Supporting Children Traumatized by War In Uganda

An entire generation of children in Uganda has grown up in a region engulfed in war. Uganda has been embroiled in a brutal civil war against the Lord’s Resistance Army—an extremist rebel group in northern Uganda backed by Sudan—for the past two decades, contributing to the psychosocial problems of Uganda, especially children. The LRA has perpetrated extreme violence, massacring, maiming, and mutilating civilians and mounting a campaign of abduction against children. An estimated 36,000 children from districts in northern and eastern Uganda have been captured. In addition, the war has displaced up to 1.6 million Ugandan nationals. As many as 40,000 children commute each night, from displacement camps to the nearest town, in search of safety. To stay in the camp at night means risking abduction and life as a child soldier, sex slave, or even death. For children, the war presents not only direct physical endangerment, but also the loss of security, predictability, and structure of day-to-day life. An entire generation of youth has experienced multiples losses, disruption of social networks, and the destruction of their communities.

Postcards to Africa