TEREGO - Viola Monday, 24, was living hopelessly after her husband abandoned her and fled to South Sudan.

Monday, who is a resident of Village 16 in Imvepi Refugee Settlement, Terego district and a single mother who dropped out of school after pregnancy in 2022, has been suffering searching for food for her toddler and sickly mother for close to two years.

“I did not know what to do, especially after the food prioritisation approach last year, I lost hope and thought of going back to South Sudan until I received support for opening a farmland using a tractor,” Viola said.

Viola is among the hundreds of refugees in the West Nile region who were relieved from the different interventions funded by the European Union.

Equally, Isaac Lemi, 26, a refugee in Village 16, Imvepi Refugee Settlement, who dropped out of school after completing Senior Four to look after his siblings is optimistic that, this season with the farming support from NRC under the information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA) project, he will realise enough money to rejoin school next year.  

“Last year I cultivated rice on a quarter an acre and managed to get about six bags and sold one bag where I got over shillings 500,000. This helped me to pay fees for my siblings two of whom are in secondary and two in primary, so I am appealing to the funders like EU to continue offering support to NRC so that more people can benefit,” Lemi said.

Viola Monday, a 24-year-old resident of Village 16, Imvepi refugee Settlement in Terego district

David Alidipi, a host community member from Likido village, Imvepi parish Odupi sub-county in Terego district has already opened two acres of land for maize plantation and set up half an acre of vegetables from which he is expected to generate up to shillings 10 million.

Marwoth Ayak, a South Sudanese refugee from Bar-el-Gazel who lives in Arua city due to health reasons was ejected from a house after failing to pay house rent for over six months but was rescued after visiting the NRC ICLA office in Arua city.

According to her, she has since received financial assistance in addition to entering into a formal agreement with the landlord through legal documentation facilitated by the organisation.

Huge refugee numbers

Uganda hosts the largest refugee population in Africa and the sixth largest in the world. Nearly 60% of the over 1.5 million refugees are from South Sudan and over 30% from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As Uganda prepares to join Europe Day celebrations, beneficiaries of European Union projects in West Nile, have lauded the EU for transforming humanitarian interventions among refugees and host communities.

Europe Day, held every May 9, celebrates peace and unity in Europe. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is one key refugee response partner in Uganda that received significant funding from the EU and individual states under the umbrella to undertake various humanitarian interventions in West Nile.

Terego district chairperson Wilfred Saka acknowledged the major role the EU project plays in addressing the different needs like the land conflicts resulting from informal land agreements without documentation and often resulting in conflicts and disputes.

“If the people can have a written document to ascertain the ownership on land use, it becomes easier to settle any cases so these projects are impactful in our community,” Saka said.

He called for more funding for the refugee response, especially on durable solutions that can lead to sustainability.

The settlement commandant Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in the office of the Prime Minister, Armitage Basikania, says the EU-funded projects such as ICLA have helped in several interventions including legal documentation, land access and Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) which have helped empower the beneficiaries economically amidst the food prioritization approach.

Jenna Toma, the deputy refugee desk officer in the Office of the Prime Minister-Arua, recently acknowledged the rampant land conflicts due to informal agreements between refugees and host communities.

Jena, through advocating for the refugees to engage in farming activities, challenged them to enter into formal agreements with the landlords such that cases of unlawful eviction and exploitation as reported could be mitigated.

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) area manager for West Nile, Adam Aswani, expressed gratitude for the milestone under various interventions in addressing the refugee challenges in the region.

He said, through various interventions like NORAD, ECHO-ICLA, SESBIL, and GFFO among others funded by Europeans, they have been able to reach out to the neediest among the refugees and host community to promote positive change through livelihood, education, agriculture and legal assistance.

“Despite all the funding we have and the good work we are doing, the needs cannot be surmounted and we wish to get more funding where possible so that we can do more sustainable work for the persons of concern and their host” " he said

The refugees practicing kitchen gardening at their homestead

Contribution of EU

Since 2017, the EU has supported humanitarian action in Uganda with more than €309 million (sh1.35 trillion).

For 2024, the EU has allocated euros 27.5 million for humanitarian aid there while last year, in addition to the initial allocation of euros 30.5 million, they mobilised almost euros five million more to accelerate local action in humanitarian and health crises and address food insecurity.