2020 Round-up
By Harriet Hardwick, Amana UK secretary trustee
Hello!
There has been so much happen since June and our last newsletter I am not sure where to start. Uganda has been affected by the global pandemic along with the rest of the world. Without a strong social system this has led to a lot of hardship and increased poverty. The nation has been in various degrees of lockdown, with little or no assistance with salaries, or medical and food provision.
There has been so much happen since June and our last newsletter I am not sure where to start. Uganda has been affected by the global pandemic along with the rest of the world. Without a strong social system this has led to a lot of hardship and increased poverty. The nation has been in various degrees of lockdown, with little or no assistance with salaries, or medical and food provision.
Virtual annual visit
Stories of the children
General Malnutrician
While we in the UK were hoarding toilet roll, pasta and flour - in Uganda the main places where people bought food were closed by the government. The open markets where locals sold or bartered the food that they grew were closed and all travel was banned. This causes an epidemic of hunger. Many families were struggling to grow food due to the weather conditions, with the extra problems of locusts and repeated flooding. With the problems of draught last year, the soil is of poor quality and very susceptible to wash out.
This has meant that they have been unable to harvest many crops. When we saw the children many of them were lucky if they had a meal a day and the food was not nourishing. Many of the children were suffering from headaches and stomach pain. All the children looked thin and malnourished. Winnie and Jairus have been trying to deliver food that they would have received at school to the children but have found this difficult with the children living in different villages. We were able to identify the children most in need so that Winnie and Jairus will concentrate on looking after them.
This has meant that they have been unable to harvest many crops. When we saw the children many of them were lucky if they had a meal a day and the food was not nourishing. Many of the children were suffering from headaches and stomach pain. All the children looked thin and malnourished. Winnie and Jairus have been trying to deliver food that they would have received at school to the children but have found this difficult with the children living in different villages. We were able to identify the children most in need so that Winnie and Jairus will concentrate on looking after them.
School during lockdown
Like us the schools have been closed during lockdown and children have had to learn from home. The government announced plans at the start of the lockdown to educate via radio and TV, however, not many families can afford their own radio or TV. Goshen primary school have been able to deliver schoolwork to the primary school children. The secondary school children have been learning from the radio if they have one or using their textbooks. Some secondary schools have been able to send work home to the students. It has been very hard for the children to learn but they are trying their best. In December a few school years were allowed to return to school. These years were Primary 7 and Senior 6. These school years have their national exams and have returned to school to prepare. We were hoping that the rest of primary and secondary will return by the 18th January but the President has delayed school opening for another 3 months.
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Picture of the village children learning from teaching on TV.
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Food donations
During the pandemic food has become difficult to buy. Locust swarms reduced crops at the beginning of 2020, and soon after this they had heavy rain and widespread flooding. The weather throughout the rest of the year has prevented any good harvests. At the beginning of the year when the world was in lockdown the Ugandan government closed the markets and made it very difficult for the Ugandan people to buy food. Many of the isolated elderly and poor began to starve and many died. We started to raise money to send money for Ikoku Yen Africa to buy food and seed so that the families most in need could have food and grow some new crops. We had huge hopes, but with continued bad weather and they did not get as a good harvest as expected. The widespread malnutrition of the children showed us better than anything the dangers they were facing. In December we raised more money to send out for food to help feed the children. Food has become very expensive due to the bad harvests and government restrictions. Ikoku Yen Africa bought the food in bulk and have distributed it to all the children to help feed them through January. We are very grateful for all those who have donated towards food relief.
Ugandan General election
As you may have seen, Uganda has been experiencing political turmoil over the last year. At the beginning of January, they held their General election, which had caused a lot of unrest in the months leading the ballot boxes. In the run-up to the election there were a lot of national electricity cuts at key campaigning moments and restrictions made to social medial and internet use. Our friends in Uganda have found this a very demoralising time. It also appeared that the Ugandan government in using the recent lockdown to manage the people and their movements.
published: February 2021