Experience Reports Uganda 2022
A special situation of forced displacement that allows for a tight network of social connections and trade relations
"Whatever South Sudan has to offer for the resettlement of people in the future, the character of open borders and, at best, prosperous relations will remain one of the consequences of past displacement."
Constructive and cooperative coexistence of residents and newcomers
"I am impressed by the patient struggle to find a good solution after three hours. In an environment where tensions and distributional conflicts exist, it's not just at this moment that civil conflict transformation succeeds."
Raphael de Araújo Bittner, General Secretariat of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK)
Men must be involved to make equality a success for all
„Teenage pregnancies had increased from 14% before COVID to 40%. Often the parents go back to South Sudan and leave the children behind. The older ones then bear the responsibility for the smaller children and are then also unsupervised. There is a high number of illegal abortions, he said."
Children and victims of sexual abuse need more protection
"I was very impressed by how a fifty-year-old single woman, caring for eight children and six adults alone, overcame her difficult fate and cared for her siblings and their children
with an admirable sense of duty and self-
sacrifice."
Keeping going even after hard blows of fate
„The experiences and impressions gained during the Exposure and Dialogue Programme are extremely varied. It is still difficult to put them into words, even after a few weeks' distance. The thesis that EDP "does something to you" has proven true - EDP has enriched me professionally and personally."
Dr. Lars Jeschke, Lawyer, German Cooperation (GIZ)
Surrounded by scarcity of resources and lack of prospects, my host set an initiative in motion
„There is hardly any crime. Only now and then are the police called to family disputes that end in violence, which they then try to mediate. Another reason for police intervention is attempted suicide."
Sebastian Krämer, Team Leader Market Means Procedures and Instruments, KfW Bankengruppe
The elephant wears its tusks to the grave - Of survival and courage in a Ugandan refugee settlement
„In the 30 years during which Ballia has lived in various places between her native South Sudan and in refugee settlements in northern Uganda, she has learned to help herself and others. She fled to Uganda for the first time with her mother and siblings when she was just seven years old."
Franziska Krisch, by-then Senior Evaluation Manager, German Cooperation (GIZ)
Of life's experts, shattered dreams and islands of cohesion
Whether we can realize our dreams so often depends on the circumstances into which we are born: War or peace? Rich parental home? What gender? What color skin? What part of the world? Healthy? We need to look at these power structures.
Franziska Pflüger, Research Assistant, Office of MP Rebecca Schamber, German Parliament (Development Cooperation Committee)
About the courage to wander between worlds
„I became aware of a significant difference from the lives of refugees in Uganda and in Germany through the sheer hospitality of the host communities. It was a blurring of the boundaries of guest and host."
