The head of the COVID-19 donations task-force Hon. Mary Karooro Okurut has said that government still needs food donations despite all the donations that they have received.
Okurut made these remarks while appearing on NBS Television’s Morning Breeze, Thursday morning.
“We still need food donations. As soon as the food reaches, it is given out because there is need out there,” Okurut told NBS TV.
Ever since president Museveni announced a partial lockdown in Uganda due to coroonavirus, there have been distress call for food from people affected by the lockdown.
In response, private sector organizations and individuals have been donating items ranging from food to healthcare equipment.
Okurut however thanked Ugandans who have been selfless and contributed to the donations task-force with food, essential products such as sanitizers, soap, drinking water among others.
“We are in this together. We need whatever support that can be gathered because the Shs 305 billion budget cannot cater for everything.”
Okurut said that their mandate as the task force is to raise funds mainly to buy vehicles.
“Every district should at least have 10 vehicles for the health sector. Apart from that, when the president sounded this appeal, the response we are getting is tremendous. People are bringing in food and vehicles. There is need for all because we have vulnerable groups out there,” Okurut added.
Meanwhile, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) task force team leader Col. Felix Abucha on Tuesday revealed that government had temporarily halted food distribution because the team had no beans in stores.
State Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Musa Ecweru said on Wednesday that the first supplier company Aponye Ltd was stopped from supplying more beans because of quality issues and that government has procured new suppliers.
Ecweru also said that the door to door delivery approach that government was using was causing delays and that they had appointed more officials and staff to distribute food simultaneously in different areas.
He revealed that by Wednesday, 28,384 households (91940 people) had received food, and many more will receive in the coming days.
