KIKARAMOJA- needs assessment

SLUM CHRISTMAS OUTREACH-
KIKARAMOJA (MASESE JINJA DISTRICT)

Needs Assessment Visit:

On Wednesday 13^th November 2013, six members of the Yimba Uganda team visited Kikaramoja slum in Masese to establish the status of individuals and families in the area. The aim of this visit was to assess the needs of the residents, in order to make informed decisions regarding the most beneficial ways in which Yimba Uganda could be of assistance.

Prior to the visit rapport was made with the local chairman of the area Mr. John Mweru. It was established that Karamajongs, Itesots and Acholis refugees make up the population of this local area.

A number of people were visited within the Kikaramoja community to establish the level of need of the homes there. Below is the list of people visited;

Name	Age	Other information
Fred	12 years	Pupil at Destiny Junior School In primary four
Rachael	5 years	Maseseko Nursery school Jinja – Top class
Maama Zoromiina	Adult	Grandmother of 9 grand children
Hamis Nsubuga	7 years	Has 3 siblings and was studying in top class at Maseseko Nursery school. He dropped out at top class. His father is a fisherman; mother cooks food at a local restaurant.
Angelina Akoth	Adult	She is a grandmother to 14 children. She looks after these children from sale of paper beads.
John Mweru	Adult	He is the chairman of Kikaramoja area in Masese. His area is composed of Karamajongs, Itesots and Acholis.
Fred Kabale (mzee)	57 years	He is an elderly man who lives alone in Masese area.
Loyce Naiki	16 years	Her home district is Moroto. Her siblings died and she came to Kikaramoja before her teens. She has a 1 and half year old child. She earns her little money from doing small jobs such as washing clothes, collecting and selling recyclables. She shares a house with a friend, where they pay 15,000/ per month.
Oniku Sarah	18 years	Comes from Moroto district.
Josephine Abo	24 years	Has stayed for 5 years in Kikaramoja. She has 6 children (4 boys and 2 girls). Her mother lives in Kakira. Abo digs on people’s farms to earn money to support her family. Only 1 child goes to school. She also works as a part timer in paper bead making.
Dinah Akello	39 years	Mother of 8 children. She picks stuff from the streets of Jinja. Her children do not have clothing and they do not go to school at all.
Nabasirye Aminah	45 years	Has spent 3 years with her 8 children. She ran away from Katosi village in Mukono district where she lived with her brutal in-laws. 3 have grown up and she now takes care of 5. She rents a single room which is charged 20,000/ per month. Her children dropped out of school. She earns little from washing clothes and dishes in a small restaurant.
Betty Atiang	Adult	Has spent 4 years in Kikaramoja with her 6 children. She cannot work due to a sick leg. The father of her children was a boda-boda rider who disappeared and abandoned the family. The chairman of the area offered her a house to live in with her children who now feed from the nearby school.
Mary Sagal	16 years	She dropped out of school at p.7 level in 2011. She is now a mother of a 9 months old baby.
Siraj Bwaacha	56 years	He has lived in the area since 1969 and has 15 children of whom the eldest is 26 years. All his children go to school unlike others who have not had a chance to see the black board.
Joy seregue	22 years	She has 3 children and two of them have had a chance to attend school. Her husband is a casual worker.

From the visits carried out in several homes in the Kikaramoja area. A lot was discovered regarding the ways in which people manage their lives and the problems they encounter in life. Such as:

• There is no reliable source of income – families just gamble with life. At the rubbish dump ‘Kirombe’ we witnessed over 30 children and women sorting rubbish to pick out polythene bags, plastic bottles and glass bottles for sale. A 1kg bag of polythene bags earns them only 100/ which means for one to earn more than that she must endure the struggle and continue to sort through the rubbish.
• Parents and guardians struggle to provide food, water and school fees for their families.
• Family planning is not practiced and almost all homes have many young children at an age where they are not able to help fend for their families, instead exerting pressure on the limited income of their already poverty stricken families.
• Teenage pregnancy rates are also high resulting into large numbers of teenage mothers who should have been busy studying.
• There is congestion in the small houses and most of which are semi-permanent structures.
• Due to the high rate of illiteracy among adults in this community, education of the young generation is not valued at all. This has also resulted into resisting of modern treatment.
• Due to cultural beliefs, men do not work rendering women to becoming the ‘bearers of burden’. Therefore these idle males spend much of their time drinking the locally brewed alcohol. This continues to affect the women as their hard earned money is taken by their husbands in order to buy more alcohol.
• Sanitation and hygiene of all families in this area is very poor.

Recommendations

1. There is need to sensitize this community on the value of education, hygiene and sanitation.
2. Yimba Uganda should lobby for family planning services from the ministry of health or other partners.
3. There is need to lobby for HIV/AIDS treatment and counseling services to the infected families in this area.
4. There is need to start up self help projects such as carpentry, poultry farming, art and craft to enable these communities sustain their families.
5. Support in terms of fees and other basic scholastic items should be provided to these needy children to enable them get education.
   
   

Hamis Nsubuga 7, one of 4 siblings walks us to his home barefoot. He dropped out of top class, wishes to go to a better school and wear a pair of shoes.
It appears he is looking at Coopy's shoes..

This lady works with her children all day at the dumpster to survive.

John Mweru, LC1 Chairman Masese 3.
he calls himself "a man of problems"
every issue is forwarded to him including all the funerals and finding land to bury the dead residents.

Josephine Abo 24, has lived in Ki-karamoja for 5 years. She has twins and 4 other boys. she digs on peoples farms to feed and clothe her children that neither go to school.

Mzee Siraj Bwaacha 56, has worked at this dumpster in Masese since 1969. he collects recyclable items like plastics, glass and polythene bags. a sack of polythene bags weighs 10kgs and is worth 1,500/= only. the stench at the dumpster is sickening but it is one of the few sources of money in the area. (1,500 UGS is equivalent to around 67cents) 

-Yimba Uganda
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