About Us:

Following forty years of bloodshed the plight of northern Uganda has been labeled "the most neglected humanitarian emergencies in the world today". For the last four decades, beginning with the horrific days of Idi Amin, the people of northern Uganda have faced unprecedented violence that has left nearly all segments of the northern regions in impoverished destitution. The current conflict began 23 years ago when rebel forces, led by Joseph Kony, sought to overthrow the Ugandan government run by its newly elected leader, Yoweri Museveni. Essentially, the battle was for dominance and control of the Northern Ugandan regions primarily occupied by the native Acholi tribe. Joseph Kony, a native Acholi, claimed to represent the Acholi people and believed he had their support to over throw the Museveni government and establish a new one - one encouraged by the popular holy spirit movement and based on the Ten Commandments. To carry out his rebellion, Kony gathered a group of guerrilla rebels to form his army and adopted the name, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). With insufficient voluntary support from his own people to sustain an army, Kony began to fill the ranks by abducting children and indoctrinating them in the most horrendous ways. It is estimated that over 35,000 children (some as young as 7, 8, 9 years old) have been kidnapped, trained to use weapons, and forced to kill family and friends. Kony's plan to use the young children worked well for him. They were the innocent ones easily brainwashed, moldable and vulnerable. img1As he took his army of children throughout northern Uganda living entirely in the bush and attacking scores of villagers during the night, the Ugandan government launched a grossly inadequate plan to provide "protection" for the more than 2 million Acholi people by moving them into 200 hastily erected IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps. The Acholi people were forced into leaving their homes, villages, farms and way of life, to live behind barbed wire fencing that did little to truly protect them. The camps were hideously overcrowded, with little to no sanitation systems. Safe water and food was scarce, medical attention wasn't available at all. Estimates show 1,000 people were dying weekly in the camps due to diseases caused by the poor living conditions, including malaria, starvation, and extreme poverty. There was no provision to raise crops in the camps and the people had no choice but to rely on food deliveries from the UN. Often these deliveries were random as it was very dangerous for the drivers who were often abducted and killed for their cargo. The young are preyed upon in the camps. Rape and physical violence are an every day occurrence. Many are just children, double orphans, trying to care for their younger siblings - to survive another day. Twenty percent (20%) of children in Uganda are orphans and twenty seven percent (27%) of all orphans are double orphans. The percentages are quite high in the camps Still today, one in five infants die from preventable diseases such as malaria, respiratory infections and diarrhea. There's a severe lack of medical facilities and medically trained personnel in these isolated, inaccessible areas. Within the past year pressure from the international community has, several times, brought the Ugandan government and the LRA to the negotiating table. By mid April of this year, with the peace talks going strong and hope for peace high, roughly 548,000 of the estimated 1.5 million people living in the IDP camps left and began the process of returning home. Families returning to their villages have little, if anything, to begin again. Food aid continues to be a necessity for most. Some have been able to receive very basic kits, which include a bucket, bowl, tarp, blankets, soap, cooking pot, plates, cups and cutlery. Many are still left out in the open with no shelter and very vulnerable. img2 For the many child-headed households, the challenge of beginning this new life has only just begun. For some, the choice to return to their home doesn't even exist. Children born in the IDP camps know nothing else. If their parents are dead they will have no idea where home is - or even if it ever existed. And yet for others, they've become so acclimated to living in the camps they simply cannot imagine returning to the villages. To date only three of the 200 camps have been completely and permanently evacuated. Smaller satellite camps have been developed to serve as a sort of a stepping stone for the difficult process of moving everyone out. For the displaced that remain in the main camps, they've had little choice but to walk daily to remote garden plots in order to provide for their families. This due in large part to both, the Ugandan government, and NGO's (non-governmental organizations) encouraging the closure of the IDP camps by no longer providing food. The consequences of this war cannot be overstated. On the ground in northern Uganda, the scene is devastating. Tens of thousands of civilians have been maimed or killed by the LRA. Ninety percent of the region's population of almost two million people had been relocated into IDP camps that lack food, water, educational opportunities, medical aid and security. People in the camps have endured disease, malnutrition, and nighttime attacks from the LRA. And yet, they still have hope!