Attachments
Period covered by this update: 18 July to 31 October 2013.
Summary: CHF 220,502 was allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) on 18 July, 2013 to support the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) in delivering immediate assistance to 6,144 families (66,139 beneficiaries) displaced by the fighting in DRC. Un-earmarked funds to repay DREF are encouraged.
URCS, with support of IFRC, launched a DREF operation for an initial period of three months, in coordination with other actors, to support up to 1,000 of the most vulnerable families. After the launch of the operation, a decision was reached to relocate the refugees from the border areas and those who were sheltering in schools to the transit centre from where the Ugandan Government as well as international and national non-governmental organizations would provide basic humanitarian assistance to them while a settlement area was being identified. At time of reporting, the population in the transit centre has since stabilized to approximately 20,000.
Through this operations update, the operation is being extended to 31 December 2013 to meet the remaining needs as the transit centre is being phased out and the affected populations are moved to a settlement as directed and identified by the government. The operation will therefore be completed by 31 December 2013 and a Final Report will be made available by 31 March 2014.
An operation support visit was carried out by IFRC to URCS at the end of October to assist the national society in identifying remaining gaps and revise the budget to reflect actual needs and response. A second operation update is expected to be issued by mid-November with further details, including the budget revision.
The Uganda Red Cross Society continues to be at the forefront of the response in coordination with the district local government, office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and other agencies. Initial response included the deployment of volunteers to provide the assistance as required and based on their competencies, clearing up the land allocated for the set-up of the transit centre, mobilizing the local population, provision of first aid, positioning of non-food items, preparation of meals, distribution of non-food relief items while at the same time conducting assessments to establish the immediate humanitarian needs of the new arrivals and monitor further population movements across the border as well as provide psychosocial support to the refugees in need. In addition, the URCS volunteers were at the forefront in responding to the population movement from Democratic Republic of Congo to Bundibugyo in western Uganda offering assistance across all sectors including relief, emergency health and care through first aid and referrals.
Although the situation continued to evolve rapidly, URCS was able to provide humanitarian support to more than 20,000 refugees in the transit and carried out limited activities at the border areas with support and collaboration of other stakeholders led by OPM and UNHCR. The support provided included provision of non-food item kits, preparation of meals in the transit for refugees, psychosocial support, construction of emergency latrines, construction of shelter and bathing shelters, provision first aid, and promoting proper sanitation and hygiene, tracing of separated families and having a focus on unaccompanied minors among others. However owing to the changing situation, gaps continue to emerge as more refugees arrive at the transit each new day.
The Belgian Red Cross/ Belgian government, Canadian Red Cross/ Canadian government, Netherlands Red Cross/Netherlands government, Spanish Red Cross/ Spanish government (AECID) and the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (DG ECHO) have contributed towards replenishing the DREF allocation made for this operation. The major donors and partners of DREF include the Australian, American and Belgian governments, the Austrian Red Cross, the Canadian Red Cross and government, Danish Red Cross and government, DG ECHO, the Irish and the Italian governments, the Japanese Red Cross Society, the Luxembourg government, the Monaco Red Cross and government, the Netherlands Red Cross and government, the Norwegian Red Cross and government, the Spanish Government, the Swedish Red Cross and government, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), the Medtronic and Z Zurich Foundations, and other corporate and private donors.
IFRC, on behalf of the Uganda Red Cross Society, would like to extend thanks to all for their generous contributions.
All operations-related appeals, reports, updates and information are available on the Appeals, plans and updates section of the web site: http://www.ifrc.org/en/publications-and-reports/appeals/