After walking for days, over 5,000 refugees get hot meals daily in Imvepi reception center
Ruth and Asindulo live in a nearby Imvepi community in northern Uganda and have been cooking for the refugees arriving from South Sudan for three months now. “From six in the morning, we begin cooking for breakfast, lunch and dinner”, Ruth says as she stirred the huge sauce pan of porridge that will feed at least 120 people.
Along with 71 people including the cleaners and food monitors, 43 of them full-time cooks like Ruth and Asindulo, their jobs ensure that at least 5,000 new arrivals fleeing from South Sudan and those who were waiting to be assigned a piece of land in the settlement are provided with the hot meals. The meals consist of posh (maize meal or sorghum), corn-soya-blend (CSB) and beans.
The biggest number they have fed so far was 17,000 for a week last April 2016 when the influx of refugees was at its highest. “We worked from morning up to midnight. The number has caught us unprepared but we did our best to make sure everyone has food. The reception centre was full of people waiting everywhere. It was very crowded and people were very tired”, Kenneth Mwetware, URDMC Food Management Assistant.
He recalled that the workers were up all night cooking and serving using torches for lighting as the electricity has not been set-up yet. Now everything has been improved but they still struggle with the kitchen equipment and cooking ovens. Aside from the hot meals distribution in Imvepi, they also truck food to nearby areas for newly-settled refugees. “The food transport is up from 4:00 am to 8:00 pm”, he adds. All of the workers come from nearby host communities.
Upon arrival at the Imvepi reception centre, refugees get a vaccination, proceed to the registration, referred to other agencies if they need further assistance and are given the coupon for the hot meals. Most of them have walked for days with small amount of food they can carry or none at all, relying on the kindness of people along the way.
UNHCR figures on new arrivals from January to June 2017 have reached 295,812 refugees, 60 percent of which are children under 18. As of June 2017, the total number of refugees in northern Uganda has reached 950,562 and the biggest numbers can be found in Adjumani, Arua, Moyo and Yumbe, the latter is where Bidibidi is situated. In addition to food, World Vision has projects in these areas.
World Vision’s Operations Manager Benson Okabo says, “The hot meals program was a remarkable way of making the incoming refugees welcome to the reception centre. Most of then went through a harrowing experience just to get to Uganda for safety and the least we can do is see to it that they feel cared for when they arrive. World Vision and Uganda Refugee and Disaster Management Council (URDMC) through funding from UNHCR manages the daily hot meals program for refugees. Over 5,000 people are fed from the Imvepi refugee reception area alone.
Photos by Mark Nonkes, Communications Manager, East Africa Emergency Communications