Moved by the very long lines of empty water cans at water sources and the number of parents desperately looking for school fees for their children going to secondary school in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement, HCA launched a research to explore the condition of life in the settlement in regard to access to safe water and post-primary education.
Nearly a third of the population (29%) is still dependent on swamp water! There is an urgent need for intervention to save the lives of the population depending on swamp water for sustenance.
There’s only one secondary school available for such a great population. Obtaining secondary education is very costly for parents in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement. Even with such financial difficulty, parents are required to raise school fees, scholastic materials and food items as non-monitory contributions. Refugees have little space in the settlement where they can grow crops to supplement what UNHCR provides. When this is collected as well that may mean those left behind may not have enough to eat. This indicates that the access to secondary education in the settlement may be costly beyond imagination. No wonder parents will be found doing massive personal mobilization, sometimes beyond what can be culturally acceptable as noble. They are stressed and it seems there’s no other way other than wait for help from elsewhere.