Moyo (Uganda) - Food, houses and ... a goat, to make the elderly live better
July 7, 2011

Moyo is in northern Uganda, near the border with South Sudan. It is a "town", a large village, half town half city. Until a couple of years ago, Moyo was a war zone, crossed by armies and armed bands of different sign, they have sown death and destruction. Thus, today, there is an "emergency elderly": having lost children in war, the old are without means of subsistence and no family nearby, in the moment of weakness.

The poorest of them live alone, in clusters of huts, almost small villages on the outskirts of "town". Leprosy, of which many are suffering, makes the isolation more dramatic.

With the upcoming dry season, the region becomes very dry. It suffers from drought, and with the seasonal increase in prices, sometimes even for the hunger.

The Community of Sant'Egidio of Moyo, composed mostly of young people, has started a few years ago to take care of these poor and lonely elderly, discovering to have a great debt to them: they are, in fact, the first Catholic catechists , to which we owe the spread of Christianity in this area, evangelized just one hundred years ago by the Comboni missionaries.

Food support, visits, help in the needs of daily life. Recently, however, the Community was asked to identify the beneficiaries and to monitor a project unique but useful, built by the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund and the Office of the Prime Minister.

the program regards delivering to the elderly some goats to raise. They provide milk, breed and, if older people are helped to keep them (but apparently this is not too expensive) they can enable a small income, as well as an interesting proteic supplement to the diet.

The project, at an experimental stage, involves in this initial period fifteen elderly. They will be guaranteed, with the arrival of the dry season, together with nutritional support also contributes to repair and renovate homes.