Our Goal
Impoverished families will be given cows and bulls that will provide milk and the ability to plow fields to grow food.
The outreach program provides staples such as beans, posho (millet flour) and fish to vulnerable families that are unable to grow their own food.
Challenge
Nodding Syndrome is a mysterious degenerative condition of the brain that affects the children of subsistence farmers in Northern Uganda and South Sudan. The disease usually begins between the ages of 5 and 15 years and is first manifested by dropping motions of the head at the sight of food. This dropping motion of the head is thought to represent a form of seizure.
Nodding Syndrome emerged in 1997 and 1998 in Northern Uganda, predominantly in the Kitgum area. The rise of Nodding Syndrome in children coincided with the major outbreak of insurgency that extended from South Sudan. During this time of social unrest and internal armed conflict, many Northern Ugandan families and their children became internal refugees within their own country.
Nodding Syndrome is highly debilitating because it affects the child’s intellect and makes them vulnerable to seizures. Many children suffer injuries from falling during seizures and many children are burned because they fall into fires. Some children also drown in rivers and other open bodies of water after a seizure.
The families are forced to take care of these children and as a result they do not have the ability to grow their own food or work in the farms.