. The climate is different to their previous home. The soil isn't flash. Water harvesting is next to zero, and two of their four boreholes (for drinking, cooking, washing etc) aren't working. That leaves two wells, some distance from the camp, to serve so many people (around 15,000 perhaps in total between the four camps).

The Salvation Army helped with food when the families first relocated. We are now considering agricultural assistance to help them farm, water harvesting programs, advocacy with the government to get the rest of the houses built and continuing social services through the local Corps. (There is a neighbouring Corps that has already started an outpost in the village; there is also a Catholic church and an Adventist Church).

This situation brought home two truths to me.

Firstly, we do NOT have a refugee problem in Australia. Australia only recieves about 3500 applications for Asylum each year, less that 10% of countries like Canada, and a lot less than places like Uganda - and yet we in Australia have the resources to help. Further, the Ugandan government have actively helped resettle the people in Kyriandongo, and while they haven't followed through on all of their promises, or kept to a timeline, I think they could teach Australia a thing or two about 'welcome'.

Secondly, it is a privilege for me to be able to travel and see the world as it is. Better still I can be part of a process that may help. Please say a prayer this week for the people in Kyriandongo. Their lives are unimaginably difficult.