Outreach Centre for Child-Headed Households Uganda

As a result of the support this month we will pack everyone up and head north to Gulu. This will occur in mid-April when the school semester is over, and the children have all written their exams. Auntie Grace has been searching for the perfect place to buy land so that we can build a home for the children and set up our outreach projects for the many child headed households in the area. Thank you for helping make this happen!!

Prisca and Nancy were living with their extended families when we met them, so we are hopeful that we can find some distant family whom they can go to for visits. For Emmanuel 1 and Joyce 1, we are pretty sure we can find some distant relatives to keep them connected to their families. But for the others, it is going to be tough. There is no set procedure in place for young people to search for family members. Often there is no record of a person being born, no birth certificate, no registration, and with the vast number of people displaced within the country it becomes a real challenge. In a BBC report, it was estimated that by 2004, the LRA had abducted more than 20,000 children, while one and half million civilians had been displaced and an estimated 100,000 civilians killed. In the years following that, the numbers are thought to be higher.

For Sandra and Mark, the two young ones who were stuck together like glue at the reception centre, when we decided to take them into our care, nobody had any record of them or where they came from. Although it was thought they were brother and sister, it is still unclear what their early life experiences were or why they were separated from their families. Nonetheless, we believed they had a strong bond and wanted to foster that into their future.

Mark just happened to be outside playing the last time Auntie and I were chatting about this move for the family and wondering how the children would take it. So we decided to ask Mark his thoughts about moving back to the North where he is from. His response was one that neither Auntie nor I expected. He said that moving back would allow him to have access to land. He didn’t want to struggle to find food (or buy food from others) his whole life. He wanted to get into the garden and dig for his own food. I suspect he is going to be the one pushing to get the garden started as soon as we get settled!

Please continue to join with us as we fight for these young people that have such strength and talent to share. Help us to continue moving forward providing support for them, and to help them to regain trust in society. Help us to provide the necessary stability, so that they may not worry about their future.

We will keep you posted as we begin this journey mid-April. It will be trying for all of them, as a new way of life begins; filled with new people, new schools, and a new home.

With so many things to always be thinking about in this world, thank you for thinking about these young people and continuing to show your much needed support. Together we can get Mark out digging in the field and as many as we can reconnected to their families.