Phone technology gives refugees in Uganda a cash lifeline
Sarah Kiden (right) pays for vegetables with an e-voucher card at Ugandai’s Bidibidi refugee settlement. © UNHCR/Catherine Robinson
Tuesday 17th October 2017
Agreements with telecoms operators are helping South Sudanese families in the world’s biggest refugee settlement connect with essential services.
A donated mobile phone has given them a lifeline. One refugee, Brian, was identified by the non-governmental organization DanChurchAid as a vulnerable case and he now receives an electronic cash transfer via the donated phone to buy food for his family.
“I get 10 dollars every month, which is sent to me on my phone, and we can buy whatever we want,” he says. “We spend it on food, buying fish, rice and vegetables. We even bought a hen so we could eat the eggs.”
More than one million people from South Sudan have fled to northern Uganda in the past year and the country is hosting a further 355,000 refugees in the south, from other countries.
Share this Post:
.jpg)
.jpg)