Danish refugee council unveils COVID-19 package for refugees

Health facilities in refugee settlements are to be equipped with solar lighting in order to improve the quality of health services offered to refugees as they struggle with the effects of COVID-19.

The high-quality solar lighting worth sh350m which is donation from the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) was is one of the responses to COVID-19.

The supply and installation of the different lighting facilities to different government facilities will start with the Rhino Refugee Settlement in Arua district, equipping health facilities in the refugee camp and outdoor areas for the security of the camp in general.
 
Jean-Christophe Saint-Esteben, the Danish Refugee Council Country Director, noted that the donation is aimed at improving lives of refugees and other Ugandans, by providing opportunities for them to earn income using solar lighting and energy.
 
"Providing indoor and outdoor street lighting, during such a time, will help improve response to COVID-19 and reduce risk of gender-based violence, other protection and other security challenges in the community," Saint-Esteben says.
 
The donation to the Rhino refugee settlement is part of an earlier pledge by the consortium of partners including the Dembe Group, Signify Foundation, Sendea, Village Energy and the Danish Refugee Council.

Refugee camps in and settlements are some of the most at risk from this pandemic and thus the need to help them.

Martha Osiro, program manager for Signify Foundation Uganda noted that; "the focus on refugee camps is to provide security lighting, and also help with the lighting of health centers where midwives had been using phone torches in the process of delivering babies, and where surgeons had been using poor lighting".

Access to electricity in refugee settlements is also key in the provision of quality education and continued learning for children who are currently locked home following the closure of schools due to COVID-19.

With this intervention it will be easy for children who have been finding it hard to do revision at night or radio lamps to school students' study since they have solar lamps. Rhino Camp is home to over 100,243 registered refugees.