France offers Sh2.1bn for food security in Karamoja

Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The French Government has given 535,000 euros (sh2.1 billion) worth of humanitarian assistance to the Karamoja region under the Aid Food Programme 2024.

Through this project, ACTED, in consortium with Caritas Moroto diocese, received a grant from the French Embassy in Uganda, to enhance food security and nutritional health of vulnerable households inNakapiripirit and Amudat districts.

ACTED is a global NGO with a mission to achieve zero poverty, zero exclusion, and zero carbon.

Specifically, ACTED and Caritas (a Catholic church-affiliated charity) Moroto diocese will contribute to improving food security through agricultural practices for 1,500 vulnerable households.

This one-year project, which will start in August, also aims to reduce the prevalence of stunting among children under two years old in targeted communities within the next year, through selected Maternal Child Health and Nutrition interventions.

Amelia Savell-Boss, ACTED Country Director in Uganda, emphasized that inclusion was at the center of the project, hence the target of 1,500 households, focusing on 66 women.

Further preference will be given to households with pregnant and lactating mothers plus children under 24 months.

In addition, the activities implemented by ACTED and Caritas Moroto diocese should indirectly benefit 21,000 individuals, based on an estimated average of 700 people per target community.

The implemented activities will include access to cash transfer and cash for work for 1,200 highly vulnerable households; enhancing agricultural skills for livelihood and creating vegetable gardens for 1,080 highly vulnerable households; and restoring degraded environment.

Environmental restoration activities will aim to reduce soil erosion, mitigate the effects of climate change, and improve air and water quality.

Other planned activities will aim at improving the health and well-being of pregnant women and lactating mothers, caregivers, and young children; sharing knowledge about maternal and young child feeding practices and bringing diverse nutritious foods and agricultural input to highly vulnerable households;

Some money will also go to promoting healthy eating habits in schools and raising awareness of nutritious diets in both households and schools.

During the signing ceremony, Xavier Sticker the French ambassador in Uganda said there had been a long-standing and successful partnership between the French Embassy in Uganda and ACTED.

This project is a continuation of actions carried out by ACTED in the recent past and in the same area of intervention, as a continuation of the long-standing and successful partnership with Caritas.

In 2018, France financed the REVIVE (Regenerative Earthworks and Vegetation in Vulnerable Ecosystems) project implemented by ACTED, with the creation, in Nakapiripirit, of the REVIVE center, an innovative structure designed to promote regenerative agriculture as well as sustainable resource management and farming among the district’s farmers.

A second project, financed under the Aid Food Programme 2022 (Strengthening the resilience and nutritional well-being of the communities of Amudat and Nakapiripirit, worth 500,000 euros) was subsequently implemented successfully by a consortium made up of ACTED and the NGO Food for the Hungry.

In the current project, Caritas will receive around 40 percent of the budget and will be responsible for activities relating to the dissemination of good food practices in vulnerable households and schools. This will also detect malnutrition and distribute highly nutritious foods.

The project selected has the great merit of being a continuation of actions successfully carried out by ACTED, a global NGO with a mission to achieve zero poverty, zero carbo, and zero exclusion, in the recent past and the same area of intervention.

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URN