After waiting months for the rain to arrive in northern Uganda, it sadly came too fast and too heavy. Many parts of Agago were flooded and cut off from help. Crops, houses and businesses were washed away or ruined – leaving many people with tough times ahead.
Conflict and HIV have ravaged this region for the last 20 years. Many children were forced to become child soldiers in the Lord’s Resistance Army and experienced unspeakable atrocities. Those that survived the conflict and the HIV epidemic were left orphaned or destitute. Chance for Childhood has supported over 7,000 of these vulnerable children and young people to move on and rebuild their lives. So we weren’t going to let a lot of that vital work be washed away in the floods.
Thanks to your help we’ve sent some essential emergency funding to help support the local children. Our Youth Centre in Patongo turned into a refuge for people stranded or displaced by the floods. Now the waters have receded we’ve started repairing homes and replanting seeds so there’ll be something to harvest.
The orphans and child-headed households in the area are among the most vulnerable groups, and many lost all of their vital food supplies. Luckily we run a mentoring scheme that means that they’ve got a local adult to look out for them.
Here’s one of these local heroes meeting our patron Milton Jones a few months ago.
He looks after this young family as well as his own. He ensures they have a meal everyday and have someone they can turn to. In May we had provided them with a pair of oxen. He ensured it was led to safety during the floods and now they’re all back home and the oxen have helped replant the crops. It’s a real lifeline to them because they also rent the oxen out to other families – providing the income that pays the school fees for all the children.
