Karamoja region, in northeastern Uganda, had the highest rate of malnutrition in the country in 2006, according to government statistics. Despite receiving the heaviest amount of rain in years in 2007, malnutrition continues to be a major concern in Karamoja, especially among children. Abraham Lokong, 31, an unemployed father of two, spoke to IRIN on 14 September during a health screening for children under an MSF-Spain programme aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality among children in Kaabong, one of the five districts in Karamoja:
"Perpetua Nakwang is my second child. I brought her to here to check if her weight is okay because she was down with a cold last week and has been weak since then. A health worker advised me to bring her to this clinic run by MSF-Spain.
"My wife could not bring Perpetua here because she is heavily pregnant and also very weak; we have a big problem finding food to eat because we are too poor. Besides, now that I am here someone has to take care of our first-born child.
"In fact it is a miracle that they have told me my child's weight is not bad, we hardly have anything to eat. We grind sorghum and cook wild green leaves to eat it with; sometimes we have only one meal and eat the leftovers the following day. I think my children are often ill because we never vary our food.
"As I am not in regular employment, I get by doing odd jobs here at Kaabong town; I cannot afford a lot of things that I know my family needs. I am the last-born in my family and did not benefit from the dowry that my elder sisters brought because they married when I was still young. My father lost the cows paid as my sisters' dowry to cattle-rustling, so we have nothing.
"I would like to have access to a small loan so I can start hawking sodas in town; this way perhaps I could help to buy food for my family. I am worried about the third child on the way, as you can see, even if this child is healthy now, who knows where her meal for tomorrow will come from?"
See also: Malnutrition the main challenge in Karamoja's "chronic emergency"
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