Uganda: An Introduction

This issue we are highlighting a horrific situation in Africa that has plagued this region and been neglected by the worldwide community. For twenty years. Since the late eighties a madman has waged war on the Ugandan government, and children have been his victims, his soldiers and his sex slaves.

Like they have done with genocide in Sudan, it is time for the evangelical community to stand up for those who cannot speak for themselves and to say, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.” Please join our contributors and DO SOMETHING, do anything you can, to help these children and speak on their behalf. They are truly at the mercy of those around them - they are children, precious in the eyes of God.

What can you do?

Pray. Write your President or Senator or Representative. Educate yourself. Educate others. Hold a vigil. Hold a letter writing campaign. Participate in the Global Night Commute on April 29, 2006 (www.invisiblechildren.com). Scream at the top of your lungs! Just do something.

For more information:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/001/18.30.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/001/19.34.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/001/20.36.html

Read a quick overview by Dean Hirsch, President of World Vision International, which has had programs on the ground for several years:

For more than 18 years, LRA leader Joseph Kony (pictured above) has waged war against the Ugandan government, encouraging his troops to abduct children and force them to fight and serve as sex slaves. We don’t know how many children the LRA has abducted, but we do know that the estimates range from 20,000 to more than 50,000 children.

We do know what happens to these child abductees from their stories, and there are thousands of them, all chillingly similar. Take Katie, for example, who was abducted by the LRA at 14, raped and pregnant by age 15, and still was forced to fight on the front lines.

She and countless others continue to endure beatings, starvation, forced marches, bloody initiation rites, and psychological manipulation. Many girls are raped and become pregnant. Many more contract HIV/AIDS.

Whole communities have fled their homes to escape LRA attacks. More than 1.6 million people (80 percent of the northern population) now live in squalid displacement camps with inadequate food, water, sanitation and medical care.

In an attempt to protect their children, many parents in rural communities make the heartbreaking choice to send their children into larger, more protected cities at night, when the LRA usually attacks. Some children walk more than 10 miles to sleep on city streets to avoid abduction. Sadly, they often cannot avoid the violence and exploitation that hunts them, unaccompanied and unprotected, on the streets at night.

**Many thanks to Amy Parodi at World Vision US for providing us with this information.

Posted on April 1, 2006 12:00 AM