Adjumani Refugee Camps

The northern region of Uganda has known considerable trauma and difficulties over many years, and once again in 2015 and 2016 there has been an exodus of refugees flooding in from conflict in South Sudan.

Displaced people and tribal groups have run, literally with the clothes on their back, into safe zones around the town of Adjumani, close to the border.

The UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) are pumping in considerbale support but are barely able to keep up with the new arrivals as war continues in South Sudan. Only in July and August 2016, approximately 30,000 refugees arrived to be processed and allocated meagre resources to build make-shift homes under trees with pieces of tarpaulin and anything else that they can lay their hands on- normally poles and tree branches.

New camps are springing up, generally segregated by tribal groups, so as not to cause further issues in the camps. The Dinka people are predominant with the Nuer and Madi tribes also present.

Eagles Wings were invited to help by one of the few qualified Doctors who has been conducting surgery in appalling conditions for the effects of war, such as gun shot wounds and mine blasts. Doctor John is desperately short of basic medicines, pain killers, orthopaedic kits and essential antibiotics and wound dressings.

Over the last three years Eagles Wings have made 5 visits to Nyunmanzi and Alere camps with teams of volunteers to support the Doctor by building a surgical unit, conducting mobile health clinics, making furniture- chairs and tables for the elderly, providing reading glasses for those who can’t see well, buying a portable PA system and generator for the church and community leaders established in Alere camp, organising sports activities for the youth and taking in football shirts and shorts for the semi clothed and naked children.

Bruce Oliver (Eagles Wings trustee) says, “It seems like a drop in the ocean, but we have seen genuine and lasting change in Alere camp, where the local community leaders have worked with us to make a difference to the lives of some of the hardest hit living in their community”. 

Apart from the football kits supplied through UK charity Kit-Aid, most of our essentials can be bought more cheaply in Uganda and transported direct by vehicle into the camps. Doctor John handles the medical and surgical equipment and drugs and Eagles Wings delivers the rest in person. This avoids the usual issues of corruption that are prevalent in such regions.

© Eagles Wings 2019                                                                                                     Reg’d UK Charity No. 1105731