May 2008
5.26.8 Picket Fence
|
5.2.8 Selected images from Gulu on display
Filed in: this week at
work
Selected
images from my 2006 trip to Gulu, Uganda are on
display at Spill the Wine
in
Minneapolis. Stop by. Check it out. Let me know
what you think.
For over 20 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has waged war on the Ugandan government. The roots of the conflict between the north and south in Uganda come from the divisive political climate that was embedded by British colonialism. In this war however, Joseph Kony, (a northerner) terrorizes the civilian population of the northern region – not only as a means of maintaining attention and challenging President Yoweri Museveni but also in response to the lack of support his opposition movement has received from residents in the region.
In 1996, in an effort to provide better protection to the residents of the north, President Yoweri Museveni forced 1.7 million Ugandans into camps for internally displaced persons. Within the camps, residents face starvation, poor sanitation, psychosocial trauma, lack of education, HIV/AIDS and prostitution in gross levels. Nearly 1,000 residents die each week as a result of the camps' conditions. These conditions exacerbate the hostility between residents in the north and the government in the south. Some residents in the camps believe the government is trying to kill them.
The impact the conflict has had on the children of the northern region is terrifying. As many as 66,000 children have been abducted over the course of the war by the LRA who use them as child soldiers and sex slaves. For the children in the camps, fear of abduction and forced soldiering are not the only insecurities they face. Food shortages, poor or nonexistent health care and a wrecked educational system are daily realities. In some areas, the student to teacher ratio has been as high as 300:1, the student to classroom ratio 400:1 and the student to toilet ratio, 150:1. In many cases, the school fees are prohibitively expensive and many children are unable to attend at all.
While peace talks have been active on and off since 2006, comprehensive efforts to expand access to quality education, healthcare and livelihoods are urgently needed if the children of northern Uganda are to overcome the legacy of decades of war.
For more information on the conflict in northern Uganda, visit www.ugandacan.org.
For over 20 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has waged war on the Ugandan government. The roots of the conflict between the north and south in Uganda come from the divisive political climate that was embedded by British colonialism. In this war however, Joseph Kony, (a northerner) terrorizes the civilian population of the northern region – not only as a means of maintaining attention and challenging President Yoweri Museveni but also in response to the lack of support his opposition movement has received from residents in the region.
In 1996, in an effort to provide better protection to the residents of the north, President Yoweri Museveni forced 1.7 million Ugandans into camps for internally displaced persons. Within the camps, residents face starvation, poor sanitation, psychosocial trauma, lack of education, HIV/AIDS and prostitution in gross levels. Nearly 1,000 residents die each week as a result of the camps' conditions. These conditions exacerbate the hostility between residents in the north and the government in the south. Some residents in the camps believe the government is trying to kill them.
The impact the conflict has had on the children of the northern region is terrifying. As many as 66,000 children have been abducted over the course of the war by the LRA who use them as child soldiers and sex slaves. For the children in the camps, fear of abduction and forced soldiering are not the only insecurities they face. Food shortages, poor or nonexistent health care and a wrecked educational system are daily realities. In some areas, the student to teacher ratio has been as high as 300:1, the student to classroom ratio 400:1 and the student to toilet ratio, 150:1. In many cases, the school fees are prohibitively expensive and many children are unable to attend at all.
While peace talks have been active on and off since 2006, comprehensive efforts to expand access to quality education, healthcare and livelihoods are urgently needed if the children of northern Uganda are to overcome the legacy of decades of war.
For more information on the conflict in northern Uganda, visit www.ugandacan.org.