Where We Work

Northern Uganda

The Years of Violence

For nearly twenty years, the people of Northern Uganda were terrorized by an unspeakably brutal war.  An evil man named Joseph Kony led his Lord’s Resistance Army to loot and burn villages throughout the region and to mutilate and kill civilians wherever he went. Many of his soldiers were child victims, whom he abducted and then forced to kill even their families and closest friends. It is estimated that 30,000 to 60,000 children lost their childhoods after being taken captive. The boys became soldiers and the girls were made into sex slaves for Kony’s men.

It is hard to perceive the daily fear that the people felt, knowing that at any time they could be killed or abducted.  Many lived in bushes at night, trying to protect their children. More than 40,000 mothers and their children, called “Night Commuters," walked every night into the main towns for refuge and then at daybreak trudged the long distances back home. The vast majority, nearly two million people, were forced to live in poorly protected refugee camps where disease, hunger, and violence ran rampant. It was a life of total misery and hopelessness.

Time to Rebuild

The horror ended in 2006, but it has left Northern Uganda’s population devastated. The number of orphans is astounding, as is the destruction of the communities where the people lived. Survivors were told to go back to their villages, but, when they did, they found that their homes had been destroyed and the economy had collapsed. The community infrastructure did not exist. Simple things like clean drinking water, schools, health centers, and income opportunities were inaccessible to them.

Northern Uganda is now our home and we dream that one day our EWT Center will be a hub that will serve people all over Northern Uganda. Currently, we are working in eleven sub-counties where exciting transformation is taking place.