Polish gov't donates Sh1.5b to Ugandan refugees

 

 

KAMPALA - The Polish Government has extended sh1.56b to the Government of Uganda to support refugees, children and youth empowerment projects in the Northern Part of the country.

 

According to the Polish minister in charge of the humanitarian Beata Kempa, the Polish Government has allocated sh660m for the construction of an international Aid centre at the Bidi-Bidi refugee camp, and sh903 to support youth and children projects in the country.

 

Kempa who jetted into the country, made the revelation on Friday, during a meeting with the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Hillary Onek and Gerald Mennya the commissioner for refugees, at the Office of the Prime Minister.

 

The Polish Minister, together with her entourage visited the famous Bidi-Bidi refugee camp among other youth initiatives for their own assessment. 

 

"Bidi-Bidi is the biggest refugee camp in the world, we used to hear about it, and our visit helped us to see the real picture of this camp," Kempa said.

 

Bidi-Bidi camp accommodates over 270,000 South Sudanese refugees fleeing the ongoing civil war, in early 2017.

 

Bidi-Bidi covers 250 square kilometres of the eastern half of the district of Yumbe, stretching southward from the South Sudanese border and spilling over into Moyo district along the western bank of the Kochi River.

 

Kempa, was accompanied by  twelve delegates from Poland including Polish Ambassador to Nairobi, Jacek Bazanski, Wojciech Wilk from the Polish Center for International Aid, the Deputy Head for Africa and Middle East Department, Michael Cygan, Fr Prof. Waldemar Cislo, the Church in Need Foundation and  Dr Robert Ryczek.

 

During their stay in Uganda, they paid a full day visit to Bidi-Bidi camp in Northern Uganda on Tuesday.

 

The Minister and her team visited Swinga medical center, Tagari center III and Bidi-Bidi camp.

 

Kempa travelled from Entebbe International Airport in Eagle Air to Arua airstrip where she was welcomed by in charge of Refugees Desk Officer in Prime minister's office, Solomon Osaka .

 

Kempa in interview with The New Vision revealed that the project is to start this year replacing existing medical center and improve Bidi-Bidi camp. She exposed that Euro 15, 5000 will only renovate medical center and staff quarters.

 

Minister Kempa on her full day visit to Bidi-Bidi first meet with Yumbe district officials in one hour meeting at district headquarters later proceed to Bidi-Bidi camp where she managed to  meet a number of refugees.

 

Kempa who went gifts including books, pencils and pens for refugees, she moved around in different village camp to see exactly what took place.  

 

She expressed gratitude to the Government of Uganda for the positive move for providing the land and also building a camp for refugees.

 

 "I was touched by women and children at Bidi-Bidi camp. We expressed appreciation to the Government of Uganda and other partnership for the good work they did to look after these refugees.

 

"I came to Uganda with familiar because this country hosted many refugees and most of them are Catholics. Poland as a predominantly catholic country is especially concerned about Christians as well as other religious around the world,"she said.

 

She revealed that in addition to that polish Government will invest sh903m in children and Youth projects in Uganda. 

 

Kempa told The New Vision as met minister Onek it was the same issue they discussed with him.

 

Yumbe district chairman, Yasin Taban applauded the Polish Government for the concern for helping refugees in Bidi-Bidi camp. 

 

Taban said the camp is huge but biggest challenge clean water 10.8 gap in Bidi-Bidi camp, many bridges across the roads are broken due to heavy rain and floods which also another challenge to serve food in camps, led them to take hours to reach in villages in this camp.   

 

"All routes to this camp are a fender road which is not easy for supply food to refugees, food they supply is also not enough to the number of families in this camp also another challenge. Yumbe still have land we can purchase from the owners it for food production," he said.

 

Assistant Settlement Commander, Benson Kwizera says that minister's visit comes after officials from Poland visited the camp in 2017 and revealed the need of this camp. 

 

However, health district officer, Dr Alfred Yayi, staff are stressed and they are not doing well due to challenge of staff quarters.