Kagando Mission Hospital and Rural Development Center (KARUDEC) is located in the Kasese District in a mountainous region near the Congo Border in Uganda, seventy five miles north of Rwanda. In recent years, rebel insurgency in the area caused the displacement of thousands of households to protected enclaves on and near the hospital grounds. This resulted in the disruption of the social and economic dynamics of the communities involved and resulted in even lower incomes for many of the afflicted families. As a consequence, the incidence of malnutrition, cholera, AIDS, and tuberculosis increased dramatically.
The district is criss-crossed by rutted dirt roads, is without electricity, and has severely limited access to clean water. Private motor vehicles are nearly nonexistent. For the most part, people walk and carry. A few have bicycles which they overload with extraordinary amounts of goods of every description. Most families live in one or two room, thatched, wattle and mud huts. A few have a small concrete house with a metal roof. Only a handful have their own source of clean water.
QUICK FACTS : KASESE DISTRICT
- Average landholding 1.5 acres
- Major livelihood is subsistence farming
- Average annual income = $300