The European Union (EU) has pledged continued support for Uganda’s refugee response, including providing humanitarian assistance and development support to refugees.

Uganda currently hosts about 1.5 million refugees, many of them from South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Uganda Cash Consortium (UCC), led by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), has received a new grant of six million euros from the EU’s Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) to continue the provision of cash-based assistance across refugee settlements in Uganda.

To cover their most basic requirements, more than 44,000 members of the refugee community will receive monthly remittances.

“Additionally, more than 18,000 children and teenagers who are not currently enrolled in school or who are at risk of dropping out will get cash, including roughly 1,300 Ugandan nationals,” says Lokiru Yohana, LWF Regional Programme Coordinator for East Africa.

According to Lokiru Yohana, a number of institutional funders have either stopped or are about to stop their humanitarian funding streams because of the perception that Uganda is not at an acute phase of its displacement crisis.

At the same time, Uganda continues to receive new refugees daily from the DRC and from South Sudan because of the instability in the two neighbouring countries.

Adriana Franco Chitanana, the LWF Country Representative in Uganda, added that the ECHO grant will help a great deal in this horrible situation, but more money is needed to provide assistance to the most vulnerable refugees. He added that the UCC cash assistance will reach 12% of the refugees in Uganda who are highly vulnerable.

The Nyumanzi refugee settlement in Northern Uganda is home to 50,000 refugees, the majority from South Sudan. Said Albin Hillert, a Photographer with LWF