“Allah said, ‘O son of Adam! Spend, and I shall spend on you.” (Sahih Bukhari)
As a landlocked country, Uganda has become a hub for refugees from its neighbouring countries for years. The small East African country is one of the largest refugee-hosting nations in the world. At the end of 2018 there were over 1.1 million refugees in Uganda with the majority from war torn South Sudan. This influx has led to the creation of Bidi Bidi – the largest refugee camp in the world – housing around 300 thousand refugees. Uganda’s own economic instability and political issues only exacerbate the condition of the country and therefore it struggles with this refugee crisis.
Uganda has relatively friendly refugee policies that provide rights to the refugees, such as education, work, owning private property, healthcare and other basic social services. Therefore, millions of people suffering persecution and hunger have made the arduous journey to find safety in Uganda for themselves and their families. But Uganda, being a very poor country itself, has struggled to handle this large inflow and cannot cope with the demand of food and medical attention many of the people need. As a response Crisis Aid has been active on the ground providing life-saving food parcels to families in these refugee camps. As always one of the biggest issues in the camps is the lack of clean water which ultimately leads to waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery. But attaining clean water is a general problem nationwide in Uganda where people are having to walk many miles for drinking water. Once again Crisis Aid recognises this plight and helps provide the means to build water wells for safe access to clean water across the country.
The biggest contributor to Uganda’s Refugee Crisis has been South Sudan’s civil war which has driven out hundreds of thousands of people in to Uganda. The war started when South Sudan’s president accused his deputy of launching a coup and as always civilians had to bear the brunt of political instability and violence. The Guardian reports over 3.5 million South Sudanese have become refugees since the start of the civil war in 2013. Since then, around 300,000 people have died and about 3.5 million have become refugees, with nearly half fleeing to neighbouring countries. Many of them have come south into northern Uganda into refugee camps such as Bidi Bidi and Achol-Pii. On a smaller scale Uganda also hosts refugees from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One of the biggest issues with the refugee influx in to Uganda is that many are children on their own, most who have lost parents to violence at home in South Sudan. There are children as young as 5 starving and lacking in care waiting for help. As a result Crisis Aid has offset a long term plan to build an orphanage for some of the most vulnerable children. Help us give a child a chance of a brighter future by supporting us in this worthy cause while gaining long term rewards in the form of Sadaqah Jariyah for yourself.
At Crisis Aid we believe in helping people to become self-sufficient and independent rather than become accustomed to handouts. Our long term plans for the people in Uganda include helping them set up goat farming businesses to help support themselves.
Please donate now so we can continue our work with one of the largest refugee groups in the world.
