BLOODY BORDER CONFLICT BETWEEN ADJUMANI AND AMURU DISTRICTS

On 30/01/2012 residents from Amuru district invaded Itirikwa Sub County, in Zoka Parish, Adjumani District and left five residents injured with one nursing a broken leg in Adjumani Hospital.

Mr. Barugo Anthony on his hospital bed in Adjumani Hospital

Mr. Barugo Anthony narrated his ordeal on 6/2/2012 as below.

“I was resting under the shade on the fateful day and found myself surrounded by people who wanted to tie me but when I resisted they started beating me. Due to the spirited resistance I put, one of them armed with an axe hit me twice on the leg, broke it and left me helpless. Those who came were estimated to be around 200 people armed with machetes, axes, spears, arrows and bows and guns. They picked my phone, a carpet, one sack of simsim, approximately two sacks of millet and blankets. They wanted to go with me, but when I questioned where? They replied that I had settled on their land in Amuru District and according to them the boundary is Zoka River.

The attackers then went and set my neighbor’s house on fire and arrested him, they destroyed his passion fruits, pawpaw tree, and raided everything in the house. They demanded that we should register our presence with them since we are settled on their land in Amuru District. What I know is that the border is Soro River which is very far from where we settled.”

Since I was admitted in Adjumani hospital nobody has taken the responsibility of helping me except a friend called Wilson Adu who gave me some money for support. The district officials who visited me said they will first sit for a meeting and see how they are going to support me. Since then, I have never received any feedback.

Action by Adjumani District Authorities

Following the attack, the District leaders and Security operatives held a meeting with the affected community and promised to demand for establishment of an army detach in that area so that security is beefed up while they follow up the matter for discussion in Parliament. In attendance were: Major Abiriga Mahmod, District Police Commander - Adjumani District among others.

CEFORD conducts TOT training for 30 CBOs

CEFORD organized a two days Trainer of Trainers (TOT) workshop in Arua from 23^rd – 24^th January 2012. This was a regional training with representatives from each of the 30 Partner CBO’s with whom CEFORD has signed an MOU to implement the project (Citizens Manifesto in Action) at grass root level.

Mr. Brighton the Consultant facilitating a session

The Participants Expectations

The participants expected to achieve the following at the end of the training workshop; acquire skills in the implementation of the Citizens Manifesto, know the importance of the Citizen Manifesto and skills on how to hold leaders accountable.

Jean, the Executive Director of CEFORD facilitating a session

The Workshop objectives

The TOT training aimed at:

1. Equipping participants with information and knowledge to understand the Citizen Manifesto.

2. Equipping participants with skills for popularization of the Citizen Manifesto.

3. Pre-testing the ToT training manual on the Citizens’ Manifesto

A CBO representative seeking clarifications

The workshop was also used to pre-test the training manual that was being developed to enhance the popularization of the Citizens Manifesto. In attendance was the Consultant responsible for the development of the training manual, representatives of the other CEW-IT partner organizations (ACORD, DENIVA & RWECO), staff from CEW-IT Coordinating Unit and CEFORD staff based at the District Offices and responsible for implementation of the action in their respective districts. The TOT training was facilitated by CEFORD staff, CEW-IT Coordinating Unit Staff and the Consultant. The total number of participants was 48 (11 females and 37 males).

Celestin, CU staff contributing to discussions

At the end of the training, participants from the CBOs came up with action points on how to kick off popularization of the Citizen Manifesto at community level. A feedback meeting was held by CEW-IT partners (CEFORD, ACORD, RWECO, DENIVA) and the Consultant to discuss areas for improvement in the manual before the final training manual is produced.

PRETESTING UWEZO QUESTIONNAIRES

Uganda National NGO forum in partnership with PAC-Uganda conducted Uwezo pretesting of the questionnaires for 2012 Uwezo assessment. The pretesting was targeting the children between 6-16years that is to say children from primary two up to primary seven. The test was basic primary two work and this included reading short English stories, identifying alphabetical letters, simple maths and reading the local language (Ateso). The main reason for pretesting was to develop the national standard questionnaires for Uwezo assessment for the year 2012.The first pretesting was conducted in Ochero village in Asuret sub county Soroti district and the second was done in Kengere ward in Soroti municipality.This was done in orders to evaluate the level of the questionnaire whether it favors both rural and urban schools.Uwezo is being conducted in three countries which include Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. In Uganda, Uwezo assessment covers 80 districts per year. The assessment has so far taken two years(2010and 2011). Uwezo is designed to have scale for greater impact to be achieved. It is a nationwide assessment covering 30 villages per districts, 20 house holds per village and one school per village. Nationwide scale makes it more attractive to all stakeholders because every part of the country easily identify with the results and allows for comparison. This is mainly done in order to improve on the level of education Uganda.

Voicing the Silence Campaign- be our companion

Voice the Silence and cry aloud against corruption and poor service
delivery by our leaders and companies.

Save lives from the condemnation of invisible death.
"Rushwa ni Adui ya maendeleo" or "Corruption is an enemy to development"

Are you aware of this:

• 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water.
• 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation.
• 30,000 children die each day due to poverty, that's 210,000 a week, and almost 11 million per year.

And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far
removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek
and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in
death.”


At any given time, half the people in developing nations are suffering
from health problems caused by water and sanitation deficits.



Source: http://www.globalissues.org



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Training of Kayoda ICT personel

This is the first post by KAYODA.
KAYODA is a Community based organisation based in Ntungamo.
Its a member of DENIVA operating in Ntungamo.

CEWIT ICT Program Officer and RICNET helped us set up a fully fledged ICT data center for implementation of the ICT project.