NGO launches crowdfund to give hunger-hit Karamoja meals

A Kampala-based non-profit organization has launched campaign to raise at least Shs100m by 2023 to provide essentials for people in Uganda’s hunger-hit Karamoja sub-region. 

In July, daunting images emerged from the north-eastern pastoralist area where official estimates indicate nearly 900 people have died from severe famine since year start.

Local Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) indicate that “at least four in every ten households still lack a single meal despite intervention from government and other international agencies.”

Through a campaign dubbed My Last Meal, Last Drop Africa has now partnered with the Local Governments in the nine districts that comprise the Karamoja Sub-Region to distribute relief items, including food purchased through crowdfunding.

Last Drop Africa Co-Founder Alex Taremwa Wednesday told Monitor that the stopgap campaign to benefit public institutions and homesteads will pave way for long-term sustainable solutions to the Karamoja hunger question.

“We know that we cannot fundraise for every climate crisis. While you’re still in Karamoja, rivers are bursting banks in Kasese; floods are washing away homes in Mbale, and land is burying people alive in Bududa. But for long-term solutions to be of value, people must be alive to not only support and contribute to them but also to enjoy them. That is what we are trying to do here,” he explained.  

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Organizers say the campaign was initially planned to start August 1 and close September 30, 2022 but was pushed further “due to unforeseen circumstances.”

“I wrote an opinion in Monitor and urged us to reawaken the spirit of Ubuntu – the empathy and communal nerve that allows us to feel our neighbours’ pain. This is a call for everyone to join hands and lay the brick for a hunger-free generation,” Taremwa urged.

On September 20, the fundraiser went live on the M-Changa Africa platform and will remain active until the campaigns last day, December 31, 2022.

“Ugandans are known to move on quickly from things, however important. After the tirage of recent local and global headlines, the plight of the Karamojong has been tucked away. Let us give this matter the attention and urgency it deserves,” Co-Founder and creative lead at Last Drop Africa, Edward Nimusiima, echoed September 21.

He added: “Together, let’s ensure that people in Karamoja don’t taste their last meal today.”