UGANDA: Caritas launches Global Week of Action for migrants and refugees in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement
As part of the Caritas Internationalis ‘Share the Journey’ migration campaign that was launched by Pope Francis last year, Caritas Uganda joined hundreds of South Sudanese refugees on June 20, 2018 to launch the Share the Journey Campaign Global Week of Action, at Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement in Yumbe District, located in northwestern Uganda.
The Share the Journey’s call for Global Week of Action aimed at developing a culture of personal encounter with migrants and refugees all over the world is an initiative of Pope Francis and Caritas Internationalis.
The campaign was launched on September 27, 2017 and Over 400 refugees, host communities, staffs of Caritas Uganda and representatives from several agencies that give aid to refugees were in attendance at the launch in Bidi Bidi.
The Assistant Humanitarian Emergency Coordinator of Caritas Uganda, David Adong, in an interview said the main objective of the event was to promote and strengthen the relationships between the refugees and host communities.
“We joined the rest of the World on this important day in the lives of refugees because we want to show them (the refugees) our solidarity that we are in this journey together just like Pope Francis expects of us,” he said adding “We also want to encourage other people including the host communities and agencies to continue supporting them.”
He further said that it was an opportunity for the public to get to know the ordinary lives refugees lived before they were forced to flee their homes by listening to their stories and interacting with them.
The day was marked with a range of activities which included demonstration of skills whereby youth benefiting from the Caritas Uganda livelihood program, showcased their tailoring skills on how to make re-usable sanitary towels and clothes as well as carpentry skills by demonstrating their abilities on how to make desks, chairs among other furniture. Refugees also shared their plight and narrated how the intervention of Caritas Uganda has transformed their lives.
However, the highlight of the day was a shared meal with the refugees, host communities, institutional and Church figures.
Caritas Uganda, which is a department of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, has been providing essential services in the camp in collaboration with other Caritas agencies around the world, since October 2016. They committed to assist 3,000 newly arrived South Sudanese refugees and the host community living in and around Bidi Bidi area.
So far they have supported the refugees and the host communities in many ways: Caritas Uganda’s first intervention was through livelihood program in October, 2016, for a one-year period aimed at improving the livelihood and welfare of the refugees since World Food Program is far stretched in providing food for the refugees. It has been sponsoring youth from both the refugee and host communities in vocational training courses such as carpentry, building and construction, tailoring, mechanics and metal fabrication.
In 2017, they also provided women and girls with reusable sanitary pads, mosquito nets, basins, tree seedlings for fruit and timber as well as seedlings and tools for growing cash crops to about 5,500 households in both refugees and host communities.
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By Jacinta W. Odongo, Media Officer, Uganda Episcopal Conference
