Today, 20^th March 2024, temperatures in Lira in Lango in Northern Uganda, are soaring high at 38 degrees Celcius. It is forecast, moreover, that these sweltering temperatures will sustain through the next two weeks, with humidity reaching as high as 80 percent.

In the past, normally, the rains for the first rainy season would have been here by 15^th March and we would have planted our first season crops. I can never forget how in 2021, we, in Lango were left food insecure when prolonged drought devastated our crops.  

New Vision reported how some of us had “hired gardens and planted soya beans, potatoes, beans and maize, but lost all due to the erratic weather … You cannot imagine how the crops in the gardens were – the sim sim (sesame), groundnuts, beans, sunflower, were all dried up.”

Things are not getting better. Last year, 2023, our home area, Lango, suffered prolonged dry spells – four months in a row without rains that are appropriate for farming. This too was reported by New Vision. When the rains eventually came, at the wrong time, they were too heavy, flooded gardens and destroyed crops in-field.

Increasingly, my district of residence, has changed from being the food basket of our region to one that is forced to import staple food items, such as beans, from other regions. We can no longer depend solely and primarily on agriculture for our food security. We cannot longer reliably grow the bulk of what we eat; and increasingly we must buy to eat.

We need to find non-agriculture-based ways in which to make money that we can use to buy food. For me and hundreds more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Lango, becoming welders would provide us with sustainable livelihoods.

Please consider making a donation in support of establishing a welding workshop to provide apprenticeships to young people in Uganda. Together, we can positively impact on the lives of hundreds of young people – enabling them earn incomes and to provide for their families.

Click here to donate.