Airstrip for Adjumani
Adjumani district in northern Uganda hosts more than 120,000 refugees from South Sudan. Most live in the settlements of Adjumani refugee camp. The Lutheran World Federation is supporting 60 percent of the refugee population by drilling boreholes, supporting unaccompanied minors, children separated from parents, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, and providing livelihoods, among others.
Transporting humanitarian staff and relief goods to the camp is an eight-hour-drive from the Ugandan capital Kampala, or a two-hour drive on dirt roads from the closest airport in Gulu. LWF therefore built an airstrip so planes could land in Adjumani directly.
Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), a humanitarian air service which is supporting Adjumani, was the first agency to land a plane at the new airstrip. Their passengers were a Canadian Lutheran World Relief delegation, including National Bishop Susan Johnson and director Robert Granke.
Photos: Dave Forney, pilot MAF Uganda (www.theforneyflyer.blogspot.com)
15 February, 2016
People watch a MAF plane landing in Adjumani. Adjumani district hosts more than 120,000 South Sudanese refugees.
LWF initiated the construction of the airstrip, which will make life easier for everyone in the district.
The Christian organization MAF is one of the partners which support the remote refugee settlement by transporting humanitarian staff and relief goods.
LWF Adjumani staff welcome the passengers of the maiden voyage to the new air strip.
The pilot checks the plane after landing, observed by refugees and local population.
National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada, Susan Johnson (right) and a delegation of CLWR, who has been supporting LWF in Uganda since 2015. (Photo: LWF Uganda)
The pilot is greeted by local LWF staff at Adjumani.
The refugee settlement is very remote. The airstrip means a better connection of the people living here to good and services.
