Human Rights Volunteers

A couple of months ago, I initiated involvement with Human Rights Focus, a local non-profit group which is training human rights field volunteers--over 600 across northern Uganda--to become human rights watchdogs in their communities, to perform community sensitization on a variety of human rights issues, and to act as mediators and provide referrals to justice authorities in community conflicts.  The main substance of my involvement was to see if these field volunteers could be trained to integrate ICT--specifically Internet and use of digital cameras--into their field work.  I started with the field volunteers in Lacor IDP camp, which is the closest camp to Gulu town, about 5 km away.  

My idea was that these people could be trained using existing BOSCO stations to submit their human rights monitoring reports using email to the head office in Gulu.  They could also submit evidence of conditions or violations using the digital camera that BOSCO provides at each computer site.  Further, they would be able to use the Internet in their community sensitization efforts to look up educational resources on the issue of human and civil rights in northern Uganda.  Last week we submitted a proposal to USAID--the United States Agency for International Development--proposing to expand this type of programming to almost 30 locations across northern Uganda where human rights volunteers are active.  If this idea were to get funded we could use the BOSCO network to link the VoIP phones to the Human Rights main office in Gulu so that all volunteers could be a free phone call away from using the main office as a valuable resource for checking in and referring rights abuse cases to the proper authorities.  Also, we could use the internal network that BOSCO hosts to support an online user forum where human rights volunteers from different IDP camps could share stories, offer support or advice, or post case studies for future use.  

While working with the human rights field volunteers in Lacor IDP camp, I realized quickly how motivated these volunteers were to integrate their work with technology.  Previously, they were bicycling their monthly reports to the office in town.  Now they can just send it by email and include photos.  They were also really excited to use the digital camera which can become an educational resource in their community sensitization work.  

Francis and Paska, the two volunteers from Lacor, used the camera to create a photo essay which I will post below.  Their photo essay was presented at the Gulu Walk--an annual event raising awareness for northern Uganda--in South Bend on Sunday Oct. 12.  Paska and Francis wanted to document a common problem in the IDP camps:  Vulnerable and child-headed families.  Due to the terrible conditions in most of the camps, many parents died of disease, leaving the eldest child in charge of caring for the family.  This has produced a number of social and cultural consequences as the photo essay documents.

Title:  Vulnerable Children and Child-Headed Families:  From Tragedy Toward Happiness 

   

A photo of the authors, working hard to integrate use of ICT in human rights monitoring in Lacor IDP camp.

The photo above is showing a child mother who is sick lying on a mat.  Her relatives and children are worried about her condition and status and are worried about where they can get assistance. They have lost hope on her status.  

The child mother died after long sickness.  She left her children with her grandmother, unfortunately the grandmother died too.  Her children are left without a caregiver or attendant.  This is a common situation in northern Uganda. 

The children appear weak and worriedly are staving for food support, hoping to get food from neighbours. Many children in the camps are experiencing a similar problem. 

Having lost both parents, the children remained without proper wears and some are left naked.

School going pupils are wishing goodbye to those who are not going to school since they have no one to take them to school or pay the fees.  Although Uganda has established free primary education, some pupils are left behind because they cannot pay the extra fees which can total $5 dollars per term.

There is no proper shelter for these children because there is no one to make one for them.  This case is common in Northern Uganda due to HIV/AIDS and WAR.  Most families living in displacement camps are lacking a proper shelter.

The child above has been neglected since the mother died of Aids in 2005 . Most of the children in the camps are suffering as a result of War and HIV/Aids.  The child has lacked proper nourishment, causing mental retardation and development. 

The child of the deceased has also been infected with HIV/Aids after the death of the parents. The brother is monitoring him from home without any proper treatment.  

The boy of 18 above continues with begging after the death of the brother in order to care for the young ones at home.  He remains in the trading center for nine hours every day trying to collect money or food.

After long suffering as orphans, the children have turned to thieves after experiencing difficulties for many years.

These boys after long suffering, have now joined youth group whereby they can help each other by carrying out some activities for fund raising.  And they are now rejoicing their output for this year after doing Income Generating Activities like crop production.

Through group guidance and counseling, this boy has managed to go back to school after suffering in their home as orphan for many years without schooling.  After 21 years of conflict, the youth desire to begin a new life.  

Life at the Catechist Training Center

I realized that I haven't said a lot thus far about the Catechist Training Center where I am living.  And I also wanted to include a few photos of where I am staying!

