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26 November 2015

Breaking food poverty cycle in Uganda

A development charity is launching a campaign to feed some of the 90 per cent of north west Uganda that currently lacks food.

Alliance member Samaritan's Purse has launched its Because I'm Hungry campaign to help 9,600 families break out of a vicious cycle of food poverty.

One of the many people trapped in this daily struggle to survive is 54-year-old single mother Dorcas.

Her two children are dependent on Dorcas for food, but with poor health through lack of nutrition, she has no energy to work and therefore no income. It's a vicious cycle.

She also has no money to send her children to school. 

Dorcas grows a small amount of food on her land, but that barely feeds her family, let alone provides any surplus to sell.

Dorcas said: "If we eat one day, we don't expect to eat the next. Sometimes we go days without a single meal. On the days we go without food, I feel concerned for the children, they cry for food, but there's no way I can provide for them."

In response to this desperate need, Samaritan's Purse is partnering with the Church of Uganda to improve food security for thousands of families like Dorcas and her children.

Local Church Action Groups will train and encourage families in conservation farming to improve agricultural practices, and income generating activities to enhance family income levels. This will enable families to better provide for themselves.

A family's spiritual health will also improve through prayer, discipleship and fellowship.

The Revd Vincent Ogwang, of West Lango Diocese, explains: "A hungry person cannot do anything, because without strength you cannot work, without strength nobody can go to school and because of that we want to say the issue of food is very important.

"This part of the nation has suffered for many decades, many families are now not being fed as they should be."

The Rt Revd George Kasangaki, Bishop of Masindi-Kitara, added: "People have only food for today, they don't know what tomorrow will be like, they don't expect to have food tomorrow and that becomes a vicious cycle."

A gift of £8 will provide a family with nutritious food by equipping them with essential farming skills, enabling them to break out of this cycle of food poverty.

To find out more please visit: www.raisingfamilies.org.uk,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GjSrv5pUsw and find them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SamaritansPurseUK