LWF Uganda Scaling Up Support to South Sudanese Refugees in Adjumani
Since the December 2013 outbreak of violence in South Sudan an estimated 1.5 million people have been displaced from their homes including 393,000 who are refugees in neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. In northern Uganda, The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is providing non-food items (NFIs), psychosocial and livelihood support, child protection, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and community services, and peace building activities to over 76,000 refugees from South Sudan currently located in the new settlements in Adjumani district. LWF Uganda’s annual budget of EUR 3.5 million in 2013 and 112 staff are expected to more than double in 2014 as the program plays a major role in responding to the needs of South Sudanese refugees in Adjumani district, northern Uganda, and refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Rwamwanja, western Uganda. More funds are urgently required to enable LWF to continue its emergency response operation in Uganda until the end of 2014.
All photos by LWF/B. Waddell
10 July 2014
The LWF Uganda program is actively engaged in five key program areas: Sustainable Livelihoods, Water and Sanitation, HIV and AIDS, Environment, and Emergency Response. New funding has been attracted from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UN Children’s Fund, (UNICEF), the US government, LWF related church organizations and other major donors.
LWF Uganda was one of the first organizations to arrive on the ground in Adjumani in 2014 in response to the urgent needs of South Sudanese refugees. By 30 June 76,216 refugees had been registered in Adjumani district, of which 65 % are children under the age of 18.
Geremew Yadessa, LWF team leader in Adjumani highlights the rate of refugee arrivals at Elegu, the border town with South Sudan. The average daily influx has fallen from 70 refugees daily in May to 54 per day in June.
New arrivals are first registered at the reception center in Nyumanzi and relocated by buses hired by the UNHCR to new plots in Ayilo 2, the newest settlement.
The Ayilo 2 settlement will house some 15,500 refugees, or 3,000 families, when full. Each family is provided with a 30m x 30m plot of land. NFIs include hoes, cooking pots, sleeping mats and blankets.
Jurkuch Barach Adit, mother of 6, from Bor town in Jonglei, South Sudan, outside her family’s newly constructed semi-permanent shelter in Ayilo 2 settlement. Around 54% of refugees in Adjumani are female and 46% are male.
In Nyumanzi camp families have already settled, established shelters and planted their own maize, groundnuts and beans. Each family is allocated a plot on which to construct their homes and grow food.
LWF is supporting the construction of shelters for people with special needs (PSNs) such as the very elderly or handicapped. There are more than 1,720 people in Adjumani who are unable to build their own shelters. By early June almost 120 houses had been constructed for 120 PSNs.
The LWF is seeking funds to continue scaling-up not only its humanitarian emergency support to South Sudanese refugees in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia but also to bridge the food gap for the internally displaced in South Sudan.
