“There is a lot to be desired from our government and development partners. We do not have even a single orphanage or child care centre in Karamoja and yet thousands of orphans and abandoned children exist,” said Bishop George Joel Omara of Pentecostal Assemblies of God in one of the meetings held to develop a proposal to empower hundreds of young people in Karamoja with vocational and entrepreneurial skills.
The Karamoja region is home to the Karimojong, a “nomadic” tribe in the far North Eastern part of Uganda. The livelihoods of the Karimojong people were primarily derived from rearing Zebu cattle and hunting wild game in the vast lands of Karamoja. Due to the frequent cattle raids in to the neighboring regions of Teso, Lango and Acholi among others, the government of Uganda embarked on a disarmament process and discouraged nomadic tendencies of the Karimojong. The process of disarmament has been a success and a majority of the cattle warriors have now settled peacefully to adopt other forms of livelihoods such as agriculture.
The disarmament process, however, led to the death of several warriors who resisted the process, leaving a large number of orphaned children and widows to fend for themselves. Family planning knowledge and practice is the lowest in the country and this will eventually perpetuate poverty among households. Due to the low levels of education in the region (Dan Church Aid conducted a research in 2007 which showed that 88% of Karimojong cannot read and write despite the Universal Primary Education (UPE) program) and the high affinity to cultural norms and practices, the region has been the worst performer in all sectors of development in the country. A report published in the relief website on 30th April, 2012 stated, “Just five hospitals serve seven districts in the region with a population of 1.2 million scattered over some 28,000 square kilometers.” Over 5,000 children are reportedly malnourished according to a November 3rd, 2013 article published by Uganda’s daily newspaper, the Daily Monitor.
When I last visited Moroto in 2012, I came across this young girl who was vending items around Moroto town. It was midday, but these girls were in the streets chasing after a few customers. I was bothered by this because Lomongs’ age group can rarely be seen outside school during these hours in many other parts of the country. I inquired from this girl why she was out of school and she told me that her mother was sick and there was nothing to eat at home. She had to make some money to meet the household needs and could not afford to spend the much needed time in school. “I miss school and would like to go back to school but I don’t even have books or a uniform to start with,” she narrates.
Developers have preferred to concentrate in Kampala and other “above average” parts of the country in detriment to the Karamoja region. They however forgot and have greatly missed the beauty of Karamoja, the animal and cultural paradise. Have you ever seen thorny trees that make “musical sounds” from their fruits?
Bishop Omara and many other humanitarian activists have tried their best to bring to light the concerns of Karamoja. I will not dilute their call for support in the areas of education – to increase literacy and numeracy skills, to promote food security and livelihoods enhancement programs to empower the widows and the jobless young people, and to develop infrastructure like roads, health units, and electricity.
I will appeal to all those who have humanity at heart, those who believe that every child deserves a good start in life, those who respect the role of mothers and the challenges they face while raising their young ones, to those who want to see a just and fair world, where everyone has an opportunity to reach their full inherent potential and to those who promote health equity and believe that one day, the notion “health for all” can be achieved.
The people of Karamoja are calling on us. The mothers, orphans, the sick, the disabled, the people living with HIV/AIDS; thousands of malnourished children need our help. Let’s not leave Karamoja to the Ministry of Karamoja Affairs!