Struggling for the future

For those living in northern Uganda, instability and brutality have reigned due to the 21 year conflict between the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government.

The LRA's campaign to overthrow the Ugandan government has unleashed a period of terror, including the abduction of thousands of children for recruitment as child soldiers and women as sex slaves.

Indiscriminate killings and mutilation, including the chopping off of ears and lips have been widespread. The people of the north have fled their villages to live in camps set up for internally displaced people (IDPs) and are mainly dependant on food aid and meagre assistance.

In 2006, peace talks started by the Ugandan government and the LRA meant that a relative peace descended. The talks are ongoing but there are still thousands of people living in camps – too terrified to return to their villages and there is also a lot of work to be done with those who have suffered unimaginable brutalities at the hands of the LRA soldiers.

SCIAF has helped to fund some projects led by Catholic missions in northern Uganda, reaching out to those who have suffered by providing refuge and a source of hope.

During the conflict, St. Monica’s in Gulu sheltered hundreds of night commuters - children who would sleep away from their homes for fear of abduction by the LRA only to return to their families during daylight hours. The project now provides training in tailoring, catering, and business administration to women who have returned from the bush after being abducted by the rebels. Many of the women missed years of schooling and this training is their only real hope for surviving in the future.

The priests and workers in Lacor Parish remained throughout the conflict and run a wide range of schemes from HIV counselling, a day-care centre, tree-planting training, as well as cultural support for the young people living in the camps.

Radio WA (translates as "Our Radio"), was set up in 2007 to broadcast an amnesty message to abducted children. Once abducted, they suffered a fear-based regime where they were made to become child soldiers, forced to kill and steal, and were told that if they returned to their homes the Ugandan army would punish them. One Scottish priest, Father John Fraiser, set up Radio WA to broadcast a message to help children still in the bush know that if they came back, they would be welcomed without punishment and helped to rebuild their lives.

The work of the projects continues to help the thousands of people living in IDP camps prepare themselves for the future.

November 2007