Former child soldiers rehabilitated
Author: Andrew Robertson
Article Date: 13 Nov 2007
Commonwealth Secretariat funded project helps young people in Northern Uganda reclaim their identities
Many young people in Northern Uganda have never known peace. The vast majority have grown up amidst fear, poverty and insecurity.
Fifteen-year old Patrick Omony is one such youth. He was abducted from his village by the Lord’s Resistance Army to fight in Uganda’s 20-year civil war that has left tens of thousands of children traumatised, dead or missing.
When he visited the Commonwealth Secretariat in March this year, Patrick explained how the rebels “would make [him] do anything from maiming victims and burning huts to armed looting and abducting other children.”
This conflict affected young Ugandans in a number of different ways. Many missed the opportunity of a formal education and a large number are unemployed and remain vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.
Patrick is one around 200 young people who have benefited from the Northern Uganda Youth Development Centre, a Government of Uganda project located in Gulu district and currently supported with funding from the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The project aims to help young people in Northern Uganda reclaim their identity through decent employment and positive living. The project currently targets young people aged 15 to 25 years old in Gulu District and will subsequently expand to cover the Acholi sub-region.
Although the Centre is already operating, it will be officially opened on 17 November by Secretary-General Don McKinnon and President Museveni of Uganda.
The project aims to help young people gain decent employment through learning vocational and other skills and also create a healthy young labour force to ensure a constructive contribution to the development and peace building process. It will also facilitate youth involvement in social and cultural reconstruction as a way of helping them reclaim their identity.
Dialogue and the promotion of reconciliation and peaceful coexistence are encouraged at the Centre. This effort is directly aimed at the families and communities who were torn apart by the conflict.
The Centre has also set up Friends53, a project which aims to make the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting relevant and memorable to the local communities in Northern Uganda.
Friends53 will act as a platform to help young people and their communities understand the underlying causes of conflict. As well as continuing the fight against HIV/AIDS and other key Commonwelath goals, Friends53 will address global topics such as climate change.
This concept, as well as the continued efforts of the Centre, aims to bring a peaceful existence to families in Northern Uganda.
So far, the project has directly affected individuals like Alice Apiyo, 15, a former child soldier who now wants to become a teacher. She also visited the Secretariat earlier this year with her friend Patrick, who hopes to become a doctor.
Following the official opening of the Centre later this month, the project will continue its rehabilitation work so that more young people affected by the civil war, like Alice and Patrick, can hope for a better future.