they may not have been abducted themselves, but maybe their parents were abducted. Or simply they were all forced to live in a camp. So in one way or another all the children have been abducted. All of them have something to say about peace and the need for peace”
-Educationalist for the Pincer Group International Limited.
Living is Gulu sometimes it’s hard to believe that northern Uganda was once a war-zone- The site of brutal killings and rape, mass murders and child abductions. I wish I didn’t have to start this post by recounting what was, but it’s important to note that these things did occur- That they happened and the people affected are the people I meet and talk with everyday …
Like I said it’s sometimes hard to believe. Even when I travel to districts and regions such as Amuru, Pabbo and Kitgum I know that these roads were once dangerous and impassable. Remnants of the war come in different forms: a destroyed school building here, a IDP camp there, from the physically disable who you see on a weekly basis to the mentally disturbed people moving about with no clear direction … it comes and goes through your mind and you remember the history, the stories, the lives lost and those still living with the cost of war.
I mean the “cease-fire” was in 2006 so everything is “freshly post-conflict” and yet the resilience here is inspiring and unbelievable.
But recently I was overwhelmed with what was … and sadly what still is.
I’ve been volunteering for the Acholi Education Initiative (AEI) for about a week and a half now. AEI was started in 2001 by a cross section of Acholi society in Gulu, Kampala and in the Diaspora under the auspices of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative. Their vision is to empower war affected youth for sustainable peace and development in the country.
My first task before going out into the field was to organize and file student profiles of youth who are beneficiaries of sponsorships from the Netherlands & Irish embassy, War Child Canada and DANIDA. It seemed like an easy job. I’m not much of an office person so I was anxious to get out into the field. But as I continued removing student photos, labeling them, filing them by school name I started to notice the handwriting inside their individual folders.
Each folder contained a different style of handwriting and I discovered that they were filled out by the students themselves. There was a pattern among the files because AEI works with the most vulnerable war-affected youth (most are orphans). I scanned folder after folder in which students recounted how they lost their parents …there was malaria, AIDS and natural causes, but most of the students' parents were killed by the LRA rebels and even by the Karomojong.
For one girl, after her father was killed by the LRA her mother was murdered because her brother escaped from LRA captivity. And a young boy’s eye was removed after he attempted to escape for the first time.
No article, no report, no statistics can come close to the vivid voices of these children. Nothing can record what they themselves can write down about what happened to them and their families.
I physically felt heavy. My heart sank to my stomach. My eyes, blurry, stayed glued to the pages even though my mind instructed me to stop reading. If you were a victim of abduction there was section for that. Some were in captivity for as little as 1 week and others for as long as 1 year. These boys and girls are usually the eldest too and they all claim their younger brother and sisters as dependents.
So who is taking care of them if they are orphans? Well for those who lost one parent they are struggling with a single-parent income. And for those who lost both parents, their new caregivers range in age. But mostly they are 26 to 35 year old peasant farmers and maids and then you may have a grandparent taking care …
It was hard for me to continue filing. I had to take a few moments to breath. Their faces stuck in my mind. The eeriness of the white and black portrait shots of more than 150 students. File after file- a story to tell. It seemed like something out of a movie. But it’s the reality all around me.
The situation is dire especially since acquiring funding is extremely difficult these days. Even one of AEI’s donors has decided to withdraw their support this year citing a number of reasons, but one included that the “war is now over” … but to me, NOW is the most critical point to support CBOs like AEI. What you invest in now will set the trend for things to come since you are rebuilding from war.
These community-based and grassroots initiatives are so important to these communities and are essential to the rebuilding of the north. And I believe in community. There are so many initiatives on the brink- trying to survive on the little donations and funding that they have. They’re not yet “big names” they are not “well-established” so they get looked over for grants and funds. But I say INVEST in them! especially when there is little money to go around.
“We understand the people. It is easier to talk from the African context” – Bishop Ochola
“I’m a teacher myself and I have taught in the classroom since 2006 and I know the problems that our students here in northern Uganda are going through” -Innocent Achaye, founder of a new community initiative called Pearl Africa Education Initiative
“I told you in our selection process we involve the community members and so we have the support of the community members themselves, the local leaders and even the students are very grateful for what is going on so they are willing to cooperate with us. They are really willing. And you see here the working environment is good” – Susan Alobo, project coordinator for AEI
I am not saying that funding should be directed away from the national and foreign governmental organizations and agencies, but that there should be a preference for grassroots initiatives to the point that they don’t need to give their ideas and programs over to well-established organization and hope that it gets picked up. It’s a real struggle to see these initiatives survive off as little as 2 million UGX for 2 years and the kindness family and friends …
I hope to gather more information on this topic of CBOs in education and the power of grassroots initiatives as I further my research for my Howard H. Baker Scholar appointment in the coming weeks.
For now, I’m not sure how these initiatives will keep providing services for the community and a part of me thinks that they will not be able to in the current economic climate. But like I said, resilience is abundant here.
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