Life of A refugee in Uganda

By Musaazi Hamza

Kampala, Uganda (RTN) -Many people across East Africa are forced to leave their mother lands and search for greener pastures due to the unthinkable and devastating phenomena at their places of ancestry.

This is as a result of fear of being tyrannized for reason of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group and hence wind-up vamoosing to new localities in order to find calmness and live a cheerful life.

Due to such weighty justifications, Uganda happens to be one of the exceptional countries in East Africa that imparts asylum to such displaced people.

Uganda has relatively affectionate policies that favor foreigners to as well enjoy and live happily without any compromises. Such policies include: right to education, right to work, right to private property, right to health care and many other basics that favor a better standard of living for an individual.

Such policies have attracted many from neighboring countries especially those facing war and violence such as South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) making Uganda one of the largest refugee hosting Nations in Africa with over 1400,000 refugees (as of February 2020) according to the United High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Currently Uganda has 11 refugee settlement camps:

• Achol-Pii settlement in Agago District
• Bidi Bidi settlement in northwestern Uganda.
•  Imvepi settlement in Arua District in northwestern Uganda.
• Kampala settlement
• Kiryandongo settlement in Bweyale in Kiryandongo District.
• Kyaka II settlement in Kyegegwa District in Western Uganda.
•  Kyangwali settlement located in Kikuube District (formerly Hoima District) in Western Uganda.
• Nakivale settlement located in Isingiro District in Southwest Uganda.
• Pagirinya settlement in eastern Adjumani District in northern Uganda.
• Rhino settlement in Arua District in northwestern Uganda.
• Rwamwanja settlement in Kamwenge District in southwestern Uganda.

Although many gave up on their mother lands in search for better conditions, many are living a poor life, in a way that those in camps rely on donated food from the Ugandan government and the World Food Programme (WFP) which at times may not be enough to cater for their families especially during the dry seasons when agricultural produce is scarce.

This has led to a rise in deficiency diseases like scurvy, kwashiorkor, beriberi etc, among the people in the camps as many can’t afford eating a balanced diet hence leading to insufficiency of valuable nutrients like proteins, vitamins, zinc and calcium within their bodies.

Women face gender specific challenges in navigating daily life at every stage of growth for instance many are subjected to assault, intimidation and sexual violence such as rape which leaves myriads traumatized with horrible memories.

Finding a job and slowly moving up the ladder is incredibly difficult, this is as a result, many having a poor education background and as well the language barrier effect that hinders communication.

However the UNHR has come up with a strategy to sponsor education and as well encourage local institutions of learning in Uganda to give a hand to asylum seekers such that they can as well benefit from education and improve on their standards of living.