As part of our interview series with staff members for World Humanitarian Day, we spoke with Christina Zetlmeisl, JRS Uganda Country Director, about the meaning and impact of humanitarian work with – and for – the people she serves in Uganda. 

Why is humanitarian work important to your community?  

Uganda currently hosts over 1.9 million refugees living in settlements and urban centres. Due to current funding cuts and food reductions, many are facing severe challenges to survive.  

Access to medical services—particularly in places like Kampala—is overstretched, with only a few partners working in the area. As a result, countless individuals struggle to receive medical treatment. Many are unable to afford even one meal a day, or struggle to access education or livelihood opportunities.  

Humanitarian work, though from a long-term perspective not sustainable, is still needed – now more than ever. Especially for the most vulnerable members of the community, who are unable to support themselves due to physical and psychological hardship. 

How have the people we serve in Uganda been affected by the US funding cut? 

The suspension letter from the United States Government arrived here on Saturday morning, 25th of January. All those moments are very vivid in our memories. By Monday morning, we had to organise ourselves internally.  We had to tell everyone that we needed to lay the pen down, stop writing emails or, stop teaching English.  

We run two projects—one here in Kampala at the Urban Centre, and one in Adjumani, northern Uganda, near the border with South Sudan. Our project in Adjumani was not directly affected by the funding cuts. Unfortunately, on the other hand, the project in Kampala, which supports urban refugees, was heavily impacted. 

The situation was especially difficult for those who had only recently started the counselling programmes. We had to inform them that our counsellors would no longer be available to continue the sessions. It was something we never imagined we would have to do. Many people reached out to us, sharing their struggles. 

What was the worst moment for you?  

The past four months since the end of January have been deeply challenging—not only for me personally, but especially for our staff and the people we serve here in Uganda. We had to suspend some staff members, overnight.  On 10 March, we were forced to terminate several contracts, resulting in staff being laid off. Fortunately, since then, we have managed to bring some of them back. 

It was equally painful to inform those we serve—refugees and members of the host community, many of whom had only just begun to benefit from new activities—that, sadly we would no longer be able to support them. 

How has your community been able to respond? 

There were moments when the very people we serve encouraged us – they motivated us to keep going despite the challenges. 

Now that the programmes have resumed, most of the activities we offered before the funding cuts are up and running again, but with a different level of engagement. For instance, we previously offered both morning and afternoon sessions for English and Livelihoods training. Currently, we are only able to run morning sessions. The number of participants in our courses has also decreased. These changes are part of our efforts to stabilise and normalise the situation.  

Throughout this period, we came to realise that what had happened could also be seen as a potential opportunity – not just for us, but also for the people we serve. Some of them secured internship placements, some were able to continue their language courses by mobilising their community and finding financial resources to pay their teachers. 

So this, showed that there is an opportunity out there. This experience revealed a new path forward – one that JRS is committed to exploring further. How can we continue to support communities in becoming more self-reliant and resilient with less available funding?  

We want to build on the resilience so far built with the people we have been working with. They have shown they are capable of doing many things. And we want to build on that moving forward.