Challenge

1. Most of the refuges are depressed and desperate.

This is due to the fact that they have been forced out of their beloved mother lands due to wars; they have left behind and consequently lost their property, relatives and friends or some family members.

We normally hear tragic stories of how some of them had gone to farm or school, only for the rebels to attack and they run in disarray without going back home, they are not sure of the whereabouts of the rest of the family members or even if they are still living. This is too much for most of them to carry.

So there is need to help them out of their depression and desperation, to give them hope for a better tomorrow. This can be done through practical counseling and guidance; we also need audio and video bibles and bible stories. This is due to the fact that some of these people don’t know how to read or write and we need more projectors and generators.

2. There is lack of enough water supplies. 

The little that is there is dirty, which is the reason why diseases like birhazia, cholera, typhoid, etc., are common diseases in Nakivale Refuge camp. There is therefore need for us to help our people in these camps to get access to good water by digging bore holes and tapping gravitational water. This will eradicate water-born diseases as indicated above.

3. Shortage of food.

Organizations like World food programme, and many others, including our ministry have joined hands to help out on the issue of food. But when you look at the food ratios assigned per household in the camp, it is too small to sustain the population there. This is the reason why the children in the camps have low immunity deficiency and are malnourished.

This has also been of a negative impact on the lives of the elderly and the adult. They die of simple diseases due to poor feeding and lack of a strong immunity. We as MROLEC are now planning to invest in farming on a large scale, we need 4 square miles of land for farming, we can produce and process the food for the refuges. This will also be a great relief to our brothers in the camps.

Currently, we are involved in small scale farming. We also have 5 milling machines to help us process what we produce for the refuges. However, as indicated above, there is need for large scale farming to solve the problem of food shortage.

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in” Mathew 25:35

4. There are 70000 families living in Nakivale refuge camp currently.

Most of these people are naked or have old and perched clothing. No wonder pneumonia has claimed hundreds of the refuges. MROLEC members have always sacrificed their own fabrics for our brothers and sisters in the camps. However, the number is too big to be sustained by what we can locally offer to them. There is therefore need for other people’s contribution of fabrics to help avert the situation.