By Our Reporter
Lutheran World Relief(LWR) has handed over items worth over 250,000 USD (about UGX 800,000,000) to Uganda Red Cross Society. The donations that include 160 Bales of Blankets and 220 cartons of school kits among others were handed over to the Secretary General of the Red Cross at their offices in Rubaga.
The donation comes at a time when Uganda is facing an influx of refugees and asylum seekers fleeing conflict in South Sudan. It has been reported that over 70,000 South Sudanese refugees displaced by violence crossed the border into Uganda in July, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
The agency says that it is registering over 1,000 South Sudanese each day. This crisis has severely stretched the capacity of Uganda’s refugee centres and constrained the country in terms of providing social services, food, health, education, water and sanitation services to the refugees and therefore any help accorded by donors goes a long way in making a huge impact to the refugees.
While addressing the press during the handover of the items at the Uganda Red Cross offices in Rubaga, Kenneth Barigye, the Lutheran World Relief Country Director said, “We at Lutheran are happy that we are able to contribute even so little to help make the lives of those fleeing violence a little better away from their homes.”