Project title
Humanitarian Food Aid
Overall goal is to contribute to Improve nutrition and health of vulnerable and food insecure members of the community in Northern Karamoja districts of Abim, Kotido and Kaabong Areas of implementation:
- Abim
- Kotido
- Kaabong
First phase: (Number of Beneficiaries)
The overall goal is to contribute to Improve nutrition and health of vulnerable and food insecure members of the community in Northern Karamoja districts of Abim, Kotido and Kaabong
200 extremely vulnerable households receive 100kgs of Maize, 25 Kilograms of Beans and 5 Liters of cooking oil. An additional 68 Beneficiaries receive 100kg of Maize each.
Food Items distributed include 27,000kgs of Maize, 5000 Kgs of Beans and 1,700 liters of vegetable oils.
Positives:
Planning meetings with District and local partners enabled identification of hard hit areas within the Districts of Operation. The decision to redesign the ration for distribution to each household was reached at following meetings with local partners. The argument was if households received large quantities of food at a particular time, they would sell off some food to meet other personal needs.
Beneficiary selection using participatory community vetting approach. Members of the communities with sufficient knowledge of their communities were mobilized to participate in a Participatory Rural appraisal exercise in order to come up with 200 Extremely Vulnerable Households. The participatory approach ensured that local communities were involved and owned the process of food distribution. It also enabled the right beneficiaries to be selected to benefit from the food distribution exercise.
Kobo tool box was used for the baseline study on a sample of beneficiary households. Statistics pertaining targeted beneficiaries was analyzed and photos taken. Baseline results showed:
- 75% of Households registered with Government as extremely vulnerable Households
- Only 10% had received food in the last four months (September-December 2015) from partners or Government.
- 50% respondents are chronically ill; 30% are disabled
- Main sources of food for Household include; 60% wild food, 30% gift from relatives, 5% from own gardens
- All households (100%) had less than two meals a day (1 or no meal the previous day)
The major bottleneck during implementation was the planned period of implementation of the project. Commencement of the project was 1st December 2015, a month where most local partners were not available for consultations due to the festive holidays.
This was solved by postponement of activities to January 2016, to enable wide consultations with partners and Local Government Leadership. In future, there should be minimal activities planned for the month of December.
Second phase: (Number of Beneficiaries)
The second phase of food distribution reached 301 vulnerable Households. 287 extremely vulnerable households received 100kgs of Maize, 25 Kilograms of Beans and 5 Liters of cooking oil. An additional 14 vulnerable households received 50 kilograms of maize, 25 kilograms of beans and 5 liters of cooking oil. ADP distributed 7500 kilograms of beans, 30,000 kilograms of Maize and 2,000 liters of vegetable oil to extremely vulnerable households in three districts of Abim, Kotido and Kaabong.
The balance from cooking oil was distributed to 360 adolescent girls in Nakapelimoru Sub County who were supported with food
Positives:
During the second phase of food distribution, ADP reached 301 vulnerable households that did not benefit from the first phase of food distribution. In Kaabong, food distribution exercise targeted Lodiko Sub County. In Kotido, the food distribution exercise targeted parishes that did not benefit from the first distribution exercise. These parishes included, Lookorok and Potongor.
ADP used a participatory approach in selection and targeting vulnerable households where communities unanimously agreed to prioritize the extremely vulnerable. The use of leaders in vetting the selected households also ensured that the right households benefitted from the second phase of food distribution. In Nakapelimoru Sub County, the leaders were able to identify 21 households that lost all their property to wild fire to benefit from the food distribution.
Given the high number of households affected by hunger, not all households could be reached in the second phase of distribution. This was evidenced in the high numbers of people that turned up and expecting to be selected. However the eligibility criteria had to pick only the minority to benefit.
Third phase: (Number of Beneficiaries)
The overall goal is to contribute to Improve nutrition and health of vulnerable and food insecure members of the community in Northern Karamoja districts of Abim, Kotido and Kaabong
461 targeted beneficiaries received food ration in the right amounts and quality. However 66 more persons were reached with maize and beans. The third phase of food distribution reached 461 vulnerable Households. Households received 35kgs of Maize, 25 Kilograms of Beans and 4 Liters of cooking oil. An additional 66 vulnerable households received 35kgs of maize and 25 kilograms of Beans. ADP distributed 13,175 kilograms of beans, 18,445kilograms of Maize and 1844 liters of vegetable oil to extremely vulnerable households in three districts of Abim, Kotido and Kaabong.
