Nakivale (Uganda): Two NGOs celebrate Christmas for the vulnerable and albinos

Two humanitarian NGOs decided to join the vulnerable and albinos of the Nakivale camp to celebrate the end-of-year holidays starting with Christmas, a move welcomed by beneficiaries.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The first NGO is Danish Refugee Council established and doing a six-month project that helps about eight thousand vulnerable people. The execution date is not a coincidence: to make the beneficiaries forget the yoke of exile during the end-of-year holidays.

Each selected refugee who meets the vulnerability criteria will receive a sum of 45,000 Ugandan shillings for a period of six months.

Even though there are lamentations from those who consider themselves vulnerable but who are not on the list, the UNHCR gives credit to its database after the most needy have been identified by its partner NGOs.

The refugees who have been selected include those who are over 60 years old, unaccompanied children, people suffering from acute chronic diseases, widows without assistance.

This is the first time in the last five years that this kind of project has been developed in this camp also including refugees of Burundian origin.

Christmas for Albinos

And this Monday, Hope Training Center, a center that does activities including cultural ones to give hope to refugees celebrated Christmas for albino children from 23 families.

All members of a household that has an albino child were invited to the festivities. Apart from food and drinks, they received assistance with laundry soaps.

These albinos welcome the initiative and ask for special assistance related to their health situation, especially hats and creams, or even care for those who are already developing the beginnings of skin cancer.

Nakivale, one of the oldest refugee sites in Africa, has more than 140,000 occupants from several countries, including more than 33,000 Burundians.

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Refugees, mostly albino children, at a party organized by the NGO Hope Training Center in Nakivale, December 23, 2024 (SOS Médias Burundi)