Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement

The expansion of the women’s literacy programme was interrupted in 2010 by a major natural disaster. A vast landslide down the slopes of Mount Elgon in Eastern Uganda, was widely reported internationally and was clearly visible from satellite images.   It engulfed several villages and claimed the lives of 300. This was the area of Bududa and it was to be the fifth area where the women’s literacy groups would be started by Rose Ekitwi. This disaster overtook the Bududa community, changing their lives forever. 

After the immediate emergency response, the government moved 600 families from Bududa to the district of Masindi in the west.They placed them as internally displaced people (IDP’s) into Kiryandongo Settlement Camp. With families of typically seven children they moved about 4,000 people.  The government only had enough money to build 100 homes, so 500 families still live in very simple and inadequate dwellings made of mud and thatch and broken tarpaulins left by former refugees. The government has the intention to build more but is clearly lacking the capacity.  The camp was used for many years by the Sudanese, who have now returned to the New Sudan.

 The camp is well past its ‘use by date’. Each family was allotted a square. Some squares have fruit trees planted by a previous occupant. Some squares are full of holes where clay has been used for making bricks. Some squares have nothing. Some have big humanitarian aid tents formerly used as clinics and made of very strong tarpaulin. Every home seems to use a blue UNHRC awning, which is full of holes. These are signs of aid formerly given to the Sudanese but not to the Bududa community.  The worst problem is that only five out of twelve water boreholes are still working.  People queue for hours to get a jerry can of water and the hand-pumped bore-holes work flat out for 20 hours per day. The water situation is  desperate now but in a few months the place will be a swamp when it rains.The people have moved from mountains to a flat plain; from a rainy area to a place prone to long dry seasons; with different soils and seasons.  It requires a complete change in agricultural practice. These people are farmers who eat what they grow and depend on what they grow. This camp is an extremely poor place. They are safe now from landslides but are starting from scratch.

After waiting a year, Rose started up her FAL (functional adult literacy) groups.  Fourteen leaders have been trained. Six groups have started, one in each zone of the camp. The people are very eager and receptive because this initiative acts as a catalyst for a whole range of improvements and inputs.   

Key Facts

• At least 300 people died, the majority buried alive. • On March 1st 2010 a large landslide occurred in the foothills of Mount Elgon at Bududa. Nine hours of torrential rains, de-forestation and climate change were all named as the reasons. 

• 85 homes were destroyed in a village called Nametsi, where the clinic and school were buried by the landslide. Houses, markets, and a church were destroyed in Nametsi, Kubewo, and Nankobe 

• 600 families have been moved by the Ugandan government for their own safety, to be re-settled at Kiryandongo  Refugees Camp. 

• Afrinspire is supporting the formation of functional adult literacy and self-help groups in Kiryadongo.

• Since 2006 Afrinspire has supported Rose Ekitwi to bring literacy, empowerment and development to women and their families in Uganda.  Sixty seven groups have been started in five areas.  Each group impacts twenty households comprising 200 people

• Afrinspire is the sole financier of Rose Ekitwi and this FAL development programme

 Read more in our April Newsletter