Related Articles
Photo by Timothy Eodu: An elderly women receiving posho
By Timothy Eodu & Longok Mathew
A total of 320 households in Moroto Municipality have Thursday 18 August 2022 benefited from food aid.
The aid was donated by Charitas Alfa Ministry Church, a Non Government Organization based in Mukono.
According to Mayor Moroto Municipality Ismael Muhammad the food was locally bought from within the district and benefited identified Nakapelimen village located south east of the municipality with a population of about 1500 persons.
According to the mayor, supporting the urban poor in the district will give relief due to increasing cases of burglary and petty thefts for survival that was on the rise.
Mr. Ismael appealed for more support from well wishers not only food aid which may not be sustainable but also educate the Karimojong children so that the mindset change can be achieved.
He also urged OPM to change it’s food distribution strategies to cut costs of administration and logistics by putting up food stores in Sub County levels.
However, Achok Jumbe Cinema, former Lc3 south division Moroto Municipality said floods in the manyattas has also affected people’s lives due to the current rains but since the food aid has arrived, it will help those affected to survive. 30 households affected.
He said fall army warms and prolonged sunshine affected crop production in the region which is partly to blame for the current situation in the region.
According to the Founder Charitas Aloha Ministries Mukono Steven Ogenrwoth, they got concerned when reports were flooding newspapers and media houses over the hunger situation in the region. Ogenrwoth says with the help of the local leadership, they have managed to identify the category of those most in need including elders, single mothers, people with disability, those living with HIV and young mothers who lost their husbands to raids.
Photo by Timothy Eodu: An elderly woman with disability carrying a 10kg bag of posho and two sachets of salt
He said this is a pilot study to ascertain facts on the ground so that more interventions can be done not only short time but also long term which will involve skilling of especially the youths and young women in various fields.
Mr. Ogenrwoth said the little food they gave (5kg of Posho and a sachet of salt) was made possible by friends who contributed towards the intervention in Moroto but they look forward to extending this support to other parts focusing on the most vulnerable persons only.
Sarah Narot, one of the beneficiaries said the situation is quite hard but at least they can afford greens that is now readily available in the market at friendly prices.
Lomer Jackson another beneficiary cried that government and we’ll wishers should as well supply them with fast growing seeds since the rains have quite stabilized.
The hunger situation in Karamoja became a big concern when photos of starving children and elders flooded the internet.
This was followed by unverified figures of hunger related deaths in the region. Recently, government disagreed with figures presented by Nabilatuk district because the reported deaths could not be traced.
