Articles

Uganda

by Charmagne Campbell-Patton

Former World Savvy Intern, Charmagne Campbell-Patton , spent the first two weeks of January at a youth summit in Kampala , Uganda discussing the conflict that has plagued the northern portion of the country for nearly 20 years. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been waging war on the Acholi people of northern Uganda since 1986 and has relied on kidnapping of children to bolster its ranks. Currently, over 80% of the LRA consists of child soldiers and nearly 2 million people, have been forced into Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camps for security. The government of Uganda has been largely complacent in the war and has failed to put forth an adequate counter-insurgency to stop the violence. At the conference, Charmagne along with 50 other American and Uganda youth discussed the issues of HIV/AIDS, women's rights, conflict resolution and reconciliation and developed an action statement to reaffirm their commitment to combating the problems facing Uganda and working to end the conflict.

On January 3, 2006, I stepped off the plane at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda . The air was smoky and humid and the moon, still just a sliver in the sky, was low on the horizon and glowed bright red. It had taken me 36 hours and 8 years to get there and I savored every sight and smell as I walked down the stairs and across the runway into the airport. Of course, I only left Washington DC early the previous morning, but I'd anticipated my first trip to Africa since I was in high school and had only now been able to make it happen.

I was in Uganda for a youth summit to discuss the conflict that has plagued the northern part of the country for over 20 years. When I heard about the conference I was immediately interested in both the issues under discussion and the opportunity it presented to travel to Uganda with a group of students who are as committed as I am to peace and conflict resolution in Africa. The conference was arranged by the Global Youth Partnership for Africa and was held at Makerere University in Kampala . About 50 participants attended the conference from all over North America and Uganda and brought a wealth of knowledge and experiences to the table. We came together to discuss the issues of HIV/AIDS, women's rights, conflict resolution, and reconciliation in Uganda and to develop an action strategy we could follow as young leaders to effect positive change in the region and increase awareness about the situation both domestically and internationally.

Before I tell you what I did and saw while in Uganda , it is important for you to understand a bit about the conflict that is going on there. Right now in Northern Uganda , nearly 2 million people are living in "temporary" internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. These people have been driven from their homes out of fear of violence from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an insurgency led by Joseph Kony, which has been waging war against the government of Uganda for 20 years. While the LRA's stated goal is to create an Acholi nation based on the Ten Commandments, the Acholi people do not support the movement. Indeed, the LRA has used kidnapping and violence against Acholi themselves in order to maintain its ranks and further its goals. The LRA is made up almost entirely of kidnapped child soldiers who have been forced to kill their family and fight against their own people. Because of the high security risk, thousands of children walk many miles from their villages into the city of Gulu every night to sleep in "night commuter centers," where they are protected from being kidnapped from the LRA. The government of Uganda , led by President Yoweri Musevini, has not launched an effective counter-insurgency to stop the LRA and capture Kony. It has framed the conflict as an intra-ethnic problem among the Acholi people, who are not represented by the current administration and have little power to influence government policy. The Uganda 's People Defense Force (UPDF) provides limited security in the IDP camps; however, these soldiers are often as guilty of rape and violence against inhabitants of the camps as the LRA themselves.

During my visit to Uganda , I was not able to travel the north or visit any of the IDP camps there. Many of the participants at the conference came from Gulu and the surrounding districts, however, so I heard accounts of the situation from them. I also visited a slum in the capital city of Kampala that is largely inhabited by displaced persons from the north. The conditions of this slum, called Namuwongo Zone B, would be completely unacceptable by any standards. There is no clean water or sewage system, so the people use the same water for cooking and drinking that they use for dumping garbage and human waste. During our visit, we were accompanied by dozens of street children who have no one to care for them. Orphans are abundant in the slums and camps largely due to the prevalence of HIV in these communities and young children of four or five are often already caring for their younger sisters or brothers.

