The current situation has everyone talking about the severe food shortage in many parts of the eastern region. HOPE FOR ORPHANS ORGANIZATION brings you the appalling situation as residents reportedly survive on mangoes and porridge.
In the midday sun, 13-year-old Joshua Mugomba lies quietly on a ragged cloth, spread under a tree in the compound of their home. He moves his frail body from side to side as he labours to breathe. He can neither sit nor stand. The contours of his rib cage are outlined through his emaciated body. He is not sick. He is just starved, having gone for several days without a solid meal.
“We haven’t eaten in four days. We have been depending on sugar canes which we whip from various plantations,” Mugomba says. Because of the persistence of pain and body weakness, Mugomba was rushed to Kiyunga Hospital where he was admitted for two days and later discharged. However, a few days later, through a kind and caring friend of this charity organization, Mugomba and his family had a reason to smile when we received a donation to provide them with some food and cloth.
Although it is already 12:40 p.m. on a Friday when I arrive at David Mugomba’s home in Namalemba Village parish, Bulongo Sub-county in Luuka District, no one has eaten, because they haven’t been able to even find the sugarcane they usually rely on. As we speak to Mr. Mugomba, he tells us of how he was once a successful farmer before selling off his land in order to pay school fees for his children, now he and his entire family depend on digging at their neighbors in order to get food or go to bed hungry. If the porridge or sugar canes does not come, Mr. Mugomba and his family will spend yet another night with empty stomachs.
Just a few meters away from his house, Edisa Nangobi sits in a pensive mood under the shade of her grass-thatched mud house, contemplating her next move. The day has not been good for her as she does not know where she will get food to feed her 9 children. She says her children will now have to take porridge for supper. “They can survive on mangoes during the day. There are plenty of them on the trees. We shall have porridge for supper tonight,” Ms. Akello said. But the mangoes are getting scarce by the day, spelling more disaster for many of the children who have been relying on it for survival. Two years ago, Ms. Edisa planted cassava in her small garden but the floods washed away everything. This year, she has tried her hand at it again but the prolonged drought has affected the cassava once again. “If we don’t pray so hard to God, my children are going to die of hunger. I have nothing to give them,” she says.
Survival for many people in Luuka district in Busoga sub-region has become a nightmare now that food is scarce. After being destroyed by the recent prolonged drought which left most crops destroyed and devoured anything remaining after that, the region which used to have abundant food has plunged into famine, leaving thousands of people vulnerable to hunger and starvation. Scenes of children with bloated stomachs feasting on mangoes are common in the villages. With no food, that is the only way many of them can beat the hunger.
“We only have supper these days. So during the day, we eat mangoes only,” said six-year-old Magolo Mathias, a pupil at Kiyunga Parents Primary School, who lives with his mother, a poor widow.
“My children have now resorted to stealing from the gardens. The other night the children were found uprooting fresh beans,” Ms Edisa said.
Many children are no longer going to school because of hunger. We call up on everybody to donate for this program following our campaign. No child deserves to starve or feel driven to steal from others for food. If you find it in your heart to donate, please click the link below and it will lead you to our donation page.
