Hope for Northern Uganda

Photos from the top:
1. 'Where the streets have no name' the road to the IDP camp
2. Some boys I met early in the morning. Their mum yelled at me though
3. The Staff at KPC Gulu
4. Boy toy at IDP camp
5. & 6. Downtown Gulu
7. Pastor Joe and me
8. Gulu
9. & 10 IDP camp
11. Former 'Killing Field', future hope!

At the centre of Northern Uganda is the city of Gulu. During the 20 year civil war, Gulu was the place that villagers would run to for safety. And the most affected where young children who were kidnapped and turned into child soldiers. These children would then be trained to kill their own or be killed. Today, the LRA rebels are no longer doing this and in fact, have been hiding in the neighbouring country of the Republic of Congo. Because of these rebels, there are thousands of 'Internally Displaced People' (IDPs) and they all live in camps around Gulu. They ran for safety to get away from the LRA. We visited one camp that held 12,000 and there are many of these camps. Most of the people want to return to their villages but many are still afraid and tired. Many have lost their children while others are searching for displaced relatives.

Watoto are about to begin building a village in Gulu which will help rehabilitate former child soldiers and orphans. They have planted a church initially and only after 3 months, there are over 700 people coming! And half of them are children! We met Pastor Joseph who is heading up the church. If he looks familiar, he was with a Watoto Choir that toured Australia in 2004. He and his wife Jackie are expecting their first child any day now. The place they are planning to build was once a 'killing field' for Idi Amin against anyone who would go against him. He would fly in on a chopper, land on this very field, gather the local school children and people of Gulu; and then he would personally kill the first of those who opposed him and then the soldiers would finish off the group. The locals, including children would watch in horror. And that was the idea - 'go against Amin, and this is your plight.' It is amazing that this may be a place of hope in the near future!

You get a real sense that the people are harder here and that they are tired. Visiting the IDP camps was heart wrenching because they are living on bare minimum. Yet there is a resilience here too. The kids are great and they followed us around everywhere we went.

We went around the town to take photos but I have to say that I was a bit nervous because people didn't like being photographed. So we made very sure to ask before shooting. It didn't help that I looked very white!

We met the staff at KPC Gulu. They are a great group of people. And every weekend there is a team that drives that treacherous road to help do set up and worship. Imagine that! 14 hours of driving in one weekend to help with the meeting!!

We will never forget this part of the trip. It was hard to witness but we are excited to see what will happen in the years to come - hope is returning!