Campaign to feed families in Karamoja launched 

A fundraising campaign intended to raise food support and save lives of the people of Karamoja has been launched.

Close to 120,000 people are facing hunger in the region and some people have already lost their lives.

The campaign dubbed "Hope for Karamoja" spearheaded by Stromme Foundation (SF) East Africa, a Norwegian based development organization, targets to raise food stuffs for 1000 families in Karamoja, with at least sh25,000 given to each family to keep them alive for a week.

While launching the campaign at Imperial Royale Hotel on Monday, SF regional director Priscillar Mirembe Serukka, said though government and other partners have come out and offered massive support, many people in the region are still in dire need of food.

Mirembe revealed that a social media campaign was launched recently in an effort to raise money to buy food stuffs like rice, beans and maize flour for people in Karamoja and so far, sh3.5m has been raised and given to 140 families.

"Most of the humanitarian response in form of food stuffs given to the region are going into schools, but there are pregnant women, children and the elderly in the region that are starving, these are people we would like to give food" she said.

"The 1000 households we plan to give food aid may be a drop in the water, but we have to begin somewhere. Much as other countries like China, Japan are coming in to give food aid to people of Karamoja, I believe that more Ugandans can be rallied to offer extra support to fellow Ugandans," she added.

"We shall ensure that we give accountability of all the money that comes in and what it was used for, for ultimate integrity and accountability," she added.

Rev. Canon Nelson Owilli who is the archdeacon of Lotuke archdiocese, North Karamoja diocese said life has become very difficult in the region due to drought, adding that for the last one month, most of the cows and women have left Kotido, Abim and Kaboong districts to neighboring districts of Pader, Aleptong, Otuke, for food and grass.

Using Kotido as an example to represent the situation in the entire region, Owilli said in the last two years, rainfall has been below average, explaining that Kotido has a population of 179,000 people but 85.5% according to the assessment which was done by the local government in October and December last year, is estimated to be affected by food shortage in 2017.

"In Kotido, there are five sub-counties, but most of their food has been depleted. Women have now resorted to cooking just leaves with water and salt, and feeding family members. The situation is not improving each day as we move forward," he said.

Though he acknowledged that supplying food in schools has increased school enrolment and retention, malnutrition is high at household level, and therefore interventions should also be focused at household level.