A delegation from Mozambique’s Ministry of Veterans Affairs has visited veterans’ projects in the Bugisu Sub-region to study Uganda’s efforts to help former service members build sustainable livelihoods.
The delegation toured projects in Mbale, Bulambuli and Bududa districts. It inspected income-generating activities, including beekeeping, commercial farming, piggery, agro-processing, animal feed production and sunflower oil processing.
Brig Gen (Rtd) Bosco Omure commended veterans in Bugisu for their progress. He described their agricultural projects as an example of productive reintegration after military service.
“It is good that you did not retire and return home just to sit, but chose to remain productive,” Omure said.
He said cooperation between veterans in Uganda and Mozambique would grow through exchange programmes. These would enable veterans from both countries to visit each other, share experiences and assess their projects.
Horacio Massangaie, an adviser to Mozambique’s Minister of Veterans Affairs, said the delegation wanted to learn how Ugandan veterans were reintegrating into civilian life.
“We are here in Uganda to share and above all to see what our brothers, the veterans, are doing in the realm of reintegration after their service,” Massangaie said.
He said the veterans’ organised approach to farming and value addition showed that former soldiers could remain productive in other sectors.
“It means that the veterans, even though they finished their work in the army, are still capable of achieving other great things in other sectors,” he said.
Massangaie said Mozambique would explore Uganda’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (SACCO) model. He noted that organised groups were easier and cheaper to support.
“The lesson we are taking is that the organisation of the veterans has to be in big groups. So we have to organise them in cooperatives and replicate what we saw here,” he said.
“It is much easier and cheaper to finance when the group is organised, well accounted for and they know what they want to do, instead of just financing one by one as we still do in our country.”
Michael Mabonga, the Commissioner for Rehabilitation, Psychosocial Support and Resettlement at the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs, said the visit also sought to strengthen historical ties between Uganda and Mozambique. The ties are rooted in Mozambique’s contribution to Uganda’s liberation struggle.
He said the Bududa project was selected to give the delegation a practical understanding of Uganda’s veterans’ resettlement and reintegration programme.
“The veterans in Bududa have moved beyond maize production into value addition, producing sunflower and soya beans and using the crops, alongside other ingredients, to manufacture animal feeds. They have also established a piggery that has grown to about 90 pigs,” Mabonga said.
He said the projects showed that veterans could remain economically productive after leaving active service.
“Our belief within the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs is that these folks, when they hang up their boots, can still be very productive when they return to their communities,” he said.
The Veterans Regional Commander for the Bugisu Sub-region, Col (Rtd) Godfrey Masaba, welcomed the delegation. He described the visit as a reminder of the historical bond between the two countries.
“We sincerely salute the people of Mozambique for offering a training ground for FRONASA freedom fighters at Montepuez during the beginning of the resistance campaign against bad leadership in Uganda,” he said.
Masaba said veterans in Bugisu had embraced commercial maize farming through their SACCOs.
He said six active SACCOs in the sub-region were participating in a government-supported programme covering 600 acres. The veterans supply the maize to the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC).
“We are happy that every district in the region has a SACCO and now veterans are doing better than they used to do. Before, they had nothing, but now these SACCOs have made them productive,” he said.
The visit formed part of efforts to promote knowledge sharing and strengthen cooperation in veterans’ affairs between Uganda and Mozambique.
