By Denis Turyahebwa
It was super excitement on Saturday evening in the Kamwenge District based Rwamwanja refugee settlement camps when the new crop of Pan-Africanists under their umbrella Organization Pan-African Pyramid visited and donated relief aide worth over Shs seventy million (70m) to refugees.
The items included cartons of 1 ltr Splash, Biscuits, Sun-Sip, Rose foam Mattresses, Colgate toothpaste, Sugar among others donated by Ntinda Based Britania Allied Industries Ltd, Roykims (U) Ltd, Charms (U) Ltd and Millennium supermarket Kisementi respectively.
Other items included over 100 bags of clothes and shoes for children, men and women and many other assorted food items. Most of the clothes came from Owino traders and the general public.
The Founding Speaker/Chairman of Pan-African Pyramid Andrew Irumba Katusabe while thanking all the stake holders and the partner companies who supported the initiative said they organize “X-mas With Refugees” project to ensure refugees also gets something to eat and dress during the festive season just like all other families across the world celebrate the festive season with good food, new clothes, families re-unions that come with love and excitement.
“We all know that X-Mas comes with a lot of joy when families re-unite after a while, they eat good food, dress the best, drink a lot and dance the festive away. Before you enjoy with your family on X-Mas, it would be humane if you also made one vulnerable person happy this X-Mas, hence the project,” Irumba clarified.
Irumba lectured that;“For us as Pan-Africanists,we believe that these are our brothers and sisters regardless of these artificial geographical boundaries put up by our former colonial masters just to divide us so they can manage us ‘better’, so we have got to break that self-enslavement mind set”.
Halea-Uganda’s Kato Mukasa during the exercise said that sharing and caring is what initially defined Africa especially with our great grandparents.
“It’s unique and heart relieving to share love with the unprivileged communities especially the refugees,” Mr Kato said.
The Pan-African Pyramid team was warmly received at Rwamwanja by the assistant commandant John Bosco Kyaligonza who thanked them for the humanitarian and Ubuntu spirit.
Kyaligonza revealed that appreciates when other Organizations like PAP come out to help the refugees because it (Gov’t) can’t afford to provide all the necessities to the refugees single handily.
He also called upon other organizations and individuals to learn from PAP and do the same.
Tears of joy were more visible when one of PAP staff members who is also Lecturer at Makerere University Business Studies (MUBS) Ms.Shamim shared her birth day cake with the refugees.
Rwamwanja refugee Settlement was opened in 1962 with the Rwandese occupying the area until 1995 when the settlement was closed.
Due to the insurgences in DRC, the settlement was re-opened again in 2012 to host survivors of the DR Congo rebels of M23 and currently the settlement hosts 64,000 refugees, with 85% Congolese and the rest are Rwandese who came to seek for political asylum, according to Mr.Kyaligonza.
The settlement currently seats on 41.1 square miles.
Kyaligonza said the settlement no longer receives new refugees but special case is sometimes given to individuals who come to seek political asylum and those who come to join their relatives who are already settled.
However with the presidential elections in DRC whose results are expected to end in disagreements, Mr Kyaligonza said the Ugandan Government is making plans to receive more refugees, incase the ends in war.
Pan-African Pyramid has so far visited and donated to refugees in Kiryandongo, Bidi Bidi and now Rwamwanja in 20176, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Other partners included Halea-Uganda, Record TV, TheSpy Uganda among others. Follow more pictorial evidence bellow….
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