PROJECT TITLE: BUILDING PEACEFUL URBAN COMMUNITES IN KAMPALA CITY AMIDST COVID-19 AND BEYOND
You are cordially invited to register and participate in the aforementioned research dissemination event scheduled to take place tomorrow, Wednesday, 21 October 2020 starting at 10:00am at CTF1, Room 1.2. The research was supported by the Government of Uganda through the Makerere Research and Innovations Fund (RIF).
Please click on the link below to register in advance for this meeting:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwscOirrDwpE9fZYqzeeTXmqwmWB41bEooj
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Project team
1. Dr Samson Barigye - Principal Investigator
2. Dr Charlotte Karungi Mafumbo - Co-PI
3. Dr Veneranda Mbabazi – Member
Moderator
Mr. Isaac Tibasiima
Brief on the project
The project was intended to understand and document the immediate consequences of COVID-19 on four (4) urban areas in Kampala: Katanga, Kikoni, Kivulu and Kisenyi. The project assessed how disharmony and social instability in Kampala urban slums have affected the residents there. Specifically, the project sought to understand how the traumatized and stressed population, especially the widows, orphans, child-headed households, women-headed households, the elderly, PWDs, and the terminally ill were coping with food insecurity, loss of income, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and social unrest.
The specific objectives od the project are: (1) to find out the types and nature of conflicts in Kampala’s slum areas as a result of COVID-19; (2) to strengthen the capacity of local leaders in Kampala’s slum areas to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the population in slum areas during COVID-19 and beyond; (3) to establish a community-owned mechanism for mitigation and resolution of conflicts arising from the consequences of COVID-19, now and beyond COVID19; and (4) to establish channels for information collection and dissemination to enable the local leaders and their residents to articulate their concerns, hence working towards inclusive societies.
The research team interviewed 24 Key Informants (Kis) and also reached 148 respondents through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). To a large extent, COVID-19 has had negative impacts to the population in Kampala slums. The impacts have been experienced by both women and girls, and the men in these slums. These have been manly socio-economic impacts.The study found out that due to COVID-19, there have been increased cases of divorce or separation; increased early marriages; increased cases of unwanted/unplanned pregnancies among women and under-age girls; increased number of women-headed household; increased casese of commercial sex (prostitution); increased cases of rape and defilement; as well as increased sexual and gender-based violence. Further, there is an icnrease in the number of of families that have been abandoned by men as a result of failure to meet their obligations; denial of conjugal rights of men; as well as psychological torture and public ridicule as a result of their inability to meet their obligations as heads of households.
See details on the project and the event flyer in the attachments below
