France Supports Refugee Food and Nutrition program

2000 vulnerable refugee households and host communities are to benefit from a 500,000 Euro grant from the French government.

 The grant will be channeled through  international non governmental organization  Action Against Hunger to enable beneficiaries  to sustainably improve their nutrition  and food status,

 The French ambassador to Uganda Xavier Sticker, on Thursday  signed  the grant agreement with Action Against Hunger .

The programmed food assistance, he said  is a financial instrument of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs aimed mainly at strengthening   food assistance to vulnerable populations and improving their resilience.

Under the one year project refugees will receive  fresh food vouchers worth 100,000 shillings every month to aid in access to diversified nutritional diets for  1,000 at-risk households.  

 The refugees will exchange  the voucher with local food suppliers to get a variety of nutritious foods,fruits, cereals  and vegetables .

This program will go a long way in addressing the high rates of stunting of children in the refugee camps.

“The worrying levels of stunting and anemia  can partly be explained by the lack of food diversity faced by the refugee population, who are missing proteins, vitamins and nutrients” Amb. Sticker revealed.

Ritah Kabanyoro  country director at Action Against Hunger says the funding will support the nutrition and food security  to refugees in Nakivale and Kyangwali refugee settlements targeting vulnerable people who do not have  access to  food,  children, pregnant and lactating mothers.

The funding will also go towards  improving their nutritional status through self production of diversified nutritious  foods at home.  This will be achieved through provision of seeds, inputs, as well as link these households to markets.

Kabanyoro noted that working closely with the Office of  Prime Minister, they have already identified 1000 hectares of land in Nakivale settlement camp and 3000 hectares of land in Kyangwali .

600 households have been identified to do large scale agricultural  production on this land for food security and self-reliance.

Uganda is currently  hosting 1,535,900 refugees.  56.6% are from South Sudan, and  31.9% are from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Since 2017, the French embassy in Uganda has supported international NGOs  for an amount of 2,200,000 million Euros  through programmed food assistance. 1.400.000 of this money is dedicated to helping refugees and host population and 800,000 Euros dedicated to vulnerable households in Karamoja.