The Triple Crisis - Doreen's Story

Doreen Angom is a 45-year-old mother of four who lives in northern Uganda with her daughter and four of her grandchildren.

An illness, probably polio, contracted when she was two resulted in a physical disability which prevented Doreen from getting an education.

"I went to bed at night. When I woke up in the morning I couldn’t walk."

Doreen was married at 16 but her husband abused her and she divorced him. Unable to participate in fishing on the West Nile because of her disability, as most of her community do, she started a “petty trading” business, buying and selling grain in the local market.

“Before I joined the Ripple Effect project, I never thought about growing vegetables. They taught us how to grow vegetables in our gardens and around our home.”

Doreen’s daughter is also separated from her abusive husband, and now lives with her mother with her four children. “Since then that husband has not reached out to inquire about his children. My daughter helps me out on the farm.

“We had enough to eat and surplus to sell, and sometimes chicken. This is how we used to get money for school fees and home supplies.”

Things began to go wrong with Covid-19. "The lockdown affected my business. Motorcycles were not allowed to carry us, so it made doing business difficult.

“We ended up eating the foodstuff we kept for sale and using up all our capital. I lost nearly everything. I used the little money that was left for medical treatment.”

“Most of the money I have now is gifts from other people. I use it to buy cassava to make into flour, I pick a few vegetables and then we eat.”

“We used to have at least two meals a day but after my business failed, one meal a day is what we can afford.

“The children ask for fish if they have eaten beans for two straight days, but it is very expensive: it used to be UGX 2,000 (£0.50) for five pieces of tilapia – now it is 10,000 (£2).

“Two-and-half cups of beans was enough for our family for one meal. Now we often make do with just one cup.

“There is nothing in reserve; we just live from hand to mouth. When there is money, we buy food. When there is no money, we go the whole day without eating.

“I want my grandchildren to go to school. My parents could afford the fees but my father said: ‘With her disability, what could she do?’ So I didn’t go alongside my brothers.

“It is UGX 10,000 (£2) per child (per term) for the school fees: I can’t afford that right now.”

“Usually at this time, the gardens will be ready, and we will be preparing to plant. But now the rain may come in May. And if we plant then, the land may dry up again by June and we lose everything.

“It never used to be this way. It’s now three years since we started seeing delayed rains and poor harvests. What we do now is follow the water. We go to the river with watering cans.”

Doreen fears the future will be the same. “But we won’t give up. We will

keep on trying. Maybe one day, we will have a good harvest again.”

Dr Julius Adubango, Ripple Effect Project Coordinator, has been working closely with Doreen and families like hers.

“These are hungry months for them. But much as their situation seems dire, their lives would have been much worse if they had not been working with Ripple Effect.

“These communities were entirely dependent on fishing, which Doreen could not participate in. Now we have introduced farming, and all the villagers are growing vegetables and have a more balanced diet.

“During the rainy season they have some excess to sell and can save some money.

“We have introduced fast-maturing varieties of vegetables, and drought-tolerant seed varieties. Our training in composting, mulching and dry-season farming techniques reduces their dependency on rain-fed agriculture.

“There is more that we can do: one meal a day is not acceptable for any family, and the pressures on them are escalating. It is imperative that we extend these sustainable farming practices to more of the vulnerable rural communities where we work.”

Help support families like Doreen's through these uncertain times.