HOW GABRIEL DENG A BENEFICIARY OF CASH AID HAS TRANSFORMED INTO A PROGRESSIVE FARMER-NYUMANZI REFUGEE SETTLEMENT-ADJUMANI
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Gabriel Deng with his brother at his 4-acre Cassava farm-Nyumanzi |
Gabriel’s Groundnuts farm at Nyumanzi Refugee settlement |
Despite Uganda’s progressive approach to refugee management, refugees living in settlements and their host communities remain vulnerable and at risk of recurring shocks. At least 80% of refugees in Uganda live below the international poverty line of US$ 1.9 per day. (Source: FAO and OPM. Food Security, Resilience and Well-being Analysis in Northern Uganda).
Gabriel Akim Deng is a 45-year-old refugee of South Sudan origin who came to Uganda on 24th April 2014 with thousands of other south Sudanese due to the conflict, He narrates, “I left South Sudan when the war broke out between the Dinkas and Nuer which left many south Sudanese homeless. Together with my family of nine members, we arrived in Uganda through the Nimule Elegu border and we were relocated to Dzaipi reception centre, from the reception centre, we were resettled at Nyumanzi Refugee Settlement, we were provided with Non-Food Items by UNHCR (including blankets, tools like hoes, panga and other household items saucepans and mosquito nets) and began to receive Food items from WFP’’.
The food aid provided by the World Food Programme has been beneficial to me and my family but I needed to overcome the dependency on food and cash aid as advised by AFOD during sensitization meetings, he recaps, “I did not have any other source of food, I started receiving food right from the time I arrived at Nyumanzi Refugee settlement. I later on enrolled into the cash program.” When I started receiving cash, I started saving part of the money. With the savings, I was able to rent land measuring 1 acre and planted cassava. The yield was good and I got 25 bags of cassava which I dried, I sold a basin of dried cassava at 18,000 Ugx and a full bag of five basins was worth about 90,000 Ugx hence able to raise 2,250,000 Uganda shillings (USD 608) from the 25 bags. I have since then increased to 4 acres and hope to expand in the near future. I will continue farming as it has made me progress and now I have a livelihood that I and my family can depend on other than relying only on the cash entitlement we receive from the WFP Cash programme. AFOD and WFP have made me optimistic about the future; I plan to open up a produce store one day that will help me provide a better quality of life for my family and enable me send my children to better schools.
In an interview with other beneficiaries about Gabriel, here are their excerpts, ‘We have also benefited from Gabriel’s farming venture.” He does not take his food items to sell to far away markets but rather to fellow refugees at cheaper prices where both the refugees and host community benefits,” When asked why he sells at cheaper prices, Gabriel says ‘I do not incur any transport cost and I want my fellow refugees to benefit and this is also an appreciation to the host community for the cordial relationship built’.
Gabriel says from the time he settled in Uganda there have been changes in his life and his family. “There have been some positive changes in my life, as I have acquired land now and I am able to cultivate unlike before in South Sudan, secondly all my children are now in school and I can pay the school fees and other requirements. I encourage other refugee beneficiaries and even the host communities to venture into farming’’. I would like to thank AFOD, WFP and Nyumanzi host community for allowing us to settle here. He says, ‘Here in Nyumanzi, refugees and the host community are one family’’.
To improve livelihood and overcome the socio-economic disconnect, AFOD has been exploring the different livelihood strategies factoring links to productive assets, knowledge, skills, markets and opportunities for socio-economic empowerment and transformation of refugees and host population.
