The people of Northern Uganda have endured over twenty years of conflict, most recently involving the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), the Government of Uganda, and the Government of Sudan. The biggest victims of this conflict have been the children of the North.
These children represent a lost generation of Northern Ugandan Acholi, Langi and Iteso. According to a study done by UNICEF between 2002 and 2003 alone there were over 10,000 children abducted. Over the duration of the war an estimated 25,000 were abducted by the LRA. As violence worsened the people of Northern Uganda were forced to flee their homes and seek protection in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camps.
According to the World Food Program by 2003 over eighty percent of the population of war-affected area of Northern Uganda was living in IDP camps. Over 750,000 Ugandan children have grown up in these camps. The camps depended largely on foreign governments, international relief aid organizations and other development partners. These camps attempted to provide security and provide aid as the insecurity brought on by the conflict disrupted the provision of basic social services and impeded any social development in Northern Uganda for more than 20 years.
Today, post-conflict, the North is undergoing a period of economic and social rebuilding. The legacy of the war in Northern Uganda is its orphans. The fortunate ones are those who were taken in by the extended family or taken to rehabilitation centers or orphanages, however, many have been left to fend for themselves in child-headed households, or on the street. Other children have left the extreme poverty of their homes and turned to the streets as a means of survival, often begging and collecting scrap metal to get a bit of money.
Lira is one of the towns with the largest number of street children according to the New Vision, a Ugandan newspaper in January 2010, the number of street children in Lira district was an estimated 6,000. These children need psycho-social support and counseling to support their reintegration into their home communities. They need access to education as Uganda’s Universal Primary Education is failing to include them. They need a safe haven which will advocate for them and see to their physical and emotional well-being. They need hope for the future.
Atin Afrika Foundation seeks to create a shelter and rehabilitation centre to care for street children in Lira town where we will take 10 children at a time off the streets and work to rehabilitate them. During this time they will receive psycho-social support, trauma counseling, life skills training, local language and English literacy programs. We will work to reconnect them with their home communities and resettle them with their families. We plan to send those children who cannot return home to boarding school and to support the older street children through vocational apprenticeships.
All funds raised will go to the start up cost of this project.