What more can a man ask from God if not life!., if the long journey is worth the reward, Julius Katsumbyo would take home a trailer, his story is full of anxiety and unending bizarre of how a man from Bwera-Kasese survives like an antelope in a park of lions; Survival for the fittest!
Katsumbyo is Sam Bright Muhindo’s father known for his work as a storekeeper or a carrier of logs full of fish fillets and smoked skins. His survival could be on the line and Sam could not live another day to see him become popular through his dance or see him step into school today if he denies working in a place that others find loathing or disgusting! (Yes, the place stinks like hell in the real sense) but it saves his life for another second.
Apparently, Katsumbyo deals in the fish business, and for each full bag of salted fish packed he can earn at least Ush3,000 on a good day, and pack each bag at Ushs2,500 only. This is Ush5,500 cannot feed such a family before the sunrise as the cost of living is steadily going high.
Julius Katsumbyo is one of the men with a common family of 9 children in Bwera, Kasese Western Uganda at the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he trades in fish, which is a popular business to earn a living.
“A person’s steps are made secure by the Lord when they delight in his way. Though they trip up, they won’t be thrown down, because the Lord holds their hand.” — Psalm 37:23-24.
At least he has a relief, in his own words, Muhindo’s father was delighted in the Lord, he called on his neighbors not to take the amazing blessing he received in bad faith but wait from God who has finally visited him in his warn-out house with angels leading Bravo Shoes Community Support Organisation to his rescue.
Understanding Julius Katsumbyo’s real-world in Kasese
Katsumbyo qualifies to be among the poor but what causes poverty, and which areas within the district have the highest density of poorer and more deprived households are critical in formulating strategies to alleviate the poverty.
Despite positive development efforts throughout the district, poverty still remains an issue in Kasese, with 55.2% of households being either ‘moderately poor’ or ‘extremely poor’.
The highest percentage concentration of ‘extremely poor’ households is found in the LLGs of Kitswamba, Muhokya, Kitholhu, Lake Katwe, Hima, Karusandara, Mpondwe Lhubiriha, Katwe Kabatoro, Nyamwamba, and Bulembia divisions.
Katsumbyo ordeal falls in the survey results that show that 28.7% of households are not able to satisfy 3 or more basic needs out of the 5 identified, and critically, 3.2% of households are deprived in all five areas of the deprivation index, indicating an extreme inability to afford basic household needs.
The areas with the highest density of severely deprived households are Munkunyu, Nyakiyumbu, Bugoye, Bwera, Kyarumba, Ihandiro, Maliba, Kyondo, Hima, Isango, and Mpondwe Lhubiriha.
Katsumbyo was lucky that he has a paternal uncle who gave him a portion of his land but the main causes of poverty cited are land shortage, laziness or idleness, alcoholism, lack of employment or productive opportunities, and lack of access to credit facilities. Location, livelihood, education, and the marital status of household heads all have an impact on the wealth and deprivation status of households in the district.
Poor households (‘extremely poor’ and ‘moderately poor’) tend to live rurally, and engage in petty livelihoods, and their household heads are likely to be less educated, and more frequently singles, divorcees, or widows. Almost half of the district’s residents have perceived a decline in wealth over the past 5 years (47.3% of households), most notably poor households and those with the most deprivations.
Some of the men we talked to at Bwera said that due to high commodity prices/inflation, lack of capital, food shortage/drought and illness, a man cannot equally take care of his family and the situation is slowly alarming in the areas with the most households experiencing wealth deterioration in last 5 years including Muhokya, Kyondo, Munkunyu, Kitswamba, Lake Katwe, Kyarumba, Nyakiyumbu, Kisinga, Nyamwamba division, and Ihandiro face difficulties in access to public infrastructure and services does not necessarily have a significant impact on whether households are poor or not. Poverty is multifaceted and depends also on a number of other contributing factors.
