“Our refugees not following rules to control spread of COVID 19”: Salesians in Uganda

“The reduction of food rations is another evident problem in the settlement: the food available has fallen by 30% and for an adult, it is almost impossible to maintain themselves for a month,” the leadership of SDB has been quoted as saying in the June 15 report.

Lack of sufficient food supplies can “generate frustration, anger and other social unrest," the head of the Salesian mission in Uganda, Fr. Lazar Arasu noted.

Poor health services are a “prime concern” for the Salesians serving in the camp, since there are only three health units with “minimal facilities” serving the more than 56,000 refugees as well as native Ugandans around the area.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, providing medical services is even more difficult, and there is an increase in diseases such as stomach ulcers amid other problems related to poor nutrition, the member of the 161-year-old Religious Order says.

Members of SDB in Uganda are also concerned about the welfare of at least 25,000 children and youths who attend the 11 primary schools, one secondary school and the technical school in the camp, who are home following the closure of educational institutions due to COVID-19.

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“By staying at home, with less food than before, without lessons, without distractions of any kind (facilities for sports and other youth activities have also been closed), children and young people are stuck between anguish and nervousness,” the leadership of the Salesian missionaries in Uganda have reported and added, “Several teenagers and young adults have taken on antisocial attitudes and an unruly sex life.”

With the chapels inside the camp closed, the SDB members note that the inability of the refugees to participate in the liturgy and the community “has meant losing even the minimum of spiritual and psychosocial support that the religious were able and could offer.”

Amid these challenges, the Salesians at the camp continue to do what they can to support the refugees, including distributing food items and books to the students.

"Like the refugees we too look forward to the end of the epidemic and return to normal life, to serve our beloved refugees better,” the head of the Salesians in Palabek, Fr. Arasu has said.

Uganda is Africa’s largest refugee host nation, with an estimated 1.4 million refugees. According to UNHCR, at least 74 percent of them are from the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan.