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Ugandan War Orphans have experienced kidnapping, sexual violence and raging violence as their country is ravaged by civil war. Heightening in 1986 the war between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan government has displaced and harmed almost 2 million Ugandan citizens. This fleeing has destructed the infrastructure of Ugandan society as well as the complete deterioration of families across the nation. The nature and length of this war has caused a widespread humanitarian disaster as well as extreme social and economic costs for the state. In the heart of this war, the children have been affected the most, being forced into enslavement and losing all of what was once familiar to them

History

Uganda’s current state is extremely devastating and corrupt. Throughout the country, Uganda has suffered from civil unrest since the beginning of the 1980s, continuing and growing still today. Rebel groups that are fighting against the Ugandan government have caused mass chaos, violence and uprooting. The major controversy is between the Lords Resistance Army and the Ugandan government. President Yoweri Museveni has tried to use the Ugandan military to suppress the rebel groups, primarily the LRA and the Allied Democratic Forces, but they have not been able to control these groups who are fighting for their land, pride and humanitarian issues. Due to this continual battling, 1.8 million people have been forced to flee their homes. That is roughly 80 % of Northern Uganda’s population, which have been sent into polluted camps and homelessness. At the height of this conflict, roughly 1,000 people died each week. Sadly, thousands of children have fell victim to this. Children were either abducted by the rebel groups as prisoners or fighters, or have been left as orphans as a result of the killings. The current lifestyles of children in Uganda are extremely worrisome and need to be brought to people’s attention worldwide.

The Leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Koney, created his army through the abduction of Ugandan children. It is difficult to estimate because of the mass monstrosity of the war, but an estimated 30,000 to 66,000 children have been violently abducted by the LRA. Once forced into the LRA, the children are required to terrorize their fellow Ugandan citizens, cutting off ears and hands of anyone who appears to be sympathetic to the government. The LRA psychologically enslaves the children by various rituals and practices. The LRA is a major threat to families and normative lifestyle in Uganda. Many parents, in fear of abduction, sent their children off on night walks to following towns in order to escape night abduction attacks by the LRA. This system of "night commuters" was prevalent in the early 2000s, soaring to 25,000 children in 2002. Fortunately this system has lessened with improved security in northern Uganda.

Koney moved the LRA to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after continual efforts by the United States and the Ugandan government to stop the LRA’s rule. Although this has caused increased stability in Uganda, roughly 1 million of the citizens who were caused to flea during times of war still remain in displacement camps. In result, many of the children have been left in the camps, without education and are subjected to mass sexual violence and disease.

Aids

One major crisis is the great influx of AIDS. 95 % of the world’s AIDS orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa. This has been an enormous problem in Uganda. With thousands of orphaned children, many of whom were born with AIDS, this epidemic is spreading vastly. The children have not received the proper education and means of protection to keep themselves and others. This is a catastrophic problem, which will only continue to carry on further. Without parents and homes, many of the orphans ends up dying alone, unable to protect themselves.

Approaches

These children need urgent care, immediately. With genocide and civil war raging in their communities, the children are unsure of what to do. Various different non-profit organizations are developing plans of how they can solve this crisis and implement a safe haven for the children.

Invisible Children

Invisible Children is a remarkable program that helps bring awareness to war affected children in east Africa. Invisible Children has begun to install cutting edge programs in Uganda. In order for proper implementation, 95 % of the staff on this project is Ugandan. The staff truly understands the Ugandan citizens and the mass devastation that they are being subjected to.

Invisible Children concentrates on long-term development. They feel that this is the most effective way to repair and aid the war-affected areas. Education is a huge problem in these areas. Today’s children, often without parents or homes, have received very little formal education. Invisible Children has worked adamantly to rebuild schools that were wrecked by civil war. They have already helped over 8,000 Ugandan children, but there are still immense amounts of work to do. The programs main objectives are to improve education, water sanitation, teacher support and technology.

Invisible Children has also worked on refocusing the Ugandan economy. In order to encourage advantageous savings plans; Invisible Children has implemented micro-economic initiatives. “ These initiatives have allowed Ugandans to take loans, establish their own businesses and establish savings plans for their families. The work that Invisible Children is doing has been extremely beneficial to the war stricken Ugandans.

Change the Truth

Gloria Feinstein founded change the Truth in 2006. Feinstein, a photographer, founded this program after visiting Uganda to take pictures at an NGO workshop. The destruction that she saw on her visit changed her total world outlook and caused her to turn her life around. In 2007, the IRS recognized Change the Truth as an official non-profit organization. Change the Truth’s main goal is to aid the children of St. Mary Kevin’s Orphanage Motherhood.

