Finding peace in Uganda: “I feel safe here. The gun shots have stopped.”
This week the world stands in solidarity with the 1.3 million refugees living in Uganda. Here we meet some of the newest residents of Imvepi refugee settlement.
The buses line up daily for the 11am drop-off at Imvepi Reception Centre. As soon as the bus doors swing open, crowds of mothers clutching their babies, chickens, cooking pots and bags of clothes jump off and send dust swirling through the air.
This is the first of three bus rotations, which bring around 1,000 South Sudanese families from the Ugandan border to settle in Imvepi every day. It is the seventh refugee settlement in Northern Uganda to open its doors to the single largest refugee influx from South Sudan. Sixty percent of the new refugees are children.
Vicky, aged nine, was one of the first refugees to enter Imvepi when it opened on 21 February. She came to Uganda with her father and four brothers.
The seven-day trek on foot from Juba to Uganda’s Kerwa border was a terrifying journey, she said: “We heard so many gun shots along the way. My brother was protecting me while we hid in the bushes. I was so scared.” The family of six snacked on dried fish along the way but never have enough food for a full meal during the journey.
Since arriving in Imvepi, Vicky and her family have been immunised, checked for malnutrition and registered to receive humanitarian assistance including shelter, blankets andfood. The World Food Programme (WFP) provides hot meals to all new refugees as they come into the reception centre before being resettled.
“I am so hungry — all I could think about along the way was beans. I feel happy to be here and find beans!” says Vicky.
Imvepi is filling up fast and is now home to 107,000 people. After around three days in the reception centre, going through the full registration process, families move to the settlement and are given a 50-square-metre plot of land. Eventually, as in most refugee settlements across Uganda, families will be able to grow their own food and become more self-reliant.
Uganda’s refugee model is one of the most welcoming in the world, allowing refugees to have land, start businesses, access healthcare and education and move freely. It allows people the opportunity to rebuild their lives close to their home country.
Grace, aged 22, fled South Sudan three weeks ago with her two sisters Janet, 15 and Viola, 12. “We were growing so hungry because every time we would go out to the garden to take food we were scared of being raped,” she told us. “They were all over our village, looking for girls like us. I had to take my sisters and run far…far so that it couldn’t happen to us.”
Grace and her sisters feel “good” to be in Uganda — a place where they can cook food together again. “Here there is peace. Our bellies are full again and we can rest for some time. Then I hope we can all go back to school here.”
There is doubt that the conflict is going to end any time soon. As South Sudanese families continue to flood into Uganda, at a rate of around 1,400 people a day, Imvepi will start to overflow. WFP supports 1.1 million refugees in Uganda with life-saving food — more than double this time last year.
After two to three nights at the reception centre, the new refugee families are usually ready to move on to the settlement to set up their new lives in Uganda. Mothers, babies and chickens all load onto trucks with all their belongings one again in transit, but this time just a short distance down the road. Once they arrive at the site, they receive enough maize, beans, oil, iodized salt and fortified foods from WFP to meet their nutritional needs for the next month.
Lorna, a single mother from Yei, cooks a first meal of fish and posho (maize) for her four daughters as they sing rhymes and roam around their new plot. “We got maize and cooking oil from WFP today. It’s our first lunch here.” She beams, as she pours oil onto the dried fish swimming in a red soup. After the family eat, the girls resume playing while they wash the pots. Tomorrow they will receive a tent from UNHCR, but for now, Lorna turns to setting up their temporary shelter for the night.
“People were running to different corners, away from the gunshots. The girls were with me but I couldn’t get to my mother, I don’t know if she’s ok up until now.”
“I have hope for us in Uganda now. We came here because of the insecurity there, and the protection here. We are happy to have this meal in peace.”
The international community unites at the Solidarity Summit on Refugees in Uganda on 22 June. Hosted by President Yoweri Museveni and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the Summit was a chance for member states to consider Uganda’s generous refugee model and how they can best support it. WFP needs at least another US$63 million to meet their food and nutrition needs until the end of November.
Follow me on Instagram @beyondbidibidi for more refugee stories from WFP Uganda.
Find out more about WFP’s work in Uganda.
