By Frank Mugabi

THE German government and the European Union have given a Euro 910,000 (sh2.3b) grant to support the Northern Uganda Rehabilitation Programme in three war-ravaged districts.

The money will be used to assist residents living in the displaced people’s camps, support their return and reintegration into communities and the rehabilitation of infrastructure in Oyam, Amuru and Adjumani districts.

The programme will be implemented over a period of 18 months.

The German Development Service (DED) that has been working in Uganda for the last 40 years, was selected as the lead implementing agency to manage the funds in partnership with the respective district authorities.

During the programme launch in Oyam district last week, the state minister for northern Uganda, David Wakikona, said the project was one of the ways the Government was collaborating with development partners to restore normalcy in a region emerging from insecurity.

He added that all interventions would be guided by the Peace Recovery and Development Plan.

The DED programme coordinator, Adolf Gerstl, said the key areas of expenditure for the funds would include improvement in water supply, sanitation, health, HIV/AIDS, education and the environment to ease the effects of the 20-year civil war.

He cited borehole drilling, protection of natural springs, construction of classroom blocks and VIP latrines at schools, the building of health centres and staff houses and afforestation programmes as part of the projects to be undertaken.

Selected district civil servants, Gerstl added, would be trained in various skills to strengthen their capacity in managing internally displaced persons.

According to him, part of the package would be setting up a more flexible financial scheme that would help the returnees start small businesses.

“The returnees may have good business ideas but the banks may be reserved on lending them money.

“The income-generating component in this project is meant to boost those with good commercial ideas,” Gerstl explained.

The Oyam district chairman, Col. Okello Engola, hailed the Germans and the EU for the “timely intervention since camps were being depopulated at a faster rate.”

He requested that support should now be geared towards assisting the people who had returned home, especially in setting up clean water sources and opening up access roads.