2020 - 2024
Refugee reception in Uganda
For a better life in ‘Bidibidi’: better nutrition, more income and peaceful coexistence in the refugee camp settlement.
Description
Since 2016, the world's second-largest refugee camp, ≪Bidibidi≫, has been located in the northern district of Yumbe in Uganda. More than 230,000 people live here, mostly refugees from the civil war in South Sudan. Sadly, aid money from donors, used for basic items such as food, is slowly dwindling. At the same time, people continue to stream in from the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially South Sudan.
Bidibidi is not a typical camp, but rather an evolving commercial center. Various factors (isolation, struggle for survival, impossibility of returning home, conflicts between the host community and refugees) make this large settlement extremely vulnerable.
Vision
The overall aim of the project ≪Improving the living conditions of refugees and the local population≫ is to improve food security, increase income, and promote peaceful coexistence between the refugees and the Ugandan population in and around the Bidibidi settlement.
Approach
In the Bidibidi settlement, over 90% of the population lives from agriculture, focusing on crops that are suitable for the region's farmland during the rainy season. These include manioc, sesame, maize, beans, various vegetables, and peanuts. The crops grown are mainly for their consumption, with some sold at local markets.
Refugees and members of the host community share the land and cultivate it together.
HEKS/EPER's work centers on securing people's livelihoods in the long term. To achieve its goals, the aid organization implements various practical approaches, all of which are designed to increase household incomes and ensure peaceful coexistence. HEKS aims to encourage community leaders and the local administration to continue to build and maintain the local needs that have been jointly conceived.
Impact
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83% of project participants report an improvement in their income.
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93% of women report effective participation in decision-making bodies at the community level.
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686 households report an increase in income.
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Products produced and sold on the market in 2023 increase from 37 tonnes to 300 tonnes.
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The activities working towards a peaceful mutual coexistence were increased from 9 (2021) to 99 (2023).
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96% of project participants report improved access to services (e.g. land, health, education, water, security).
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172 stakeholders were trained in conflict resolution and gained a more in-depth understanding of the topic.
Story
A long escape
Seven years ago, Monika Luba and nine family members fled the fighting in South Sudan. It took them two weeks to reach the Ugandan border, where they had to wait another two weeks before they were registered and recognized as refugees by the Ugandan authorities and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"Those were the longest weeks of my life," Monika reports. "I was afraid we would be sent back, and I was worried about our future. At the same time, I kept thinking about what had been done to us in South Sudan."
Finally, exhausted and afraid, the family reached the Ugandan refugee camp Bidibidi.
Copyright Images©HEKS/EPER