MBARARA – The government has been asked to translate the guidelines of the Parish Development Model [PDM] into local languages since many of the beneficiaries of the poverty eradication programme don’t understand English.
According to Angela Nyamwiza, area councillor for Kariro parish in Mbarara district, most of the PDM beneficiaries in the area cannot read and interpret the guidelines of the programme, the reason, she said, they have fed the PDM Information System with the wrong information.
“We found that some people don’t know how to fill in the PDM forms processed in English,” he said, adding that some beneficiaries have not received the funds as a result of providing wrong information about themselves.
Julius Bakamufaho, a beneficiary added, “Because the PDM forms are written in English, we end up failing to fill in the required information because of the language barrier. We appeal to the government to translate those forms into our local languages.”
“If these guidelines were translated into our local languages, people would understand better how the programme works,” Bakamufaho said.
Mbarara district resident commissioner, Emmy Kateera confirmed that he has received several complaints of the language barrier which he promised to forward to the PDM secretariat for redress.
The aim of the PDM is to get the poor out of poverty and therefore the beneficiaries need to understand the programme better so that they can meaningfully participate in it,” he said.
Kateera committed to strictly monitor the implementation of the programme to ensure that the funds are used for the intended purpose.
“We have information that some of the leaders on the Parish Development Committee [PDC] are favouring their relatives to receive the money even when they are ineligible. we shall fight this vice and nobody is going to cheat this government,” he said.
However, Adams Bwisho, district commercial officer Mbarara urged the government to provide operational funds for the PDM to help officials perform their duties better.
He also asked commercial banks to expedite the process of disbursing money to the beneficiaries, saying they need to use the money very fast and pay it back so that other people benefit from the same.
Mbarara district has a total of 46 registered PDM SACCOs that have so far received Shs 31 million out of Shs 468mln released to the district. Each parish in Uganda is expected to receive Shs 100mln each year as a revolving fund.
The PDM, which was launched in February 2022, to move 3.5mln households still in subsistence to the money economy, proposes building infrastructure and systems that support the processing and marketing of Uganda’s agricultural products.
Government has so far committed Shs 1,059 billion to the PDM this financial year for its rollout countrywide. The same amount is expected to be released in the next financial year.
So far, parishes that established SACCOs have received Shs 50mln each, benefiting 906 SACCOs and more than 21,082 individual beneficiaries. The 7 enterprise groups to benefit include; coffee, bananas, piggery, vegetables, dairy farming, beekeeping and fish farming.
https://thecooperator.news/minister-byamukama-launches-disbursement-of-pdm-funds-in-hoima-city/
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