Kyangwali Refugee Settlement, a diverse refugee haven, is located in western Uganda, in the district of Kikuube, formerly part of Hoima district. Refugees from Rwanda started to live in Kyangwali when the settlement was opened in the 1960s. From the 1990s to 2010s, refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo lived in Kyangwali. Kyangwali has hosted two different groups of refugees and also the Bakiga of South western Uganda from the district of Kabale. The second group are the refugees from North Kivu province that mainly arrived here around 1996 during the war between Mobutu and Laurent Kabila that pretty much started in 1996 and up to 1997 when Mobutu is overthrown by the Rwanda and Ugandan led insurgency that led Laurent Kabila to power.
As of January 2021, the population of the settlement had reached 125,039, in 42,428 separate households. In 2018, the number of residents had risen to 83,558.
Life in Kyangwali
You may be wondering about sleeping, eating, recreation, shopping, Internet services, schools, churches or mosques, agriculture etc. in a refugee camp? At the time this group arrived, there was no direct road that linked the Kasonga Health Center IV, Kituuti to Kasonga Trading Center. A lot of food and relief Items were given to the families as soon as they arrived. They would stay there for two or more weeks, and later would be given a piece of land to start cultivating but this did not mean they lost their food ration from WFP immediately. They would continue to receive food for about 2 years and this would stop. As time went on, large numbers of these families were brought in and villages of Kyebitaka, Mukarange, Rwenyawawa, Nguruwe, Kasonga, Nyamiganda, Nyampindu, Mukunyu, Kagoma, Musisas A & B.
Refugees were given a piece of land to farm their own food to eat. In the Nakivale settlement, in the southwest of Uganda near the border with Tanzania, for example, extreme weather conditions affect people’s livelihoods. Plants die, food becomes expensive and many go to bed hungry. Similar scenarios play out in Kyangwali refugee settlement, in the southwest’s Hoima district where the great Bugoma forest is struggling to maintain a semblance of its old majesty as people encroach it for firewood, timber, and farming land.
I don’t remember very well how Kyangwali became my home. Our families were brought to Kyangwali in big lorries. The first time I arrived in Kyangwali, I had been on a lorry for two days. I am originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I was born in the eastern part of the country in a village near Bunagana town. I left my home country for Uganda’s Kyangwali Refugee Settlement when I was six years old. I remember coming in with my family and the vehicle entering the Bugoma forest. Kyangwali was in a thick, green forest near the equator. Baboons were all over. It was my first time seeing baboons, actually. It was a terrifying experience.
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When we first came, we were put in old school buildings. We were really worried. Are we going to have a life here? At first it was very, very hard. Every day, we heard the news, so-and-so has died, so-and-so has died. The ambulance siren scared everyone. Today, even when I am miles away from Kyangwali, my heart is troubled by the sound of a siren. That’s when I decided to work very hard, to do whatever I could to change my situation. And my priority was to focus on my education. I worked hard in school.
Challenges and Support
Uganda is hosting over 1 million refugees with about 114,716 (OPM Nov 2019) of them settled in Kyangwali refugee settlement. This rapid influx of refugees has put pressure on basic social services including education, food, shelter and WASH infrastructure. In order to efficiently and effectively improve WASH service delivery in the settlement, there is need for accurate and reliable information on which to base programmatic decisions.
Kyangwali settlement has had a number of interventions by different partners, and in as much as there were access indicators obtained regularly by the partners that provide extremely useful average figures at settlement level, there has been a gap in the in-depth understanding of the situation at household level and to account for disparities within the settlement so as to measure the impact of the interventions.
Kyangwali Refugee Settlement has more than 30 relief agencies trying to support refugees. These function as either an 'implementing partner', or an 'operating partner' with the UNHCR. Reportedly, a widespread perception among the more educated refugees is that the agencies promise donors more than they actually deliver. This has led to the formation of more than twenty community-based organisations (CBOs).
Uganda’s refugee response is already severely underfunded - working with the UN Refugee Agency and the Government of Uganda, WFP is only currently able to assist people who are most at risk. Around 14 percent of the refugees are considered highly vulnerable and receive food rations at 60 percent; 82 percent are categorized as having medium vulnerability and receive 30 percent food ration.
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WASH Services: Over half of the households (61%) clean their containers every time they use them, followed by (36%) of the households who clean their containers at least once in a week.
Education as a Tool for the Future
Education is a tool critical for a good future and success in an individual’s life. Without education, opportunities are lost. For vulnerable populations, including refugees, education is often not an indivisible right; living in a foreign country fleeing violence and persecution creates a difficult situation for learning. In Uganda, where there are over 600,000 refugees, hundreds of thousands of children are disregarded in the quality of their education. Accessibility of school is an extensive problem for primary-aged children in Kyangwali; schools are usually at least an hour and a half from children’s homes and with the overwhelming majority of refugees in Kyangwali being subsistence farmers, many are kept home to dig or plant in the garden. Classrooms are congested or in disrepair, with up to eight children sitting on a bench made for four or five. This study also disclosed refugee-specific issues regarding language, gender, and culture.
