By Overseas Team | Overseas Team
Thank you, as always, for standing with the young people of northern Uganda and with us. Your continued support makes everything in this report possible.
To protect the privacy and safety of the people we support, we edited the photos in this report so individuals cannot be identified.
A conflict that began in Uganda
Since the late 1980s, an armed group has abducted children in northern Uganda and forced them to fight. For many years, we worked with a painful dilemma: no matter how many children reclaimed their lives, new victims would keep appearing as long as the conflict continued.
Over time, though, the situation shifted. The armed group is now weaker than ever, and most of its fighters are former child soldiers who grew up inside it, along with their children. If they can be demobilized, the group will collapse from within. In 2023, we turned that idea into our 500 Returns Project.
Smile House graduates become rescuers.
The key to this effort is the young people who graduated from our "Smile House" in Gulu, northern Uganda. After rebuilding their own lives, they wanted to rescue the comrades they had left behind. Those still inside the group have been told that "if you go back, you will be killed," so calls to return from governments and NGOs rarely reach them. The only voices they trust are those of people who lived through the same experience.
So graduates record video messages, and Terra Renaissance delivers them:
"Now I'm receiving vocational training and walking a new path in life. Terra Renaissance welcomed me. You can come back too. Don't be afraid; please come home."
— from a video message calling on combatants to return
Progress so far: 54% of the way to 500
500 is the estimated number of former child soldiers whose demobilization would allow the armed group to be dismantled from within. As of July 2026, 272 people have returned through the project, including those still in the process of returning.
In March 2026, the Government of Uganda also joined the first intergovernmental conference on the safe return and reintegration of former child soldiers, convened at Terra Renaissance's call, and agreed to cooperate with our return support.
A message from the Overseas Operations Director (based in Uganda)
"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. We now have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to end one of Africa's longest-running conflicts peacefully, through the power of citizens. If we let up now, new forces could supply money and weapons, and the tragedy could reignite. We are determined to see this through this year and next.
But return is not the goal. Without support for social reintegration, they will be driven back into armed groups or crime. Because each person has different circumstances and moves at a different pace, we will walk beside them until the day they become self-reliant. Please continue to watch over them warmly to the very end and lend us your strength."
How your gift helps
In Uganda, each person who comes home needs a safe place to start again: psychosocial care, vocational training, and support until they can stand on their own. Your donation helps a young person rebuild their life at Smile House, and every graduate who rebuilds a life can become a voice that brings the next person home.
With gratitude,
Terra Renaissance
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