Covid-19: How residents of Kabarole donated and rescued vulnerable people

Kabarole district leaders give food and other items to the vulnerable children of Tooro Babies Home. This was after the home requested people to support them to care of the children as their resources had dried up. PHOTO BY ALEX ASHABA

Lucy Kembabazi, 43, is a widow looking after her sister’s four children; her sister is currently abroad in Dubai. Kembabazi stays in Rwengoma A village; West division Fort Portal town.

A few days ago, she received five kilogrammes of posho, one bunch of matooke, one litre of cooking oil, two kilogrammes of beans, one bar of soap and one packet of salt. These were delivered at her door by the Kabarole District Covid-19 task force team. It was a moment of relief and happiness as she received the items.

The announcement of the lockdown by the President came as bad news to Kembabazi because that was the day she stopped working and making her daily earning of Shs3,000 that she was using to look after her family. Feeding the members of her household became difficult.

“We had abandoned having lunch a week ago because we had limited food in our house,” she said.

Because she was considered among the vulnerable people in Fort Portal town, she was eligible to benefit from the task force.

“The day I received relief food, I was able to start providing lunch for the children again,” she said, adding that she is now coping since the President eased the lockdown to allow restaurants to reopen since she works for one. However, she says she still finds it challenging to put food on the table.

“The relief food I received especially posho pushed me up to the end of April because we have been making porridge for lunch and supper. We want government to consider us who are in upcountry towns not to concentrate on giving out relief food to people Kampala and Wakiso districts only,” she said.

Kembabazi story is similar to other over 4,000 vulnerable people in Fort Portal town who are still struggling to cope.

Mr Rodgers Musiimenta, 26, a boda boda rider in Fort Portal town, also a beneficiary of the relief food says it’s been over a month since he worked, and so he just stays at his rented house in Kisenyi, Fort Portal town.

“The Covid-19 task force helped me a lot with relief food with posho and beans. I have a family of three children and before receiving relief I was using my savings to buy food every day. Later, the money was exhausted when the President extended the lockdown for the extra 21 days,” he said.

The situation had made it difficult for him provide food for family members.

Musiimenta used to earn between Shs25,000 and Shs50,000 daily, which money he was using to construct a house in the village but that has now come to a halt.

“We have heard that government is giving out relief food to vulnerable people in Kampala but here in Fort Portal our leaders are telling us that the relief food has not yet come, that we need to wait,” he said.

These families and others have been lucky and grateful to receive food from other well-wishers within the community. The relief food that has come, not from the government but from from well-wishers’ in Kabarole District who donated what they had to the district’s task force to help the vulnerable.

This initiative was started after vulnerable people including boda boda riders, taxi drivers, people living HIV/Aids and orphans among others in Fort Portal town started to storm families asking them food.

This got the taskforce chairman and Kabarole RDC, Mr Steven Asiimwe to set up a committee headed by Mr Festus Bandeeba the deputy RDC to be in charge of receiving relief food items. Well-wishers’ responded to the call by donating items including matooke, posho, beans, cassava and yams among other foodstuffs to save lives.

Mr Jackson Magezi, a resident of Kichwamba donated 200 bunches of matooke to the taskforce.

“I know people who are living in town during this period were used to getting daily income like boda boda riders, taxi drivers and saloon operators; I decided to give out this food to the task force to help such vulnerable people,” Mr Magezi said.

Another good Samaritan, Ms Irene Linda Mugisa from Kasusu village donated 150kg of posho to help people living with HIV/Aids in Kabarole especially the youth.

“I have heard the news that some youth, over 200, living with HIV/Aids in Kabarole had shunned taking their drugs because they have don’t have food. I decided to help them with this food,” Mugisa said.

Kabarole RDC Mr Steven Asiimwe (R) receiving relief food items of 100 bags of Posho and 30 bags of beans that was donated by Rwenzori commodities to Covid-19 taskforce to support vulnerable. Photo by ALEX ASHABA

Various groups affected

The lockdown did not bite only individual families but also orphanages that were entirely dependent on donor help, which has since stopped coming in.

Tooro Babies’ Home located in Fort Portal town that was founded 50 years ago by Fort Portal Catholic Diocese and Ruwenzori Diocese to look after children who have been neglected by parents, abandoned or picked on the streets in Rwenzori region have also had a hard time.

The matron at the home Ms Betty Kemigisa says after the government announced the lockdown they have found it challenging to continue feeding the babies because their main source of food was from donors and well-wishers and it stopped coming through.

The home currently has 50 children they look after.

“It’s very hard these days to continue feeding these children because we don’t get any funding from government. We have 10 children who need tinned milk and each tin is Shs45,000 and a child finishes it in two days; we don’t have the money,” Kemigisa said.

At Fort Portal Remand Home, the juveniles are no longer able to access court since the courts are in recess due to the lockdown.

Ms Resty Basemera, the assistant probation and welfare officer at the remand home says by the time the lockdown was put up, there were 103 juveniles and they are finding it hard to feed them.

The regional remand home serves two regions: Western and South Western.

“The food we have is not enough though the Ministry of Gender, labour and social development supports us with food. I appeal to the local community to give us support on food,” Basemera said.

The Fort Portal Catholic diocese through Rev Fr Robert Muhiirwa recently donated some relief food items including pampers, matooke and eggs to Tooro Babies Home, and matooke and eggs, to Fort Portal Remand Home.

“They [juveniles at Fort Portal Remand Home] are not looking well. It’s like they are not fed. I am appealing to government to look into the issue and give them food,” the bishop said.

Other people who have donated include Pastor Dickson Lubega of Kabarole Christian’s Fellowship Church in Fort Portal town who donated 2.86 tonnes of posho to help the vulnerable in Fort Portal town, and the Tooro Kingdom which donated 24 tonnes of posho and 11 tonnes of beans to help vulnerable people in the seven districts of Tooro kingdom.

How food distribution is done

The Kabarole taskforce chairman Mr Asiimwe says they are helped by village chairmen to identify those who need support. The relief food is thereafter distributed by the army.

The vulnerable people include pregnant women, orphans, boda boda riders, saloon operators, taxi drivers, and child headed families.

“We have received a lot of relief food items from well-wishers’ but the challenge we have is that it is not enough; the people are many. We have not received relief food from the national taskforce for Kabarole District apart from relief food for patients in the hospitals,” he said.

The head of mobilization for the taskforce Mr Richard Rwabuhinga who is the district chairman says by May 6th, they had supported 6,528 families both in Fort Portal town and in town councils.

Rwabuhinga says they have received in total, 6,050 bunches of matooke, 15,130kg of posho, 2,474 litres of diesel, 750kg of rice and over Shs50 million from individuals and institutions.

“I want to thank the production department of the district and OWC for engaging our people into agriculture because what we are giving out to vulnerable people is from people in the village,” he said.

The district continues to wait to receive relief from the government but in the meantime, the residents have decided they will not sit and watch their neighbours suffer. They have given generously and are an example to many, of what generosity truly is.