Returning Home after War in Northern Uganda

Districts of Uganda affected by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency.

The insurgency is a guerrilla campaign waged since 1987 — one of Africa's longest running conflicts. The LRA is accused of widespread human-rights violations, including mutilation, torture, rape, the abduction of civilians, the use of child soldiers, and several massacres.

Background

In 2007, when UUSC first began its assessment in northern Uganda, the situation seemed hopeless. The entire rural population, over 1.8 million Acholis, had been living in squalid camps for up to 20 years of the brutal war between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government, which began in 1986. The war not only destroyed homes, roads, and services, but also went even deeper — into the cultural fabric of Acholi society. The LRA used terror to control territory, kidnapped and brutalized youth and children and turned them into soldiers, and forced them to commit crimes against their own families and villages. The destruction of family and community was deliberate and compounded by years of dependency in camps, which had dismantled traditional Acholi caregiving and leadership structures. Relief work in the camps fostered dependency, not initiative.

With peace talks underway to end the war in 2007, thousands of Acholi had moved into transit camps closer to their villages, but they seemed stuck there. Despite the efforts of relief agencies and the government, many refused to take the final step of moving back home. In response, UUSC decided to work in Pader — the district most neglected and most affected by the war — with a completely new approach to helping people return home.

UUSC's Approach

In partnership with Caritas Gulu's branch office in Pader, UUSC brought together a team of Acholi social workers, who had experienced the war, and Jackie Okanga, a Kenyan with experience in refugee work. In 2008, they began work in two transit camps, Amoko Lagui and Accuru, with the goal of helping 6,000 people return to rebuild viable communities in 14 villages in 2 parishes, Atemi and Palenga Pader District. Two years later in 2010, more than 12,000 people have returned, and work has expanded to another 15 villages who have asked to be part of the program; these 29 villages act as magnets, drawing people back to the area.

What made this success possible? UUSC and Caritas began with community dialogue and reflection to find out what was keeping people from resettling. In time, people revealed that they wanted the ghosts of the war laid to rest before they returned, through burial as well as Christian and traditional ceremonies. Once UUSC began to support those needs, trust grew between the community and the team. When the communities were asked to define the key thing they needed to rebuild, they asked for ox plows and oxen to till long-overgrown land. This built community cohesion as eight families shared a team and plow and began to plant again.

Using community dialogue and discussion, UUSC continued to work with the community to identify what would make the villages home and then implement those activities: goats for widows, musical instruments and dance costumes for youth in exchange for building houses for the elderly, savings and loan groups, cassava plantations, training in conflict resolution for land disputes, leadership building, and group and individual counseling. Regularly featured on regional radio, the music and song groups have inspired large numbers of displaced to return home. Since the community members come together and decide on next steps, they are deeply committed to the outcomes. All program activities reinforce Acholi cultural values of working together to care for the vulnerable.

UUSC has also linked these communities with a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that helps people develop innovative, cost-effective, and relevant technologies focused on food processing, water, and tools. These technologies can reduce women's work burden, improve women's safety, and provide income-generation opportunities for women and youth.

Most importantly, the MIT team teaches villagers "creative capacity," the ability to see a problem and devise a technical solution for it. One community needed a tool-sharpening machine, invented one from a broken bicycle, and now earns income as people come from near and far to use it. The technology assistant also helped the communities design and build 10 bicycle ambulances to address the lack of nearby health facilities.

Cultivating creative capacity restores people's faith in their ability to resolve their problems — these very elements comprise the bedrock of UUSC's work in Uganda.

Featured Stories About Our Work in Uganda