By Janani Loum | Director
In the month of June, Uganda was hit with a deadly second wave of COVID-19, which saw infection rate skyrocket to 170% coupled with high mortality rate. In response, the government of Uganda moved swiftly to put measures in place to try and curb down the infection rate. Among the measures, were curfew, ban on inter-district travels, ban of public transportation of passengers, ban on boda boda passenger transportation, reduced number of workers in offices to only 20% at a time, ban on schools etc. Many businesses were also banned for fear that they may aid the spread of the virus. However, as much as the ban is welcomed as a mean to curb down infection, the negative effects of these measures have been far reaching and as devastating as the virus itself. Many people who live from hands to mouth are reeling from the effects of these lockdown measures with a number of people reportedly dying from starvation. Domestic violence is on the increase as family bread winners, currently out of work, turns on each other. Children from vulnerable families are getting more malnourished rendering them to danger of developing diseases due to weakened immunity. Many families cannot afford medical care for their members and this has been worsened by the fact that many of the public health facilities right now are feared to be hotspots for corona virus infections. In most public health facilities, capacities of health workers are being utilized to fight against corona virus, leaving living little attention to other diseases.
CEOU have shifted attention to responding to the negative effects of COVID-19 control measures put in place by the government Uganda. Currently we are providing emergency food relief items to the most vulnerable households in the community, including households of the teenage girls, currently enrolled in our initial program - (Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy). We are currently distributing 500kg of beans, 750kg of maize flour and 50 litters of cooking oil. We hope to reach more households with this support but all will be dependeant on securing emergency relief funds.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
