HIV-positive IDPs struggle as food aid dries up

“I am the only bread-winner for the family, yet I am sick [HIV-positive]; I have no energy to cultivate or to plant food for the family,” she told IRIN/PlusNews. “We relied on food provided by [the UN] World Food Programme [WFP] and other support provided to people in IDP camps, but things got worse a few months back, when the support stopped.”

In 2008 WFP announced that a funding shortfall had forced it make cutbacks in its Ugandan programmes, including the withdrawal of food aid to HIV-positive people.

“We shall only be providing food support to those HIV-positive IDPs who are extremely sick or those whose health condition has relapsed, based on advice from health workers,” Bai Mankay Sankoh, head of WFP’s Gulu office, told IRIN/PlusNews.

Aceng’s family eats one meal a day, usually boiled sorghum with salt, or cassava and beans. “You feel like eating but the food we have can’t make you feel satisfied; we have to persevere, knowing that there is nothing or little for tomorrow,” she said. “With this kind of life, anytime you can die because the drugs I am taking [antiretrovirals] require good feeding.”

Pamela Ayaa, 21, Aceng’s oldest child, makes less than US$1 a day at a local construction site. “The needs are too much, my mother is weak and our relatives can’t provide much because they are also starting a new life home after 20 years living in an IDP camp,” she said.

Primary and secondary school education are free in Uganda, but none of her siblings are in school because they do not have the money to pay for uniforms, exercise books or transport to and from school.

A protracted conflict between the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army and the government kept over one million people in often dangerously congested camps, sometimes for more than 20 years, but after a two-year lapse in hostilities and an ongoing peace process, IDPs are being encouraged to leave. According to local officials, about 40 percent have moved to resettlement camps closer to their original villages.

Many returnees have been able to resettle  on their farms and resume productive agriculture, and WFP is phasing out general food distribution in the north, but government officials have urged the agency to maintain food aid to the most vulnerable.

Some local NGOs are also concerned that health and other services will be unable to support a mass exodus from the camps; many HIV-positive IDPs now have to walk for days to fetch their monthly supply of ARVs, and cannot make the journey without sufficient food.

According to the Ministry of Health, HIV prevalence in Uganda’s northern-central region is just over 8 percent, slightly higher than the national average of 6.4 percent.

The road to self-sufficiency

In Amuru town, about 40 HIV-positive IDPs have come together to start a collective business that they hope will fill the gap left by WFP food aid and contribute to their income; the group is named ‘Can Kwiya Goro’, meaning ‘poverty does not know weakness’ in the local Acholi language.

“We walk five kilometres every morning to look for tomatoes to buy in Olwal village, where people have planted plenty of them,” said Christine Oyella, a member of the group. “I earn 6,000 shillings [US$3] when I sell one basin of tomatoes.” At the end of the market day, each woman puts $0.25 in a small wooden saving box to boost the business.

WFP’s Sankoh told IRIN/PlusNews that although food support had been withdrawn, the agency was still providing livelihood support to HIV-positive individuals to encourage them to be more self-sufficient.

“WFP plans to support 300 HIV-positive households who were living in IDP camps in Gulu and Amuru with 240 pigs, 300 goats and 30 beehives each year for at least some years to come,” he said. “[And] through the support … in a position to take care of their families and themselves.”

This feature is used with permission from IRIN/PlusNewswww.plusnews.org

Author

  • healthe

    Health-e News is South Africa's dedicated health news service and home to OurHealth citizen journalism. Follow us on Twitter @HealtheNews

Free to Share

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.


Related

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stay in the loop

We love that you love visiting our site. Our content is free, but to continue reading, please register.

Newsletter Subscription