This is a journal recording my experiences as a volunteer in Uganda, East Africa. I hope to share with you the beauty of the land, its people, and its culture. I also want to impart to you the highs and lows of this experience, and in doing so, I hope to inspire volunteerism in others.
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Showing posts with label Lord Resistance Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lord Resistance Army. Show all posts
In early March, the video Kony 2012 was released on YouTube. It was seen by millions of people and it went viral. I could not watch because of digital poverty. My daughter and her friends shed tears
Invisible no more
and got carried away by the story. But I told her that Gulu, the epicenter of Kony's Lord Resistance Army atrocities is now peaceful (see blog post November 2011). The world wondered by Invisible Children (the organization behind the video) revived the film, and subsequently, IC was getting bad press. So it went to Gulu last April 13
The public few who came
and 14. It showed the film on big screen in the stadium and sponsored a program where politicians and presidential appointees of Northern Uganda came in big numbers. IC's CEO in the US came and said that he met with President Obama who expressed support for their
organization.
Invisible Children's CEO
Ben Keesey
Imported testimonials came from some Congoloses who spoke in French and their narrations translated to English and Luo. The
Gulu Theater performer
Ambassador of IC in Uganda (perhaps that's how IC calls its country executives) admitted that although the LRA is no longer in Uganda, it wants to expose its atrocities in DR Congo, Sudan, and the CAR, and get Kony (the LRA leader) by end of 2012. The Ugandan government has released a YouTube response - dismissing the video as giving a false impression of the country, yet
Sing and dance with
crutches
government dignitaries were at the event and the Chief Guest was the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament. Some of the orange T-shirted groups had packed lunch while the others, just bottles of water.
High-tech cameras abound. The world will surely
know.
All I can say is the three IC founders made Gulu's 20-year war known to the world in 2005, and perhaps, it is making Gulu's experienced peace now known to the world.
Check this link, too.http://in2eastafrica.net/a-tale-of-a-child-mother-in-acholi/
While waiting at the pre-departure gate for my flight from London's Heathrow airport to Entebbe, Uganda, I was transported to reality. I started seeing again some Africans after several days of watching tourists roam the streets of Edinburgh. How colorful the African ladies dress-up compared with the pastels that Europeans prefer to wear.
Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National Park
I returned to Gulu with back-breaking pieces of luggage of canned and bottled sardines from Manila. For 20 years up to 2008, Northern Uganda was a no-man's land. Even Ugandan's feared traveling to the north, particularly the Acholi sub-region because of the presence of the Lord Resistance Army. Children were
IDP camp housing
abducted and trained as LRA soldiers to go even against their
families. My colleague told me that during those times, the days were short and they had learned to eat once a day. At 4:00pm, people from the villages will start walking to town to find security. They slept on pavements, in school houses, hospitals, churches. It was estimated that some 15,000 to 40,000 children had walked to town to avoid being abducted and the episode was tagged as the Gulu Walk or Invisible Children. The world came to know of the situation when three foreigners visited the area and published what they saw. In 1996, the government of Uganda put in place a policy of forced displacement of the Acholi - putting around one million people in camps for internally displaced to better secure them from the insurgents. It was said that 1,000 people were dying per week. Sanitation was poor, food was short, schooling was disrupted. International aid was flowing into the camps. In2009, the IDPs were closed following an experienced peace. The government encouraged people to go back to their villages and resume their normal lives. Children have to be given education. Health centers have to set-up. School houses and roads have to be built. Sanitation has to be improved. Clean water has to be accessible.
Vols from various organizations
People need to have the capacity to rebuild their lives, and institutions have to be equipped to provide services to all sectors. International aid had shifted to rehabilitation, and international volunteers work with the locals to bring about sustainable development.In the UK, I see some charity organizations (such as Oxfam, Comic Relief, VSO) raise awareness to help.
We took the road less traveled
Scotland (with her glens and lochs) and Uganda (with her lakes and wildlife) have majestic natural landscapes.
I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. (A Road Not Taken, Robert Frost)
They slept on pavements, in school houses, hospitals, churches. It was estimated that some 15,000 to 40,000 children had walked to town to avoid being abducted and the episode was tagged as the Gulu Walk or Invisible Children. The world came to know of the situation when three foreigners visited the area and published what they saw.
In 1996, the government of Uganda put in place a policy of forced displacement of the Acholi - putting around one million people in camps for internally displaced to better secure them from the insurgents. It was said that 1,000 people were dying per week. Sanitation was poor, food was short, schooling was disrupted. International aid was flowing into the camps. In 
2009, the IDPs were closed following an experienced peace. The government encouraged people to go back to their villages and resume their normal lives. Children have to be given education. Health centers have to set-up. School houses and roads have to be built. Sanitation has to be improved. Clean water has to be accessible.
