The Anglican Church has coordinated a collection of non-food items valued at Shs100 million to benefit refugees from South Sudan in Adjumani District.
Items including soap, clothes and jerrycans were received by about 600 refugees in Pagirinya Settlement Centre over the weekend.
These, according to Daily Monitor, were donated by Northern Uganda Diocese with support from their partners.
The Newspaper says the Bishop of Diocese Northern Uganda Johnson Gakumba, while delivering the items asked the United Nations to resolve the South Sudan conflict.
Fighters loyal to President Salva Kiir and troops under the former vice president Riek Machar have fought each other since 2013.
“They have lost the meaning of their independence as the country clocks five years with no stability. What we see is just bloodshed,” Gakumba said
Bishop Gakumba is further quoted to have explained “the war in South Sudan has greatly affected neighbouring countries like Uganda that are hosting the refugees since they are made to share resources like land, health services, education and other facilities which were planned for the host communities.”
In April the Dutch public broadcasting agency NOS published a story on Uganda “the refugee paradise”.
UN reported in August that Uganda is dealing with nearly 1 million refugees.
“Unlike a lot of the refugee camps around the world, where where my organization, Oxfam, works, people in Uganda and the refugee settlement model they have are actually spread out in agricultural settlements, where they are granted in the case of Uganda plots of land 30 by 30 meters or 50 by 50 meters. And that’s so they can plant some of the crops that they are accustomed to from home, things like corn, beans.” Noah Gottschalk of Oxfam America told aljazeera’s Scott Simon recently.
marvin@ugchristiannews.com