St. Mary Kevin’s houses roughly 200 orphans and disadvantaged children. In a time of distress, St. Mary Kevin’s has become a loving home to these children, providing them with shelter, medical supplies, clothing, food and access to education. Their orphanage has minimal funding, which has been extremely difficult, but remains to be a stable and loving home for these children. Rosemary Kavulu, the founder, had to cross many borders to integrate orphans into the educational system, but she felt compelled to with HIV/AIDS raving through the state.

In order to raise money for supplies the school raises some of its own money in addition to what Change the Truth fundraises for them. Bead making, farming, and bricking making are their main sources of income. Although it doesn’t make a substantial amount of money it benefits the school as wells as teaching the children vocational schools they can use later in life when they transition back into ordinary Ugandan society. Although devastation has hit them, the children of St. Mary Kevin’s say , “We cannot change the truth, We can only say ‘Welcome’.”

World Vision

World Vision has been working extensively in northern Uganda to help install a plan of development. Poverty and disease has ravaged through the area as the LRA desecrated the ground and kidnapped thousands of children. Although many of the children were able to escape the LRA eventually, they have been traumatized and lack education, social abilities and physical strength to be assimilated back into mainstream society. The World Vision team is working adamantly to restore these abilities in the children. Unfortunately the children are often looked down upon and neglected by their communities, being hated for betraying them and what they have done while with the LRA.

World Vision has created Children of War Centers that aid formerly abducted children. These centers do a wide variety of activities such as counseling former soldiers, both psychologically and in a spiritual nature. Additionally, they supply the children with food and medical supplies. The community counselors are all trained in HIV/AIDS prevention in order to help preventing further spread the disease. A main goal of the centers is to nourish the children and make sure that the get the proper medical care in which they deserve. In order to overcome what has happened, the children need to become knowledgeable of what has happened and understand that it was not their faults. The centers have done an incredible job of explaining the situation in northern Uganda and teaching the children vocational skills that they can use later in life when they finally return to society.

The centers also do some work in micro enterprising. In order to stabilize the nation the citizens need to have the ability to work and make a lifestyle for themselves. The centers have been working on creating more opportunities for this as well as further developing agricultural training. This training will hopefully vastly improve crop management and allow more job opportunity for the once displaced Ugandans.

War Child

War Child International is a system of different programs that help to children affected by war. The program was started on one major premise: " to advance the cause of peace through investing hope in the lives of children caught up in the horrors of war." The program works independently all over the world in war conflicted areas. War Child has set up a base in Uganda, where they are trying to help the children that have been demobilized from rebel groups. War Child has two main goals in Uganda:acceptance and reintegration. The program has set up a wide variety of activities that the children partake in, some of which include creative workshops,dance, sports and art. War Child hopes that these activities will help stimulate thinking and aid the children to become more at peace psychologically. If the child has a parent or guardian, the program encourages them to come to the workshops as well and be there for the children as they overcome this new process of renewal.

The program also offers education plans. Due to the time lost with the rebels, sometimes several years, the children have lost critical time in primary education. In result to this, many of the children have very low literacy capabilities. War Child offers courses in numeracy as well as reading and writing to help the children gain back the time that they lost. Additionally, War Child has vocational training for skills they will need later on in life.

See also

• Uganda
• War Orphan
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Lord's Resistance Army

References

(2007). Uganda. Retrieved on February 28, 2010 from War Child Holland International Network, http://www.warchild.org/projects/WC_Holland/Uganda/uganda.html.

(2008). Mazurana, D. Anthropological Quarterly. Volume 81, Number 4. Retrieved on February 28, 2010

Cheney, K. Pillars of the Nation: Child Citizens and Ugandan National Development. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2007, 288 pp.

Mission Statement. Change the Truth. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. <http://www.changethetruth.org/mission.shtml>.

Morrison, K and Sandler,T. (2006). Children of War in Uganda. Retrieved on February 28, 2010 from DATELINE MSNBC database, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9006024/.

ORPHAN EDUCATION Working to Empower the Powerless. 2006. Web. 1 May 2010. <http://orphaneducation.org/>.

Uganda. 2010. CIA World Factbook. Web. 4 May 2010. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html>

Uganda Civil War. 2000-2010. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. <http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/uganda.htm>.

What We Do. Invisible Children. Web. 1 May 2010. <http://www.invisiblechildren.com/about/ourStory>.

World Vision's Work in Northern Uganda. World Vision. Web. 2 May 2010. <http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/learn/globalissues-uganda-wvwork>.