Kotido Diocese, Uganda, Asks SPICMA To Finance Twenty Five New Boreholes

Nakapelimoru Sub-County is one of the biggest areas in the Mission of Panyangara, run by the Mill Hill Missionaries, under the new Catholic Diocese of Kotido, Uganda. The Sub-County has a population of 21,142, fairly evenly split between men and women, and living in 2,605 households. To the east is Kenya, and in all other directions are fellow members of the Jie People within Uganda.

The people are pastoralists, and partly nomadic. The men (warriors) and boys look after the cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys. During the rainy season, when grass and surface water are available the cattle are kept in the homesteads.   If the rains, which are quite irregular, are sufficient, the women and girls cultivate some crops, mainly sorghum, a hardy grain crop. This provides the basic carbohydrate and is also used for brewing the local beer. Once the dry season sets in the men and boys move off with the cattle to pasture areas in neighbouring Districts. The women and children stay at home, and do all the work involved in maintaining the homes. They keep a few cows to provide them with milk and blood which they drink mixed together, a high source of protein. Cattle are the centre of people’s lives and are used in cultural ceremonies, for marriage dowry, as a source of nutrition, and occasionally for trading. The status of women is that of servant to the men. The hard work they do is hardly recognised. They not only give birth to children, but have all the burden of raising them, with the men taking little or no interest.

Like all the other tribes of Karimojong cluster, the Jie have been involved in inter tribal cattle raids and conflicts for maybe up to 100 years. These have developed from simple cattle thefts and struggles for pasture land, using spears and arrows, to organised mass cattle raids with AK47 automatic rifles. Recently warriors from a village in Panyangara Mission went to a neighbouring District and brought back 600 head of cattle which they had raided from people there. The presence of up to 40,000 guns in the larger area of Karamoja, makes insecurity a constant problem.

The results of this rampant insecurity, apart from people being killed and maimed, is an almost total lack of real development in the area. Social services are extremely poor due to lack of facilities and low levels of education. Some Schools exist but the percentage of children attending them is very low. The majority of the population are illiterate.    Poverty is a constant factor.  Everything is compounded by the poor network of roads which are often impassable in the rainy season.

The most serious problem is the shortage of clean and safe water.

At present there are ten functioning boreholes, with hand pumps, in the whole of Nakapelimoru Sub- County, which means one to around 2000 people.  The recommendation is a minimum of 300 people per borehole.  Because of the difficulty in obtaining clean water and the low level of understanding, diseases are rife.  Children are not washed and many suffer from scabies and body lice. Eye infections and trachoma are very common. During the rainy season, water is often drawn from surface ponds, which are also used by cattle, while the men bathe in them too. Many children die from dehydration because of diarrhoea, and from worms. Others die from malaria and other treatable diseases. The Diocese needs your help, to drill five boreholes in different parts of Nakapelimoru Sub-County. Tentative sites have been established, according to physical features and type of vegetation. In each place committees have been set up and the people have agreed to set up a maintenance fund equivalent to £60 sterling, which sounds little but is a lot for them.   It remains for the geologist to come and verify that the sites will supply good water.

 The cost of drilling each borehole is £4800, which for twenty five boreholes is a total of £120,000

Karamoja, the area including Kotido and a number of other Districts, has been largely neglected by Government.  What resources that have been allocated to it have often been diverted by unscrupulous politicians and civil servants.    The people are powerless to protect their own interests. One of the major aims of Kotido Catholic Diocese is to try and empower the local people so that they begin to take charge of their own lives and development. We strongly believe that the Good News of Jesus Christ can help to convert the people from their dependency on the gun to living in peace with one another.

Bernard C. Phelan

Can you help? It is a lot of money but oh so little in terms of the transformation that it will make to the lives of these poor people.

If you are able to help, please  Click Here where you can safely make a contribution by Credit or Debit card through Charity Choice.

If you are able to Gift Aid your donation Click Here to download and print our Form

If you wish to make regular Monthly, Quarterly or Annual contributions, Click Here to
download and print our Standing Order Mandate.

You can also make regular payments through your employer by Give As You Earn.  Please quote our Ref No GYE 413255.

So far we have reached £83,110 of our target.