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Uganda

Community Resilience and Dialogue Implementing Partners: International Rescue Committee (IRC) Funding Period: Sept. 2002 - August 2007 Amount: $12,431,116 Purpose: Assist war-affected children in northern and western Uganda by rebuilding traditional community and family structures and working to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS Accomplishments Assisted over 11,500 survivors of trafficking in persons, including 696 formerly abducted children who were reunified with their families, and 593 youth who were given educational assistance. Organized and conducted dialogue and mediation meetings in Gulu, Pader, and Kitgum through the CRD-funded Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative—together with local chiefs, the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF), district leaders, and other stakeholders. Over 100 persons discussed poor civilian/UPDF relations and voiced concern for the increasing reports of violence perpetrated by the UPDF and Local Defence Units (LDUs). Developed and disseminated a training of trainers manual for community sensitization and mobilization in collaboration with War Child Holland, Caritas, and UNICEF. It is now being used to further raise awareness on psychosocial and protection issues—especially on reunified formerly abducted children and adult returnees—while better standardizing existing sensitization activities. Completed an intensive twelve-month training for sixty local NGO partner staff in counseling and other caregiver services. All local partner staff who attended the trainings expressed an appreciation for the trainings and an expectation that their work would improve as a result. Assisted the CRD-funded Savings and Loan Associations (SLA) methodology in establishing themselves in western Uganda. By the end of September 2006, CRD local partners had 171 SLA groups at different stages of formation, with membership approaching 5,000 persons. Already their membership and savings have improved the lives of many families, especially women and children. Roughly one-third of SLA members are men. Enhanced the sustainability of the activity after project end, by developing a local partner network to continue to provide livelihood and counseling services to conflict-affected communities in western Uganda.

Although it is considered one of the most stable countries in Africa, Uganda suffers from rebel uprisings resulting in massive displacement in several parts of the country. The largest insurgency comes from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), whose twenty years of attacks on the civilian population in Acholiland in the north have caused the destruction of physical and social infrastructures and resulted in long-term displacement and the breakdown of the relationships that have held society together for generations. Abductions, forced marriages, and guerrilla activity against citizens have weakened the institution of the family. Extended residence in internally displaced person (IDP) camps has broken down respect for community tradition. Socio-economic hardship and the erosion of traditional practices have undermined the authority of village elders.

Similar conditions existed in the Rwenzori region of western Uganda, where the Allied Democratic Forces have wreaked havoc on local populations. The West Nile region in the northwestern corner of the country has also suffered from insurgency and displacement, compounded by the influx of thousands of Sudanese refugees fleeing the long-running civil war in their country. Karamoja, in the northeastern region, suffers from pastoral conflicts stemming from competition for scarce land and water resources, cattle raiding, and the proliferation of small arms. Under these conditions of conflict, displacement, and the breakdown of family and community structures, HIV/AIDS is a present and growing threat in all four geographical areas.

USAID’s Displaced Children and Orphans Fund supports the Community Resilience and Dialogue (CRD) program to assist abducted children, former child soldiers, child mothers, and internally displaced families in returning to normal community life as well as providing them with vocational training and HIV/AIDS awareness education. The CRD grant represents an amalgam of different USAID funding sources to Uganda, including the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Victims of Torture, USAID/Uganda Mission funds and Trafficking in Person Funds. In FY 2005, CRD is receiving funding from USAID’s Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) office to fulfill peacebuilding programming in northern Uganda. Through the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the project is funding a consortium of NGOs working in Uganda’s four key geographic regions. These regions were chosen not only because they are affected by conflict and HIV/AIDS but also because they suffer from historic exclusion by the central government. IRC partners in this effort include Save the Children in Uganda, CARE International, Catholic Relief Services, and Associazione Volontari per il Servizio Internazionale (Voluntary Association for International Service [AVSI]).

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