Uganda: Kiryandongo Sports Development Program

As of the 2014 census, there are over 266,197 residents in the Kiryandongo District, and based on records provided by the UNHCR and OPM (Office of the Prime Minister), there are more than 100,000 asylum seekers and refugees living in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. This includes Ugandan IDPs, Bududa survivors, and Congolese, Kenyan, and South Sudanese refugees, who are the main target population for this project. There are also refugees from Burundi and Rwanda.

RMF has continued to implement our sports development program within the settlement. During this reporting period, the following activities were carried out:

• Conducted regular soccer training and organized matches both inside and outside of Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement.
• Continued to conduct counseling and dialogue sessions with boys and girls in order to promote peace in youth communities, which has helped players cope with trauma and other psychological problems.
• RMF purchased essential sports training items, including balls, cones, sports bibs, uniforms, and cleats, among others.
• The social lives of the players have greatly improved. Before the project implementation, the youths living in the settlement could not easily interact with the host community, but as they gain more experience socializing and interacting with the host community through matches, the capacity for peace between the two continues to grow.