While I think it is important to give you a picture of the conditions facing the IDPs in Uganda , I do not want to give the impression of complete hopelessness or despair. Despite the terrible conditions and the hardships they face, members of the community of Namuwongo are far from helpless. During our visit, a group of women performed some traditional dances for us and the youth group in the camp performed a song and a skit for us about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Indeed, the women and youth of Namuwongo are the rocks that hold the community together. One inspiring story is the formation of an organization called Bead for Life that trains Ugandan women to make and sell jewelry to sustain themselves. The project has been incredibly successful and has helped so many women support their families during times when there is no other means for survival. The youth of Namuwongo are also clearly committed to fighting the spread of HIV by promoting the "ABC" policy - Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Use a Condom - through drama and community activism. I met several bright, articulate youth who were excellent public speakers and were clearly very committed to helping their community. Still, despite the efforts of the people in Namuwongo to improve the situation in the slum, the living conditions remain a huge hazard to the lives of the inhabitants and the government has not addressed the problem effectively. It is also important to point out that the situation in Namuwongo is not nearly as dire as that in the camps up north. I asked a friend of mine who visited several camps in the north what the difference was between the slum in Kampala and those camps and he said, very simply, that the people in Kampala are not afraid of being killed. Indeed, these people may face harsh conditions, but they do not have to fear being kidnapped, raped or killed by the LRA.

While the conflict in the north has displaced thousands and stunted growth and development in that region, other parts of Uganda have seen high rates of growth and development. This progress is one of the reasons President Musevini is so reluctant to admit that the country needs help fighting the insurgency and solving the conflict up north. Indeed, it is not difficult to be in Kampala and not even know that the country is at war. However not everyone in the south has been able to ignore the problems caused by the war in the north. The day after my visit to Namuwongo, I had the opportunity to visit an orphanage that was opened recently by a young man who has dreamed of starting an orphanage since he was 16. He found the resources to buy a plot of beautiful farmland outside Kampala and began working to build an orphanage, which now houses 89 children from all over Uganda . Many of these children come from the north, and most of their parents have either died because of AIDS or been killed as a result of the conflict in the north. But they now have a beautiful home outside Kampala with inspiring teachers and role models. The people running the orphanage, which is named Hope Integrity Orphanage, are all donating their time to teach these children to read, sing, speak English, and learn life skills that will help them earn a living when they grow older. Of course, the situation is not perfect, but it is so much better than life on the streets and has given these children a future when they had nothing to hope for and no where to go.

The contrast between the orphanage and the slum was quite striking and powerful for me. It showed me how much of a difference just one person can make in the lives of others if they have the will and the resources to do so. The orphanage is an example of an effort to improve the lives of the street children, however there are also many efforts that are being made to keep children from ending up on the street, or in the army, in the first place. One of the men who attended the conference, Geoffrey, is the Executive Director of the Acholi Youth Peace and Reconciliation Initiative (AYRPI), an organization that is working to teach youth in the north about peacebuilding and reconciliation. His organization, along with many other local NGOs, is committed to ending the cycle of violence that has plagued northern Uganda for so long. Unfortunately, the funding is very limited for this kind of initiative and their efforts are greatly hampered by the lack of security in the region as a whole.

You may ask yourself why I'm telling you all of this. Why should we in America care about what's happening all the way in some remote part of Africa ? It's true that we almost never read about Uganda in the news. With Ugandan national elections coming up in February, there may be more press coverage; however, I would not be surprised if there remains no mention of the war in the north during any coverage of the elections themselves. Unfortunately, this is the case with far too many international situations. But, though the people I met in Uganda are far from helpless and have clear visions to effect change in their communities, they cannot do it alone. The conference I attended aimed to develop some clear strategies that young leaders in both America and Uganda can use to support these efforts and help bring an end to the conflict in Uganda . If you are interested in becoming a part of the effort, you can learn more at the following cites:

Global Youth Partnership for Africa: the organizers of the conference I attended and an organization committed to bringing together young leaders in the US and Africa: www.gypafrica.com

The Invisible Children : a documentary and movement to raise awareness about child soldiers in Uganda www.invisiblechildren.com

The Northern Uganda Peace Initiative : for information about current efforts at peacebuilding in Northern Uganda. www.nupi.org

Bead for Life: an organization that helps impoverished women in Uganda to become financially independent: www.beadforlife.com