“The problem with coronavirus is it came suddenly”
WFP is providing cash in Uganda’s capital Kampala to 80,000 refugees living in informal settlements who have been hard hit by the consequences of COVID-19.
Not far from one of the most affluent neighbourhoods in Uganda’s capital, Adela Dagadi struggles to raise ten children in what her sons call “a ghetto.” Their three small rooms lead to a cluttered courtyard shared with neighbours and wet underfoot from being draped with drying laundry.
Adela, 41, a refugee who fled to Uganda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), lost both of her two jobs to COVID-19, which arrived in Uganda in March. She was let go as a domestic worker for diplomatic families almost immediately.
In the following days, demand for the costume jewellery that she usually sold house-to-house in the capital vanished as the economy shrank because of the pandemic and a complete lockdown and night-time curfew from 30 March.
Being a refugee is a struggle of life
“The problem with coronavirus is it came so suddenly,” says Adela’s eldest son, Elie, the second breadwinner in the family.
He lost his job at a glass factory in March as the economy slowed because of the pandemic and containment measures. Three months later, he is only called in irregularly to the factory, which has re-opened but is still hit by reduced demand.
“Being a refugee is a struggle of life. From one step to another,” says Elie, 20.
He adds, however, that the cash from WFP is what keeps his family going, especially his five-year-old sister Noela Serafina, who suffers from sickle cell anaemia and needs regular medication, which adds to the family’s costs.
Even before COVID-19 struck, the family had no savings. “I got my severance pay,” Adela says. “Uganda Shillings 63,000 (US$16.56). I used it to stock up on food — dry beans and milled corn — because I did not know how long the lockdown would last and feeding my children was already my biggest challenge.”
Ration cuts hit refugees in rural settlements
With the first cash transfer to the family, she also cleared late rent payments and debts from buying the medicine Neola must take daily.
The UN Refugee Agency is also providing cash to the refugees in Kampala to help cover their non-food costs, such as rent, for three months. This is in addition to an earlier government one-off, house-to-house distribution of food to vulnerable families in Kampala in response to COVID-19.
Before COVID-19, WFP did not assist refugees in the capital. WFP supports 1.25 million refugees in rural settlements across Uganda, hosting the largest number of refugees in Africa. Their rations were cut however by 30 percent from April due to a shortage of funding for WFP.
Refugees also often rely on remittances from abroad, which have severely declined across East Africa because of the global economic impact of COVID-19, particularly in developed economies.
WFP survey finds incomes lost
A WFP study in April clearly revealed how hard the lockdown had hit refugees in the city.
It found that almost all families had suffered income losses in the lockdown. The proportion of refugee families with no income earner grew from 31 percent to 72 percent during the lockdown. As a result, only eight percent of refugees could afford healthy, balanced meals. The study found households headed by women, the disabled and elderly were the worst affected.
Based on these findings and at the request of the Government, WFP began making electronic transfers to the mobile phones of refugees in Kampala, aiming to help them to meet at least some their food needs for three months.
Each refugee will receive Uganda Shillings 22,600 (US$6) each month — the same amount given to refugees in settlements.
Rent and food are key
Adela, her husband and children were forced to flee their home in Goma in the eastern DRC in 2012 when rebel forces seized the city. The family headed for Uganda but rebels abducted Adela’s husband apparently because he was a mechanic and they needed him to fix their vehicles.
Adela and her children have not seen or heard from him since he disappeared.
‘’This uncertainty around COVID-19 makes us nervous,’’ Elie says “We were already disturbed not knowing how many more days the President would add to the lockdown. Now there are rumours that he might re-tighten it because many people are not obeying public health safety guidelines.”
‘’In all of this, the children need to eat every morning, afternoon and evening. The most pressing things are two: rent and food.”
Supporting refugees in Uganda
WFP is grateful to Denmark and USAID for this one-off emergency support to refugees in Kampala.
Due to funding shortfalls for its regular refugee response, WFP was forced to cut rations for Uganda’s 1.25 million settlement-based refugees by 30 percent from April. To provide a full ration for the second half of 2020 for Uganda’s settlement-based refugees, WFP needs US$70.9 million urgently.
To provide a full ration for the second half of 2020 for Uganda’s settlement-based refugees, WFP needs US$ 33.8 million urgently. Even to be able to maintain the current ration at 70 percent for the rest of the year, WFP would need an additional US$ 4.2 million.
WFP is grateful to donors to the settlement-based refugee operation in Uganda: Canada, the European Commission, the Republic of Ireland, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
