Visiting Northern Uganda
Amidst the awesome beauty of a lush mountainous environment, a force has been terrorizing its inhabitants for nearly twenty years. The LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) is a band of rebels who abduct people for the sake of expanding their military prowess or merely for the sake of temporary transport labor.
Reverend Patrick (left) greets Logan Cochrane and explains the challenges in the Agoro IDP camp.
Currently, they have begun peace talks in Sudan, but for the past two decades they have made fear such a common feeling that the people living in Agoro don't know life without it. People have left their homes, leaving villages totally abandoned, moving to central locations where the government soldiers can provide some protection. Such measures still have not resulted in any form of safety; the weekend before my arrival two young women were abducted.
Due to the need for food, the internally displaced people (IDPs) walk some distance each morning around nine o'clock to a place for cultivation, making sure to return to camp by two in the afternoon so as not to become the next person not to return home.
I arrived after a fourteen-hour bus journey from Nairobi, Kenya, to Kampala where I boarded a second bus for a ten-hour trip to the northern region of Uganda. Warmly greeted by an amazing group of organized and passionate volunteers, I was impressed with the Agoro Community Development Association (ACDA) a non-governmental organization (NGO).
Three large dirt-floor buildings were constructed by ACDA with UN funding. They currently have over fourteen hundred children under five using their services, totally run by the volunteer activities of ACDA.
Their main office is in Kitgum, a large city in the province of the same name; however their main camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) is farther north, a walk's distance from Sudan, in Agoro district. I was introduced to a second local office, shown the three buildings where over fourteen hundred children under five attend their day-care program — entirely run by volunteers.
In addition, some of the over seventy-five volunteers have started a vocational school as there is no secondary school in the area, the closest being 45km away. ACDA volunteers also take part in HIV/AIDS education, working within twelve of the twenty-two IDP camps in the province.
ACDA praised RESPECT International as they have facilitated their appearance on the international scene, helped them start a computer class, and offer correspondence courses through RESPECT University – in addition to letter exchanges. The computer class has some trouble with consistent power but is a well-used resource. ACDA has registered over forty people into RESPECT University and hopes to find a way to make the exchange faster to allow students to work at a greater pace.
Volunteers and IDP camp inhabitants gather under a tree to meet Logan Cochrane.
The motivation was not solely to visit a RESPECT partner community, but also to meet locally-based NGOs who work with another organization I work for, Working To Empower. While in the Agoro IDP camp I was told of eighty-four orphans who were being provided supplies to assist them in attending primary school. As mentioned, there is no secondary school and the only option is to attend a boarding school in Kitgum but this is beyond the financial reach of most.
Working To Empower spoke with ACDA and has agreed to try and overcome this problem, as both organizations view the lack of education as a factor in the cycle of poverty. With the guidance and organization of ACDA, Working To Empower will pay for young girls to attend the secondary boarding school.
In addition, plans for future work in regards to HIV/AIDS education were discussed for 2007. For more information, please visit: www.workingtoempower.org.