This is an urgent plea for help sent to RRYM by our good friend Gideon who himself is trying his best to survive as a refugee in this camp, so has first hand experience regarding the worsening conditions.
In a bid to alleviate what is fast becoming a desperate situation, RRYM sent £540 to the community project Awakening Initiative yesterday, enough money to purchase basic food and hygiene items to sustain thirty extremely vulnerable families for approximately two weeks. There will be pictures of the distribution in the next post.
Meanwhile if you, or better still your charity/organisation would be willing to make a donation towards the next food distribution, or maybe organise a fundraising event, it would mean the world to those who have already been through so much. Here is Gideon’s message.
From time immemorial to 2024, humanitarian assistance to refugees in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement Camp was more of a duty and an obligation of the international community fulfilled through the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) and World Food Programme (WFP). Back then, food, shelter, health and education were provided to refugees free of charge. But with unending wars in the Congo and South Sudan, the camp’s population has continued to grow, and by the end of 2024, there was a huge influx of refugees. Before all this happened, a single refugee was assured of a monthly food ration, and later cash assistance. It was not enough, but, at least, it kept refugee families alive and out of danger of starvation and famine. The refugee influx became a strain on all social services rendered to all refugees living in the camp, to the extent that some refugees, especially those that had lived in the camp for more that 10 years, were either completely removed from the food and cash assistance, or had their monthly assistance cut to a very small percentage. This meant that all the affected individuals/families were expected to fend for themselves. Among these unfortunate people are members of the most vulnerable group called the Extremely Vulnerable Individuals (EVIs). These people include the elderly, persons with disabilities, widows/widowers, orphans, pregnant women and children. It somehow felt as if the world was closing in on them, so much so that they had to resort to begging and/or working on farms outside the camp in order to survive.
s if that wasn’t enough, the United States Of America elected a new president, Donald Trump, in November last year. As soon as he assumed office in January this year, he ordered that the life-saving USAID be closed. This was a severe blow to not only the refugees whose food/cash rations had been reduced or completely cut, but also to the newly arrived ones who had cause the refugee influx. Food/cash assistance has been taken away from nearly 80% of the refugees living in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement Camp. Among the new group of refugees, usually referred to as “new arrivals” are many extremely vulnerable individuals who depended on the USAID assistance for 100% of their survival. With the suspension or near closure of the USAID program, organizations that have been operating in the camp have closed shop; their are no more drugs in health centres and above all, food has become the hardest commodity to obtain. People are starving to death, and the camp is on the verge of a famine.
For anyone wishing to donate to this project, please visit DONATE
where you will find several payment options, including PayPal and BACS bank transfer to our Charity Account.
Thank you so much for your support. Please know that by making a financial donation you will be providing vital items to those in desperate need at a time when larger organisations are being forced to suspend their services.
