Adam

Adam Reed


 * Name- **Joseph Solomon


 * Country- ** I am a farmer from the African Country of Uganda where we have a mostly tropical climate. It is usually rainy with two main dry seasons here. Uganda is also landlocked with many lakes and rivers that flow through it. My country is about the size of Oregon and it is filled with the natural minerals of copper, cobalt, limestone, salt, and many more. The economy in my country revolves mostly around farming and exports. Agriculture is the most important part of the economy and accounts for 80% of the employment here. Also, coffee is the main export from which we receive the most money. From the year 2012 till now the economy in my country is at great risk because of the events that are taking place in Southern Sudan. Sudan is one of our main export partners and my country is also a popular destination for the Sudanese refugees. The population here is around 35,873,253 people and is steadily growing. Almost half of the population here is the age of 14 or below with only about two percent of the population being 65 years or older. Here there are no specific castes, but it is obvious that the wealth distribution in my country is not equal. About 55% of the population live under the poverty line, the top 10% owns one-third of the wealth and the bottom 10% only owns 3% of the wealth. A lot of people in my country live off of one meal a day because there is so much poverty here. As a farmer I know that I need to sell most of my produce whenever I can because I do not have enough land to farm, so that I may keep a lot of food for my own family. I also know that I am at great risk to have my land taken away at any time. People I know have been expelled from their lands just because the government came in and told them to get out. That is called land grabbing. In my country of Uganda the famine will keep increasing from the 9 million people that it affects today, and it is all the governments fault. It’s their fault because they have total control of the natural resources here. If it was not this way I know that myself and all of the other farmers living in my country could come together to help stop the famine completely.


 * Previous Occupation- **My previous job was a terrible one and might not even because considered a job to anyone else. But, in the tribe I was born into my “job” was to beg on the streets. That doesn’t really sound like much of a job to you, does it? For the tribe I was born into that is the way we made our money. Most of the beggars on the streets are people from my tribe called, Karamajong. Also, a lot of the kids on the streets are also from my former tribe. When I was about 20 years old I decided that I would run away from this tribe to make a better life for myself and my family because I figured out that begging from others wouldn’t be the best way to live my life.


 * References- **
 * Food and Agriculture Organisation: **They would support me because they deal with the two main things, food and agriculture and that is what my country needs to end the famine that we are currently dealing with daily.

**Soroti Catholic Diocese Integrated Development Organisation: **This reference would support me because they have an organisation located in Uganda that helps all of us out with health, poverty reduction, and training every single day.
 * World Food Programme: **This group is the “frontline agency in the fight against world hunger.” In the year 2012 their goal was to reach out to 90 million people in 73 countries, and one of those 73 countries was my country, Uganda.


 * Safety and Rule of Law- **In the country of Uganda farmers, also being the citizens that they are in this country, are affected by Safety and Rule of Law greatly. The first way they are affected is through property rights. Anyone in Uganda, especially farmers can have their land taken by the government at any moment. This is called land grabbing and it is very unfair to the people because the farmers are losing their land to grow food on. This causes them and their family to not have enough food to eat, and other people they sell to don't have enough food to eat either. This is just a problem that will keep getting worse and worse over time and is a cause of famine. The farmers would also be affected by cross-border tensions. The farmers can be affected by this because Uganda is a popular destination for the Sudanese refugees who are fleeing the country to get away from the war. They could possibly make farmland their home and they could also steal crops from the farmers. This makes the famine even worse because of the extra people fleeing here and Uganda not having enough food already.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sustainable Economic Activity- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The road and railway networks in Uganda are actually a very positive thing. This country already has a decent amount of roads throughout the whole country and they are in pretty good shape too. They also have a specific fund that is totally dedicated to creating new roads and making new ones in the future.This is a positive thing because resources can easily be transported from place to place and that would help to stop the famine in a big way. The airport facilities are also not terrible either. This means that the air could also be a positive way to transport resources throughout the entire country.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Participation and Human Rights- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The famine in Uganda can be easily related to the government because of the land they take and because they are in charge of the natural resources. The bad thing is that this can’t be changed because there really are not fair or free elections. Even though their constitution clearly states that there should be, people who vote are intimidated by others, and the voting has been severely rigged in the past years. So because of this, the "power" will never change hands and the famine will continue to grow because there is no change in morals or beliefs. There is also no free political participation in Uganda. “There are instances of a party performing very well in parliamentary elections in an area, but its presidential candidate losing miserably in the same region.” This should be all the proof that we need to see that there is not free political participation in this county due to recurrence in past years.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Human Development- **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Progression into secondary school seems to be becoming a positive thing in Uganda. Over the past years the percentage of kids moving on to secondary school has risen. This is important because the kids can start to develop new ways, and smart ways to farm so that the amount of people affected by the famine can decrease instead of increase in their own country. Developments in farming are also huge because it can provide more food for more people to eat and that can cause an increased amount of people above the poverty line, making this country a better place to live.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Uganda in Africa is about middle of the pack in Africa. They are ranked 22nd and are doing pretty well. They have some problems right now that are not too bad, but they are are getting increasingly worse. That is not good at all and it should be headed in the other direction.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bibliography **

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