Uganda: food shortages and a looming AIDS crisis

For two decades in northern Uganda, the cult-like rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has waged a war against the Ugandan government and the local Acholi people, launching horrific attacks on villages, towns and camps for internally displaced persons. Around two million people were driven from their homes and tens of thousands were killed or mutilated. A ceasefire in August 2006 raised hopes for peace, but talks between the belligerents recently stalled. As displaced people wait for a permanent solution, they remain in camps or transit sites where the IRC’s mobile health teams provide them with medical care. Here, the IRC’s Jane Acayo is examining a woman who has been displaced for over ten years. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Margaret Laker with the IRC’s health team distributes oral vaccines and vitamins to displaced children near the Ocettoke transit camp in the war-torn northern province of Kitgum. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

During the day, many of Northern Uganda’s displaced people walk from camps or transit sites to their former homes to cultivate land and prepare it for permanent settlement. To help people prepare for the final move, the IRC has set up water systems in the war-torn villages. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

The homes and fields to which people are returning have, in many cases, been completely destroyed. In response, the IRC’s has helped nearly 4,500 people in the war-torn provinces of Kitgum and Lira become farmers by giving them agricultural tools, seeds, agro-processing machines and training. For many it is their first experience at practicing a new livelihood since being displaced by the war. The IRC is also helping the new farmers organize into agricultural marketing groups so they can better bargain over crop prices with private buyers. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Meanwhile, in Uganda’s northeastern Karamoja region, a different conflict rages on. For generations, violent inter-clan cattle raiding has taken countless lives and plunged the region into abject poverty. Cattle ownership is the basis of respect in Karamoja and is used for dowry and in religious rituals. Milk and blood from the livestock is also an important source of nutrition and income. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Peter Lomokol, a young man from the Matheniko group, one of several sub-clans in the area, was hit by a bullet in his shoulder during a cattle raid. A former raider himself, he is now member of an IRC-organized peace committee working to stop the raids. “We used to go out in a large group with automatic rifles to steal cows,” he says. “If we saw someone from the other clans with cows, we started to shoot. When we had killed the men, we took their cattle. And then soon after, people from other groups would come and steal our cows and sheep. Every family here has lost someone because of the raids and it just had to stop”. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Despite efforts by the Ugandan army to disarm the Karimojong, the old practice of cattle raiding continues, albeit on a smaller scale. This soldier is part of a unit bringing back a herd stolen from the Matheniko clan in the Moroto district by raiders from the Pian clan. The thieves brought the livestock to neighboring Nakapiripirit district where they were ambushed by the Ugandan army. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

To help stop the deadly raids, the IRC has helped the clans in Karamoja to form dozens of peace committees, like this group in Moroto. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

An IRC-supported women’s group in Karamoja’s Moroto district performs a dance and song aimed at discouraging their men from going on raids. “In the songs we tell them that they have to think about their wives and daughters,” says one of the women, Maria Nakut. “We also say that if we stop the raids, security here will be better and more outside investments can be brought to Karamoja.” Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

The inter-clan warfare contributes to an already grim situation in Karamoja. Access to water, heath services and education are far below national levels and many parts of the region face chronic food shortages due to recurrent droughts and overpopulation. Lucia Lokuwan is one of the tens of thousands in Karamoja who face acute food shortages. People here rely on UN food rations and are forced to eat whatever they can find in the bush, like small leaves. “If nobody helps us, we will perish,” Lucia says. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Women from the Matheniko clan on their way to sell firewood in the Moroto marketplace. A bundle sells for 500 Ugandan shillings, or 25 U.S. cents. “It is not enough to feed our families,” says one woman. To help the Karimojong in the acute phase of the food crisis, the IRC plans to pay communities not with money but with food rations to build vital new infrastructure, such as access roads, schools and hospitals.

HIV-infections in Karamoja have increased over 300 percent in the past decade. To help stop the trend, the IRC recently introduced a program to stem the transmission of the virus from pregnant women to their children. The program provides 20 health centers across the region with the antiretroviral drug nevirapine, which can be up to 85 percent effective at preventing infection in the children of HIV-positive pregnant women. “There is a real crisis here, and we don’t have much time before it’s out of control,” said Drametu Jimmy, a program officer with the IRC’s HIV/AIDS program. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Sister Marygoretti (right) at the IRC-supported St. Pius Kidepo health center in Moroto examines all pregnant women in the area. Expecting women can also get tested for HIV as part of IRC’s work to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

According to the Ugandan government, 2.5 million children – or 38 percent of all children in the country between the ages of seven and 14 years – are working. It is common to see children as young as two years of age begging or working in the streets across Uganda’s towns and cities. Peter Keem, 7, spends eight hours every day crushing stones used in construction. The IRC is helping Ugandan children like Peter escape child labor and attend school by paying their school fees and providing books, pencils and school uniforms. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Peter Aturia, the IRC’s education manager in Karamoja, explains the importance of education to parents in a remote area of Moroto district. “Education is not seen as important among people in rural Karamoja,” he explains. “Often, children are the actual bread earners for the family. They are not allowed to be children.” Over the past six years, different IRC programs have brought over 13,000 child laborers and children at risk of exploitation back into the formal school system or into vocational or alternative education programs. This year, the IRC will help over 5,000 more. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.

Domestic violence and rape is a big problem across Uganda. This IRC-organized women’s group performs dances and songs that help educate people about the problem. “Living in overcrowded camps and with many people without work, there is a lot of alcohol abuse and tension,” explains one woman from the group. “Often, that leads to domestic violence. We spread the word so that everyone will know that it is unacceptable to beat your wife.” Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC.