By Sophan Niwamanya
apearlnews.com
The State Minister of defense and veterans affairs Hon Oleru Huda Abason urged more Ugandans to join savings and credit cooperative organizations (SACCOs) around the country and improve their livelihoods.
Oleru said that the cooperatives have contributed to the wellbeing of many Ugandans calling for increased membership in the SACCOs.
The Minister made these remarks on Monday during a meeting with members of Kabale Veterans Association at Kabale district Rukiiko Hall Kabale municipality.
The minister first met the veterans of Kisoro district before meeting the veterans of Kabale district, and she will be traversing country-wide.
She added that she is consulting the veterans on how they can benefit from Government Programs like Emyooga, Parish model development, wealth creation among others which ought to help the members to earn a living and in turn support their families and the community at large.
He also advised the members to have their own district, Sacco, to help them boost their saving culture and promote their income generation. She told the veterans that their life cannot depend on pension, thus they should join Sacco’s to change their lives.
She however promised that the government is working hard to pay pension to some of the veterans that haven’t been receiving a pension.
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Tebarura, the association chairperson who doubles as the Kabale District Operation Wealth Creation Coordinator then told the Minister that the association so far has 200 members but due to Covid-19 they have been unable to meet which has made the association slide.
However some of the association members Sergent Wilberforce stressed that since he retired in 1992 has never received a single coin and Innocent Namara asked the Government to revise the methods of pension whereby some get a lot and others earn small.
They requested to have political leaders representatives from village level to parliament so that their issues are sorted accordingly.
The minister promised to table their issues before the cabinet and look for the way forward on how veterans live a happy life and reduce stress yet they did great work.
