KEDI Foundation extends Humanitarian aid to over 2000 flood victims

The management of KEDI Foundation has extended humanitarian aid to over 2000 families that have been affected by catastrophic floods in Namiro swamp in Entebbe Municipality Division B. The humanitarian aid includes over 100 pairs of gumboots, startup capital on top of evacuating a single mother whose house was heavily affected by floods. It’s reported that the affected families reclaimed Namiro swamp and constructed houses in it. Due to ongoing rainfall most homesteads have been submerged by floods and nowadays people’s houses are filled with water due to floods caused by torrential rainfall.   

The floods also affected market vendors in Nakiwogo market on top of submerging Nakiwogo beach destroying furniture and other electronic devices. Currently Nakiwogo market vendors operate in a flooded place and their public toilet is covered by water putting their lives at risk of contracting waterborne diseases like cholera and bilharzias among other diseases.

The market vendors say the unprecedented rainfall which has caused flooding in their market place has adversely caused huge losses to them as most of their commodities have been swept away by floods yet they entirely depend on loans to run their businesses. They added that they have resorted to sleeping at their workplace in order to protect their commodities from being washed away by floods.

While delivering relief aid to affected families, Dr. Stephen Kedi, the managing Director KEDI Foundation, said he got to know the plight of flood victims in Nakiwogo /Banga zone on social media and consequently got touched.

“I learnt of the flood victims on social media after seeing several homesteads sunk in water. As a humanitarian aid organization, we responded by extending aid to the affected persons. Actually when we reached the ground, we found a single mother, one Angela Musiime whose house was heavily affected by floods. She lost all her household property to floods and she was just sleeping on a table with her children without a mattress and blanket.  So we decided to rent her a decent house which we paid for a full year in addition to giving her startup capital worth 1000 USD (Shs.3.4m). We bought her all the household property to enable her to start a new life.’

In her appreciation Angela Musiime said:

“I thank the Kedi Foundation for rescuing me because I have not been sleeping ever since it started raining two months ago.  I lost all my property to floods after they entered my house and swept away all my household property.  When the situation continued to worsen, my husband ran away and till today I don’t know where he is since he switched off all his known telephone contacts. I thank the KEDI Foundation for all the support given to me, and I intend to use the 1000 USD to start a new business that will enable me to look after my family.’

It should be noted that in 2020, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) issued an Environment restoration order to the affected locals to vacate Namiro wetland but locals defied the order and vowed to shed blood. Nicholas Magara, who led a team from National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), claimed the eviction notice was aimed at restoring Namiro swamp for its intended purpose. He said he was acting on a report issued by his environment inspectors which faulted locals for failure to comply with environmental laws and regulations but instead continued to degrade the wetland.