Where Food is Currency, Ration-Cuts Spell More Hardship.
By John Jal Dak; One Young World Ambassador.
Hit by ration cuts and with no land to grow their own food, refugees in Rhino Camp are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Elias Moses is an important man. He is a fellow refugee from South Sudan and part of my team of Community Based Mobilizers (CBM) at the Rhino Camp refugee settlement in Northern Uganda. His job is to help refugees get the food that they need. He explains where to collect it, when, and how much each person or family will get. Moses uses an arsenal of tools to make sure they have access to all this information — he chats with them at the camp, goes door to door, tells stories — sometimes with the help of a local drama group, and even shouts his messages out loud on a megaphone. But Moses’ job has gotten harder these past few months.
Food rations at the camp have been cut by 30%. “Because I am at the forefront,” he says, “everyone comes to complain to me. Many tell me that with the reduction in the amount of food they are getting, they only eat one meal a day. They also complain that because of Covid-19 restrictions, they cannot even engage in other income-generating activities to supplement the small rations. I feel bad, especially for those with young children, but there is nothing I can do.”
In March 2020, the World Food Programme (WFP), UNHCR and the Ugandan Government (Office of the Prime Minister — OPM) conducted a consultation meeting with refugee leaders from the 7 Zones of both Upper and Lower Rhino Camp to let them know that food and cash assistance would be reduced by 30% because of serious shortages in funding. With fewer donations because of Covid-19 and with 2.1million refugees to feed in Uganda alone, the host government and humanitarian agencies said their hands were tied. This meeting happened during last year’s lock-down
and attendance was limited to ten people only. Afterwards, it was the turn of refugee leaders and us, those working directly in food distribution, to inform the camp residents.
Moses is 26 and has worked for the Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT) for nine months. Alongside a team of 23 other mobilizers, they cover 11 food distribution points in 42 villages. They have to ensure that the process runs smoothly, that there is no over-crowding, especially now, with Covid-19. “We create awareness both before and during the food distribution. We let refugees know what services we offer, tell them about measures they can take to stop from getting Covid, and also talk to them about how to protect themselves from sexual exploitation and abuse, which may arise as a result of the ration cuts,” says Moses. “I also encourage them to go into farming so that they can boost the little that they get.”
Food is a currency in most refugee camps. Refugees are given the basics — cereals, pulses, cooking oil and salt. These can be bartered or sold to buy vegetables, firewood, clothes and medicines if someone gets sick. But it is a meek living and many refugees try to find other ways to support themselves.
Amule Felix has lived in Rhino Camp for the last four years. He says that the ration cuts have really affected him. “We are seven people in my family. The food that we get now does not last for the whole month. By the 20th, sometimes even by mid-month, the food is finished.”
He says he wishes that he didn’t have to depend only on what the WFP is providing. “I have tried to get land from the host community but I have not been successful. My plea to the Ugandan government and to their partners is to help us feed ourselves. They should encourage livelihood activities such as the provision of agricultural plots for those who are agriculturalist, animal rearing for those communities who are pastoralists, fish farming for those who have good knowledge and skills in fish farm management. If not, they have to take the food rations back to what they were before.”
Emelda Yawa is a single mother who has also been at Rhino Camp for four years. She says the ration cuts and the lack of access to farmland are making it harder and harder to put food on the table. “During community meetings, the staff of the UNCHR, the government and other international organizations working here told us to befriend landlords so as to get land for crop farming. But those landlords demand that we pay for the land on a seasonal basis. Most people here don’t have that money.
We’ve explained that to them but nothing has changed.” Despite these challenges, Emelda had a steadfast entrepreneurial spirit. She uses
part of her rations to invest in a small pancake business. “After receiving my food ration, I take two kilograms of maize grains to exchange for firewood so that I can make pancakes.” She sells her pancakes at Ocea Trading Centre, walking one hour every day there and back. She has managed to save up 150,000 Uganda Shillings ($40) to rent a small plot of land for this planting season. She is growing maize, sorghum and simsim. She also plants vegetables in the 20x20 meter plot where she lives with her four children. “This small vegetable patch has helped us to have a balanced diet and has at least promoted good health in my home. I use what I make from selling my farm produce and pancakes to buy clothes, shoes, and medicine because of the poor health services we receive here. But competition is stiff and buyers are very few. They have to give us our 100% food ration back.”
I am impressed by Emelda’s determination. Her small hut is ravaged by termites and needs to be repaired every year, and the tarpaulin roof emblazoned with the UNHCR logo leaks when it rains and lets in the heat when it’s sunny, but she seems unstoppable. For those of us refugees at the forefront of food distribution in Rhino Camp, we see every day how the Covid-19 pandemic and ration cuts have exacerbated an already hard situation.
Many refugees, no matter how determined they are to take back some control of their lives, seem to find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. We bear witness to the impact of insufficient donor funding as well as decisions made in meetings that don’t include us. Our plea is for the funding gap to be filled, for full rations to be restored, for greater support for refugees to build livelihoods so they can be more self-sufficient, and for increased recognition of the important role refugee-led organizations like YSAT play in supporting the refugee response.
- The Youth Social Advocacy Team (YSAT) Community Based Mobilizers work under the General Food Assistance Project supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) in co-partnership with Andre Foods International (AFI). Please consider supporting YSAT’s work here.
About the author:
John Jal Dak is a South Sudanese refugee living in Uganda. He is the Executive Director of the Youth Social Advocacy Team, a refugee-led organization supporting food distribution in Rhino Camp. He can be reached at jaldakruot@gmail.com. @JalRuot