370 Hand hoes, 370 Panga and 144 axes distributed to 370 households, Households were supported with farm tools to enable them engage in production. Each beneficiary household in Abim received 01 Hand hoe, 01 Pangas and 01 axe. In Kotido and Kaabong each household received 1 Hand hoes and 01panga. The reason for the discrepancy was the likely environmental impact so many axes would have created in Kotido and Kaabong. It was advised to increase the number of hand hoes per person and eliminate axes.
Positives:
For the third phase of food distribution, ADP integrated food aid with support to vulnerable households to engage in production. Vulnerable farmers from Kacheri, Kapedo and Lotuke sub counties were supported with food aid for household consumption and seeds to engage in production. The support rendered to farmers will enable them to be food secure and also produce food for household consumption in the future.
A reduced ration was given to ensure that a majority of the beneficiaries benefit from this phase food distribution. Also ensuring timely distribution of the seeds and ensuring that more farmers received seeds was deliberately done so that more farmers can take advantage of the weather conditions.
ADP reached 527 farmers and vulnerable households with the third phase of food distribution. However not all beneficiaries benefited from the seeds. Only 370 of the 527 were reached with seeds that included beans, sorghum, peas and ground nuts. The remaining 157 will be reached with seeds in the next phase.During May and June this year the weather conditions have been extremely unfavorable for crop production. Farmers who planted the seeds distributed have been affected by the dry spell that occurred. However, most farmers opted to wait for the second season rains that starts in June to plant the seeds availed to them.
Fourth phase: (Number of Beneficiaries)-CHURCH FOOD AID
The overall goal is to contribute to Improve nutrition and health of vulnerable and food insecure members of the community in Northern Karamoja. 109 vulnerable church members selected from the 4 Parishes of St. Mary’s church in Achangali, St. Michael Church of Uganda in Awach, Orwamuge Church of Uganda and Adea Church of Uganda benefitted from the fourth phase of food distribution.
Each church received 375 kilograms of Maize, 375 Kilograms of bean and 125 liters of cooking oil to distribute to vulnerable members. 109 Vulnerable church members received 13kgs of maize, 13 kgs of Beans and 4.5 liters of cooking oil each. Some beneficiary households contributed labor towards various church projects.
Positive Points:
The involvement of church leaders in the selection of the beneficiaries and also distribution was a main positive point in the execution of the distribution exercise. They were able to involved different church members and reach a consensus on the beneficiaries of the food. The church leaders also urged able beneficiary households to contribute to the church development in terms of labor.
However, there was high demand by church community members yet the food was little and resources are limited to fulfill the need of the people. However consensus was reached among the church members to target the most vulnerable first and also to use any balance for church development.
ADP-Stromme Food Aid:
The overall goal is to contribute to Improve nutrition and health of vulnerable and food insecure members of the community in Northern Karamoja districts of Abim, Kotido and Kaabong.
Food distribution exercise reached 268 adolescent girls. They received 10kgs of Maize, 5 Kilograms of Beans and 5 kilograms of Seredo sorghum. ADP distributed 1840 kilograms of beans, 3680 kilograms of Maize and 1,840 Seredo to Adolescent girls in Kotido District. Each adolescent girl received 10kg of maize, 5 kg of beans and 5 kg of Seredo sorghum.
Positives:
The positive point in the execution of the program is the community willingness to embrace Sorghum growing during the current planting season to mitigate hunger in future. Since most households had exhausted their food reserves, the project has provided the much needed seeds for planting.
Given that Karamoja region is characterized by erratic weather conditions, the timely distribution of the seeds will enable communities to fully take advantage of the current rainy season.
Food distribution exercise could not reach all adolescent girls in Kotido and Kaabong. This was because of limited food available for distribution. With the available food, ADP could only reach 268 adolescent girls in Kotido.
Oxfam Emergency Food Aid
Oxfam Emergency Food Aid to Vulnerable Households in Kotido District, Nakapelimoru Sub-County. (1st Phase200 Households, 2nd Phase 200 Households)
