Karamoja : Hunger hits hard as children leave school to hunt
Jan 06, 2009
HE was hungry. So he fled. It was his first and last term in school. Moses Eporon’s family lives in Kaabong district in the drought stricken Karamoja. The 12-year-old had run away from home to school, where the World Food Programme (WFP), provides free
BY FREDERICK WOMAKUYU
HE was hungry. So he fled. It was his first and last term in school. Moses Eporon’s family lives in Kaabong district in the drought stricken Karamoja. The 12-year-old had run away from home to school, where the World Food Programme (WFP), provides free meals so that children can stay in school.
But last term, Eporon’s dream was shattered when their school closed due to food shortage. “We went to school to have something to eat – there is no food at home,†Eporon says. Now he moves out and about the village, painstakingly looking for anything edible.
Eporon’s case is not isolated: more than half of the primary schools in Karamoja, a region in north eastern Uganda closed early due to food shortage last term. Earlier last year, WFP cut food by 50%, following a shortage of funds. According to the WFP programme Officer, Karamoja sub-office, Rose Enyoru, WFP was providing food to over 140,000 pupils of Karamoja, but have recently run short due to floods that cut off Karamoja from the rest of the country.
“The Lopei Bridge that connects to Karamoja from the rest of the country was flooded. Many of our trucks were cut off and could hardly move,†Enyoru adds. “In October we gave schools the little food we had hoping that when more food came, we would add. But unfortunately the trucks got stranded.â€
By the time trucks started arriving many of the schools had closed. In Kolei Primary school, the enrollment had shot up from 90 to 600 pupils in just two years after the introduction of the school feeding programme.With the crisis, however, the numbers fell to zero.
“We did not have any intentions of closing the school, but when pupils disappeared one by one, we dismissed them all,†says Amos Okello, a teacher at the school.
Kalapata Boarding Primary in Kaabong was no different – except that some pupils had completed their exams and others had long gone.
“It is a difficult situation we are operating in. Pupils here cannot stay if the schools do not provide food,†says Moses Ogwang, a P7 teacher at the school. “It is hard to control their movements.â€
Karimojongs are nomadic pastoralists who depend entirely on livestock for survival and as a result, many of the children; especially the boys look after cattle and do not go to school. The girls are married off as early as 14 in exchange for livestock.
But drought has led to the loss of their livestock, so they have no option except to send their children to school where they can get something to eat.
“Since the school feeding programme began in Karamoja schools, enrolment has soared. The parents and their children see the feeding programme as hope,†Enyoru says.
The WFP feeding programme began in the 1990s when the enrolment for primary schools in Kotido was staggering at less than 5,000. According to available figures from the five districts of Karamoja, the introduction of the feeding programme in schools saw the total enrolment increase from 50,000 pupils to a whooping 140,000 pupils.
In Kalapata, 60 additional girls enrolled in school last term, as families struggled to survive the loss of their livestock to drought and cattle rustling.
“Unfortunately when we run out of food, some abandoned,†says John Loditae, the deputy head teacher of the school.In Obalangat Primary School in Karenga where they still had some food, pupils were still hanging around.
At a mission hospital that serves this school, I met two children in the “stabilisation centre†where the most severely malnourished are brought back to life using therapeutic feeding supplies from WFP. In both cases, it was children too young to go to school who were in the worst condition.
Reading with his belly resting on the mat where he spends a night, Alex Omongole, 13, said that he hardly ate to his fill.
“When children hear that food has come, they will report to school early. Otherwise we have already lost this term,†says Lokol
But Enyoru, who has been at the fore front of making sure that people in Karamoja are fed, is confident that food will be distributed as soon as possible.
“Before the school term opens, all the schools will be having food,†she said. She said the problem was just temporary and schools should be patient.
HE was hungry. So he fled. It was his first and last term in school. Moses Eporon’s family lives in Kaabong district in the drought stricken Karamoja. The 12-year-old had run away from home to school, where the World Food Programme (WFP), provides free meals so that children can stay in school.
But last term, Eporon’s dream was shattered when their school closed due to food shortage. “We went to school to have something to eat – there is no food at home,†Eporon says. Now he moves out and about the village, painstakingly looking for anything edible.
Eporon’s case is not isolated: more than half of the primary schools in Karamoja, a region in north eastern Uganda closed early due to food shortage last term. Earlier last year, WFP cut food by 50%, following a shortage of funds. According to the WFP programme Officer, Karamoja sub-office, Rose Enyoru, WFP was providing food to over 140,000 pupils of Karamoja, but have recently run short due to floods that cut off Karamoja from the rest of the country.
“The Lopei Bridge that connects to Karamoja from the rest of the country was flooded. Many of our trucks were cut off and could hardly move,†Enyoru adds. “In October we gave schools the little food we had hoping that when more food came, we would add. But unfortunately the trucks got stranded.â€
By the time trucks started arriving many of the schools had closed. In Kolei Primary school, the enrollment had shot up from 90 to 600 pupils in just two years after the introduction of the school feeding programme.With the crisis, however, the numbers fell to zero.
“We did not have any intentions of closing the school, but when pupils disappeared one by one, we dismissed them all,†says Amos Okello, a teacher at the school.
Kalapata Boarding Primary in Kaabong was no different – except that some pupils had completed their exams and others had long gone.
“It is a difficult situation we are operating in. Pupils here cannot stay if the schools do not provide food,†says Moses Ogwang, a P7 teacher at the school. “It is hard to control their movements.â€
Karimojongs are nomadic pastoralists who depend entirely on livestock for survival and as a result, many of the children; especially the boys look after cattle and do not go to school. The girls are married off as early as 14 in exchange for livestock.
But drought has led to the loss of their livestock, so they have no option except to send their children to school where they can get something to eat.
“Since the school feeding programme began in Karamoja schools, enrolment has soared. The parents and their children see the feeding programme as hope,†Enyoru says.
The WFP feeding programme began in the 1990s when the enrolment for primary schools in Kotido was staggering at less than 5,000. According to available figures from the five districts of Karamoja, the introduction of the feeding programme in schools saw the total enrolment increase from 50,000 pupils to a whooping 140,000 pupils.
In Kalapata, 60 additional girls enrolled in school last term, as families struggled to survive the loss of their livestock to drought and cattle rustling.
“Unfortunately when we run out of food, some abandoned,†says John Loditae, the deputy head teacher of the school.In Obalangat Primary School in Karenga where they still had some food, pupils were still hanging around.
At a mission hospital that serves this school, I met two children in the “stabilisation centre†where the most severely malnourished are brought back to life using therapeutic feeding supplies from WFP. In both cases, it was children too young to go to school who were in the worst condition.
Reading with his belly resting on the mat where he spends a night, Alex Omongole, 13, said that he hardly ate to his fill.
“When children hear that food has come, they will report to school early. Otherwise we have already lost this term,†says Lokol
But Enyoru, who has been at the fore front of making sure that people in Karamoja are fed, is confident that food will be distributed as soon as possible.
“Before the school term opens, all the schools will be having food,†she said. She said the problem was just temporary and schools should be patient.