Thirty-nine percent of Ugandans live in poverty. According to 2002 census, 1.6 million of people are over 60 years old and more than 2.6 million are orphans.
In a drive to eradicate poverty, the Ugandan government announced it would pay $10 per month to "chronically poor." Though the government still needs to determine eligibility criteria for this mainly foreign aid-backed program, John Ssebaana Kizito, the leader of the Democratic Party, who calls for employment creation and skills training as the best way to help the needy, fears corruption will undermine the effort:
In our society, the elderly depend on the younger ones. But what is happening today in Uganda is that the younger generation, who would have helped the aged, have no jobs and the agriculture they used to rely on doesn't exist
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