OVC Care and Nutrition in Uganda

Few acts of compassion can rival that of the poor giving to the poor, or giving up their place in line for someone they deem even poorer than themselves. Such was the selflessness displayed by the Board of Trustees of the Teso Widows Development Initiative (TEWIDI) at the beginning of the 2009 – 10 distribution cycle, of the International Food Relief Program (IFRP), for the Teso Region implemented by Nascent Solutions and its local partners.

The TEWIDI Board not only decided that the food should go to the conflict-wracked Katakwi district, many of whose widows are unable to raise the membership fees to be affiliated with the organization; it also decided that the elderly in the area be included in the food distribution, given their lack of resources and inability to fend for themselves.

Nascent Solutions, with the help of the government of Uganda and some local Churches identified TEWIDI, a local NGO that serves mainly widows and orphans in Teso, as a partner in good standing, to be an entry point to the vulnerable widows and orphans. This made it easier to reach the target beneficiaries.

Nascent Meets Uganda Minister of Disaster Preparedness

Thus it was that some 9000 households of the Katakwi district’s neediest citizens, numbering some 26,000 beneficiaries – orphans, widows and the infirm elderly – were able to benefit from the USAID-funded food assistance program during the cycle.

According to Nascent Solutions’ National Adviser for Uganda, Pastor Joseph Eletu, Katakwi district lies on the border between Soroti and Karamoja and has not known peace for more than 5 decades.  The main cause of this unrest is the Karamojong; a tribe of unruly nomadic traditional cattle rustlers, who are now armed with AK 47 assault rifles which they use to invade neighboring districts to steal cattle, clothing, and food. As a result, many men have been killed, many women raped, wealth accumulated over the years destroyed, schools and medical facilities burnt down, and many people internally displaced. The Government of Uganda has tried and failed to disarm the Karamojong as more guns keep flowing into region from across the southern Sudan border where arms are sold in open markets.

Katakwi’s proximity to the conflict area meant that the needs of its poor were not being attended to as other relief organizations and NGOs sought to avoid the dangers of operating in such an environment. This led the TEWIDI board, the Nascent Solutions adviser and other partners and stakeholders to select the district as the area most in need during the last IFRP cycle. Nascent Solutions’ willing volunteers, with intimate knowledge of the area and its people, were able to complete the food distribution exercise successfully, without encountering any significant dangers.

Pastor Eletu reports that beneficiaries expressed  deep gratitude to the government and people of the United States, for the food donations that arrived at the time of their greatest need; to Nascent Solutions for electing to channel the IFRP to Teso instead of the many other regions in Uganda and other African countries with similar problems; to the government of Uganda, and especially the Minister of Disaster Preparedness, for facilitating the implementation of the program; and to the local partner organizations, especially TEWIDI and the local churches, for offering their expert services and experience in this domain to see that the neediest among them were served.

This is not to say that there were no challenges. Pastor Eletu reports that distribution proper started on 12TH of April 2010 and was expected to last three months, but logistical and financial inadequacies meant that it stretched up to late September. It was executed in three phases, with each family head receiving one box of commodities each, though some families received more than one, because of their larger sizes.

Challenges in the Field

Flooding due to unusually heavy rainfall put the region at a risk of losing food crops in the fields. Some of the region’s roads were also cut off as a result, especially the connection between Teso and Karamoja, although project areas remained somewhat accessible, as a result of the great effort and will of the volunteers. The year 2010 was generally characterized by flooded out food gardens and washed out roads, with the latter greatly affecting the transportation of commodities. Though the floods did not reach the level of displacing settlers, most gardens of cassava and potatoes among other crops were destroyed, with the neighboring district of Amuria being hardest hit.

The team had to hire an additional vehicle for the transportation of food items, while the other one was used for the transportation of the volunteers who loaded and off-loaded food, helped in organizing the crowds, and distributed the food to ensure proper control and order.

Genesis of Food Deficiency in Teso Region

According to Eletu, most of the population of the region has taken to agriculture which is the main source of food and income. Even working class people are venturing into the agriculture to supplement their meager salaries. Unfortunately all of it is small-scale agriculture, using crude homemade implements such as hoes and machetes; utilizing  unscientific and unproductive traditional farming practices.

The Teso region produces a lot of cassava, maize, potatoes, oranges, pineapples and mangoes. These products are either eaten or sold unprocessed or semi-processed. This means that the quality of the products is affected, leading to low prices and therefore frustrating the efforts of farmers. Teso produced a lot of maize for the 2010 season but because of the absence of a ready market, coupled with the fact that it was  sold unprocessed,  the maize grain was sold in the end at almost giveaway prices.

The lack of health infrastructure in the region means that most of its people have had to trek long distances in search of health services, and most of its widows and orphans cannot afford mosquito nets to help ward off malaria. Thus illness in an individual or in their family members remains one of the main causes of low farm productivity.

While the Teso region faces all these challenges, Nascent Solutions finds it gratifying that the spirit of giving is so strong among its people that even the poorest among cheerfully accept the role of their neighbors’ keeper.