Ntakamaze Nziyonvira is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who uses his refugee journey to fuel his ambitious work in helping refugees access education. “Becoming a refugee at the age of 11 always compelled me to help displaced children and youth in Uganda's refugee settlements to access quality education,” reflects Nziyonvira. After receiving help from UNHCR to attend secondary school, Nziyonvira earned a scholarship through the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program (MCFS) to study mechanical engineering at the University of Rochester in New York. He graduated in 2017, but after working in engineering for one year, Nziyonvira returned to Uganda to lead CIYOTA as Executive Director.
CIYOTA has supported the education journeys of more than 5,000 students, including primary and secondary school learners and university students. “My joy comes from seeing the students I supported coming back from high school and college to support others,” says Nziyonvira.
CIYOTA By the Numbers:
- Children and young people educated: 1,700
- Young women trained in life and business skills: 100
- Young adults placed in universities: 40
CIYOTA has educated over 1,000 children at the elementary level and over 700 young people at the secondary level. More than 40 young adults have attended universities globally, including 30 Mastercard Foundation Scholars and six at the African Leadership Academy. More than 100 young women have acquired valuable life skills and small business skills through training.
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At CIYOTA, we know the power of education and livelihood enhancement as a pathway out of poverty. It is a way to heal conflict, create social cohesion, and spur economic growth. Education for youth, built on a commitment to supporting families and the community, is at the heart of CIYOTA’s work in Uganda. And we hope that our model will continue to grow and impact refugees and underprivileged youth in Uganda and beyond.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support
Uganda continues to host large numbers of refugees, many of whom are women, children, and individuals with specific needs. These populations often face significant mental health challenges due to conflict, displacement, and exposure to violence, including Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).
Grace, a 24-year-old living in the Kyangwali refugee settlement in Uganda’s Kikuube district, has found a new sense of hope and purpose through Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) provided by the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO). In 2018, she fled from the Democratic Republic of Congo when conflict erupted. During this time, she experienced Gender-Based Violence (GBV), which resulted in her first pregnancy.
“I wanted to go to school,” Grace explained, “and among the many supports available in the settlement, I managed to enroll. After leaving school, Grace isolated herself, locking her door and avoiding the outside world. Her despair deepened to the point where she attempted suicide. “I met Sharon, a mental health worker who visited me several times. She encouraged me to attend therapy sessions.
Through TPO, she completed ten sessions of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and financial literacy training. The CERF-funded project aims to address these challenges by increasing access to appropriate mental health and psychosocial support services. It also promotes leadership, participation in decision-making, and social cohesion while offering GBV protection services through survivor-centred approaches.
Through this project, UN Women has reached 4,500 women with psychological first aid, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) sessions, and home-based counselling. Grace is one of the many women and girls who have benefited from this initiative. “I am grateful for the support I’ve received,” Grace said.
Economic Empowerment
Muzaliwa was forced to flee his home in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2017 when armed militia groups began fighting in the North Kivu region. He found safety at the Nakivale settlement in Uganda. Ambitious and inspired to use his experience to help himself and others in his new community, Muzaliwa sought opportunities to channel his entrepreneurial energy. “COVID-19 was an unforgettable time, and most refugees faced a hunger crisis due to diminishing humanitarian aid,” reflects Muzaliwa.
UNIDOS has helped train nearly 700 women with entrepreneurial skills and is helping them play active roles in greening the settlement by planting moringa and other fruit trees while building small businesses.
By involving parents, by involving the community, we were able to start feeding children at COBURWAS School and to have money to pay teachers. These programs you are seeing in Kyangwali - whether it’s the anti-violence tailoring project, the small business training for out-of-school girls, the computer literacy training we are supporting, or the micro-loans we are granting - for us, we call it community-building. This work is the result of our realization that the community needs to have a certain level of income to be able to support education.
At CIYOTA, we want to give opportunities to young people who can’t access quality secondary and university education by building their capacity and helping them to access seed funding.
Funding the refugee response to become more sustainable changes lives, boosting families, communities and, in turn, the country’s economy. In addition, we spent US$71.7 million on local procurement, supporting smallholder farmers to produce better quality food for the nation while earning a decent living. Over 80 percent of WFP’s total annual procurement is done locally.
But the question remains: can a protracted response survive as the world prioritizes newer crises while forgetting old and equally important ones? Can we work together to create a holistic response that can enable people and the environment to survive not just today but tomorrow too?
Looking to the Future CIYOTA has had huge success empowering youth in Kyangwali to set up their own projects in areas of education, farming, small business, and others. But there is still more work to be done. Kyangwali is one of many refugee settlements in Uganda and there are so many young people whose great potential is hindered by the lack of access to opportunities and resources. Of all people, refugee children and youth should be given employment skills and entrepreneurial tools to start their own ventures for better futures.
After all, home is where you have a family. Home is where you have a reason to live. Going to secondary school, coming back to start working with other young people focused on building our better future - I started seeing Kyangwali as a home with more brothers, with more sisters. We are seeing some light toward a better future.
Congolese refugee camps in Uganda are 'unbearable'
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