Lutheran world relief donates items to Red Cross

The Lutheran World Relief (LWR) handed over items worth 250,000 USD approx. UGX800 million to the Uganda Red Cross Society. The donation that included 160 bales of blankets and 220 cartons of school kits among others were handed over to the Secretary General of the Red Cross Robert Kwesiga yesterday morning at their offices in Rubaga.

Country Director of Lutheran World Relief Kenneth Barigye

The donation comes in at a time when Uganda is facing an influx of refugees and shelter seekers fleeing conflict in South Sudan.

It has been reported that over 70,000 South Sudanese refugees have been displaced by violence and crossed the border into Uganda by the end of July according to the United Nations Refugee agency (UNHCR) and over 150,000 refugees are expected to be in Uganda by the end of the year because the agency registers over 1000 refugees from south Sudan every day.

Secretary General Uganda Red Cross Society Robert Kwesiga

While addressing the press during the handover of the items, the Lutheran World Relief country director Kenneth Barigye said "we at Lutheran are happy that we able to contribute even so little to help make the lives of those fleeing violence a little better away from their homes, these people don't have a lot but they are willing to share the little they can with the ones in need."

The Red Cross general secretary Robert Kwesiga further thanked the Lutheran World Relief for the donations offered to them because he believes that this donation will benefit the refugees surviving in the refugee camps in Yumbe and Adjumani "many refugees who have recently moved in from south Sudan are camping in the different settlements and they need support and the scholastic materials will support children as they enroll in schools next term thank you LWR" he said this during the press conference while receiving the certificate and the various items from Kenneth Barigye .