Uganda has a longstanding history of hosting refugees with more than 1.1 million refugees and asylum-seekers as of October 2018. The country has received more than 1 million refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan since July 2016, Asylum seekers continue to move into Uganda, those who go through south western points of entry are received and registered at Nyakabande transit Centre, located in kisoro district, the transit center mostly receives people fleeing the violence in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). After registration, POCs receive relief services offered by humanitarian assistance service provider organizations on ground which include CAFOMI, while, they await settlement in the refugee settlement camps.
Care and Assistance for Forced Migrants (CAFOMI) with Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) distributed clothes, shoes and mosquito nets to persons of concern (POCs) in Nyakabande transit center on Wednesday 21, August 2019. More than 100 POCs benefited from the exercise including children and adults.
According to Betty Atukwase, CAFOMI’s community services Assistant in Kisoro, the donation was mobilized by Uganda Red Cross volunteers Kampala West Branch and donated to the Transit center through the Uganda Red Cross branch in Kisoro.
The distribution was done by the CAFOMI and Uganda Red Cross teams working in Kisoro at the transit center. This has positively impacted on the day to day lives of the beneficiaries since most of them were lacking some of these NFIs.
“We distributed them to Persons with special needs (PSNs) i.e. older persons at risk, Persons with disabilities (PWDs), single parents, Sexual and Gender based Violence (SGBV) survivors, unaccompanied minors, separated children and other children at risk,” Betty further explained.