Survival for the fittest, why Muhindo’s father opted for Fish
About 86.7% of subsistence cultivators indicate that their yields have decreased over the last 20 years, due to soil exhaustion, pests and diseases, and unpredictable weather patterns.
In addition, 71.2% of pastoralists state that grazing land is not enough and 80% indicate that the availability of water for livestock is poor, resulting in 50% of pastoralists reporting a decrease in productivity per head over the last 5 years.
The picture for households involved in capture fishing is even bleaker, 70% of fishermen report a decline in fish stocks over the past 5 years, yet efforts to sustain fish resources through regulation of poor fishing practices are resisted and, due to the restricted location of capture fishing villages, few alternative livelihoods are available.
Only 10% of subsistence crop farmers report using modern agricultural technologies and only 6.7% of pastoralists suggest owning exotic or crossbreeds of cattle, highlighting areas of focus for considerable improvement of household livelihoods.
However, survey findings indicate that 53.9% of ‘extremely poor’ households and 54.9% of ‘moderately poor’ ones were unsuccessful in gaining loans to either expand or set up income-generating enterprises or meet household expenditure. Households involved in crop farming, capture fishing, services, animal husbandry, and other petty livelihoods particularly struggled to obtain loans.
Households in Munkunyu, Nyakiyumbu, Lake Katwe, Karusandara, Katwe Kabatoro, Mahango, Isango, Bwera, Hima and Ihandiro on average consume fewer meals per day. Findings suggest that the size of land available to households has a direct impact on food security; the larger the available household landholding, the lower the prevalence of food shortages. This is a concerning fact given the shortage of land and the rapidly growing district population. The nutritional value of household meals is also a cause for concern.
The district has a major role in providing education since 70% of households indicate sending their children to UPE and USE schools. However, compared to private schools, government educational facilities are poorly rated.
Moreover, the current education infrastructure is not sufficient to meet the needs of the growing district population. With insufficient teachers, classroom materials, latrine stances, staff houses, and many households traveling more than 5 km to reach the nearest government secondary school, providing quality education to the young district population is a significant challenge.
Pupil absenteeism and dropout rates are an additional hindrance to receiving a quality education. On average, children attend school 4.8 days per week. However, Bugoye, Lake Katwe, Kitswamba, Munkunyu, Kitswamba, Bwera, Bwesumbu, Isango, Ihandiro, and Buhuhira have the highest percentage density of households reporting child absenteeism. The main reasons given for child absenteeism are unpaid school fees, sickness, lack of scholastic materials, seasonal work, household or farming chores, and lack of interest. 29.5% of households indicate that at least one child in the household has dropped out of school in the last 6 years.
98.6% of households with severe deprivations have had at least one child drop out of school. The highest percentage concentration of households with children who have dropped out of school is found in Munkunyu, Nyakiyumbu, Kyondo, Kyarumba, Kyabarungira, Buhuhira, Bwesumbu, Muhokya, Kitswamba, and Hima. These findings point to economic factors influencing educational decisions, but also to poor attitudes towards education, both by parents and children alike. Furthermore, 28.5% of households report that one or more members of the household have
Why Sam Bright Muhindo Turned a Bread Winner Despite his Age
Child-headed households Child-headed households face some of the most severe hardships. 85.4% of child-headed households believe themselves to be ‘poor’ or ‘extremely poor’. 71.4% say their economic situation, over the past 5 years, has worsened.
Caught between childhood and the responsibilities of managing a household, these children, more often than not, lack the income opportunities and resources to adequately meet the basic needs of their households. Reliant mostly on others, child-headed households are vulnerable to poor health, food insecurity, and abuse.
With little hope of attaining a high educational standard, their chances of future productive employment are slight. Hopelessness in the face of such difficulties is often a feature of such households, with well over ¼ of respondents suggesting they have no means of coping with the challenges they face. The breakdown of the traditional protective social systems has further rendered this population group extremely vulnerable to poverty and exploitation.