Scenes from northern Uganda

I think the best way to share my experience in northern Uganda is through pictures:



These huts are home to the women who participate in FH's New Life Centre in Kitgum. This program offers protection, counseling and education to vulnerable single mothers and their children. I stayed on the compound with these women for the three days I was in the area. There are currently 28 women enrolled in the program, half of whom were formerly abducted child soldiers. These women suffered from unimaginable emotional and physical trauma, but also exhibited hope and joy in their song and dance they often did on the compound.



Downtown Kitgum. This was my first time really spending time in an Africa village, although Kitgum is bigger than most village centers. There were a few shops that all seemed to sell the few same products that they were able to get ahold of.



One of my favorite things about northern Uganda was seeing the Acholi children out playing in their yards at dusk, no longer having to worry about being abducted by rebels. Innocence has returned to childhood for these kids. As we passed by they would run out to shake our hands and curtsy or yell "muno bye" to us from their homes. Muno is the Acholi word for white person and bye can mean hello or goodbye.




NGO's were everywhere you looked in Kitgum. This road to our compound shows signs for 4 different organizations whose offices were on this road.

Though war has been absent from this region for about three years, and people have now been allowed to move out of displacement camps, devastating poverty remains in northern Uganda. Despite this, there is a simple beauty in African skies and landscape as you also see here.

I feel so fortunate to have finally been given the opportunity to see the region and people God has given me such a passion for. This journey was one of emotional ups and downs, but as I saw the women at the Centre begin to smile and open up despite all they've been through, it gave me hope that northern Uganda can overcome the great devastation it has suffered for the last 25 years. It makes the last four years of volunteering for Invisible Children so worth it.