WHEN PEOPLE IN SCOTLAND STEP UP TO FEED A THOUSAND STARVING PEOPLE IN UGANDA ... WELL, IT'S A PRETTY GOOD LOOK.

A couple of weeks ago I became involved with a food crisis in Africa. I know it sounds nuts, but the whole thing was pretty much an accident.

It went something like this.

Three years ago, Carol and I set up a small charity called the Kupata Project. We asked people in Scotland if they could help us provide sanitary pads to school girls in Uganda who were missing 25% of their time in school. Happily, lots of Scottish people were happy to chip in and the Kupata Project is now able to provide pads to 2000 school girls every year.

Over the last three years, we have been lucky enough to have been able to put together a small team of absolutely fantastic young Ugandan volunteers who make sure everything goes to plan on the ground.

Which brings me to a fortnight ago. My Facebook feed started to tell me the extraordinary story of one of these young volunteers: Rabson.

Endless days of record breaking rain had cascaded down onto the Mountains of the Moon. Climate change at its most brutal. The towering peaks gathered in the billions of gallons of water and threw it down onto the plains below. 

Roaring. Raging. Unstoppable.

One day there were houses. Homes. The next day there was this.

Lives were obliterated. Terrified survivors gathered up what they could and built makeshift camps on spare patches of high ground.

The town was Kasese. Rabson's home town. When the floods hit, the Covid 19 lockdown meant Rabson's work as a tour guide had dried up. He was back in his home village wondering how on earth he was going to feed his young family. He could have easily have allowed himself to sink into a pit of self pity.

He didn't. Instead he chose to take the fate of over 1000 flood refugees onto his young shoulders. His resources? A mobile phone, a Facebook page and the contacts of tourists he had guided over the years.

Carol and I heard his call and sent a donation of our own. It barely scratched the surface.

Should the Kupata Project try to help out? Of course it should.

So I wrote a blog and I did my best to tell Rabson's story. I asked if any readers might be minded to offer a helping hand to one remarkable young man trying to achieve the impossible.

Well. Yet again the people of Scotland came through in spades. Over the last two weeks £2500 has come into the Kupata coffers.

We have been in constant contact with Rabson and our head volunteer, Peace. Peace is a super smart young woman with an absolute motherload of common sense and wisdom. She constantly keeps us on the straight and narrow. At times we have been in danger of acting like typical sentimental westerners. Peace always slaps down any such nonsense. She keeps us focussed.

There is a full lockdown in place in Kabale Province and a tortuous five hour drive separated Peace from Rabson and the refugees. Not that Peace was ever about to be deterred. She nagged and lobbied and was soon in possession of an emergency travel permit.

She blagged a vehicle, rallied up two fellow volunteers and they headed north into the heart of the catastrophe.

We had a small difference of opinion as we did the sums. How far could £2500 stretch? What were the absolute necessities? Like typical sentimental Westerners, we insisted on every young child getting a lollipop. Peace rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth, but in the end she allowed it. It has to be said, she seemed to have a pretty wide smile on her face when she handed out the lollipops.

Just saying! Check it out.

The sums came up with the following solution.

200 families.

6 weeks

Enough available funds for a weekly ration of the following.

5kg Cassava Meal

1kg 'Posha' which is Maize meal.

'Brown porridge' for babies.

Half a bar of soap.

The absolute basics. Not enough to stop the hunger pangs. But enough to stave off starvation. We suggested a little less starch and some peas and beans for protein. Peace had a consultation with the elders and they roundly rejected our thinking. They wanted every penny spent on the maximum amount of food and no fancy nutritional thinking. We didn't argue. I have never known what starvation feels like and I hope I never do. These people know all about the desperate grinding reality of starvation. They have first hand expertise.

They know best.

Here is the team making the Kupata Project's first delivery. It's what it looks like when people in Scotland step up to help desperate families many, many thousands of miles away.

I suggest it is a pretty good look. If you are one of the many people who did their bit to help Rabson, I hope these pictures make you feel pretty good about yourself. So you should.

So. Where are we now? Well, like I said. We have enough for six weeks. Peace asked about and gave us a report. It didn't make for happy reading. There is little or no sign of the Ugandan Government intervening to help Rabson's refugees. They have been told there is no point in rebuilding their homes. Climate change means the historic floods of 2020 will now become yet another 'New Normal'. They need a new place to live and hopefully such a place will eventually be provided.

Until that day comes, they are marooned. 1000 refugees in a world where there are tens of millions. 200 families in a makeshift camp in the shadow of the Mountains of the Moon.

Rabson's people. Rabson's List. Will everything be better in six weeks time? Probably not.

Which means our starvation maths look likely to continue for a while.

200 families.

1000 souls

5kg cassava meal per family per week

1kg maize meal per week.

Brown porridge and half a bar of soap.

Lollipops? We'll see I guess. I'll have to build up my courage before putting the idea to Peace!

£400 a week.

£65 a day.

It isn't an impossible sum, surely? All we can do is to keep telling the story and Rabson and Peace and the fantastic young people down in Kabale Province who all have the hearts of lions.

Every last penny is going to count and you have my absolute promise that every single penny we manage to raise will be spent on food and nothing else.

If you are able to help out, you can find the Kupata Project online fundraising page via the link below.

THE KUPATA PROJECT ONLINE FUNDRAISING PAGE

Thanks for taking the time to read this.