The Catechist Training Center is located about five kilometres outside Gulu Town in an area cleverly named ForGod.  On our street (if you can even call the muddy river next to our compound a street) we have the Archbishop's residence, the Gulu Cathedral, various convents of nuns and offices for Caritas and Catholic Relief Services.  It doesn't take too much intelligence to figure out why they named this area "ForGod."  

The Catechist Training Center is actually made up of two separate buildings on one compound.  The building you see in the picture above is actually the Catechists Training Center where the church trains volunteer catechists from all over Acholiland in northern Uganda to teach the faith to their various communities.  This particular building has a few offices for the priests and sisters inside, classrooms for the catechists who are undergoing trainning, and a chapel where we attend mass on Sundays (see picture below).  

                                              

The second building is the guesthouse where I live.  At any given time the guesthouse can have between two and 12 people living there.  The only permanent residents are Fr Joe Okumu, the director of the BOSCO project, and another priest from the Archdiocese.  Right now we have six people staying here, making it much quieter than it was during the peak times of the summer when we would usually have 12 or so around the dinner table each night.

The photo below shows the second level veranda rooms--mine is the third from the right.

                                       

The photo below is a good view of our beautiful compound from the second floor veranda of the guesthouse.  On our compound Fr Joe grows and raises almost all of the food we eat on a daily basis:  potatoes, greens, tomatoes, cabbage, maize, cassava, etc.  He also has a place for the animals:  the pigs, ducks, turkeys, and chickens.  And to top it off, he has a small vineyard to grow grapes from which he makes his own wine.  Depending on the bottle you get, it can either taste like grape juice or vinegar--he is still perfecting this craft.

                                          

Below is a picture of the room I stay in followed by a view of the sunset from the second floor veranda just outside my room.

                                           

The Catechist Training Center is a great place to have as my temporary home in Gulu.  It is a peaceful enclave from an otherwise hectic and seemingly chaotic world surrounding the environs of Gulu.  However, it was not always this way.

Until 2006, Fr Joe used to welcome between 400 and 500 night commuters every night to sleep in relative safety on his compound.  The night commuters were mostly children and young adults who lived in the surrounding IDP camps.  It was not safe for them to sleep in the IDP camps at night because it was a common event for the rebels to attack the camps at random during the evening hours.  During attacks, they would especially target youth to abduct into their infantry ranks.  Consequently, every night, tens of thousands of youth would walk into Gulu Town and to places like the Catechist Training Center to seek relative safety from rebel abduction and/or attack.

Yet, even places like the Catechist Training Center were not free from intrusion by the rebels.  During peak times of violence about three to five government army soldiers would patrol the compound where I stay, charged with protecting the 400-500 night commuters sleeping on the compound each night.  However, this was not enough on an occasion in 2006.  The rebels came into the Catechist Training Center compound while the government soldiers retreated or went into hiding.  They abducted Fr Joe's cook and then looted supplies and food.  Then they escaped into the night.

Hearing these stories from Fr Joe--someone who has endured this instability for twenty years--is almost surreal as I enjoy peaceful evenings and beautiful sunsets over Acholiland while imagining how only two years ago those sunsets were colored by the fear on the faces of young children looking for a safe place to sleep every night right below my bedroom.

                                        

In the final picture below I managed to find a Notre Dame fan in Uganda.  He had no idea what Notre Dame is but he said he enjoyed his jacket anyway!

                                                   

The youth search for peace

One of the greatest tragedies of the war in northern Uganda over the past twenty years is the devastation it has inflicted on the civilian population and especially on the youth. Throughout most of the conflict, the LRA rebels employed a strategy which terrorized those living in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps by abducting youth—both boys and girls—to use as child soldiers and wives for the older soldiers. Many were kidnapped directly from their villages and from the IDP camps where they were supposed to have been protected from rebel attack. Once abducted, it is well documented that the rebels often used brutal psychological tactics on these youth by sometimes forcing them to kill their own family and community members.

As the violence began to subside in 2005 and 2006 with the onset of the Juba Peace talks in South Sudan between the LRA and the Government of Uganda, increasingly more youth who had been soldiers—some since the age of eight—were able to escape and return home to their villages. However, it wasn’t just as simple as walking back into the village and being greeted and welcomed by loved ones and community members. First, many former abductees had nobody and nothing to come back to. Secondly, they were ostracized and also experienced a great deal of stigmatization, which was simply overwhelming for most.

This stigmatization may seem odd to a Westerner at first because, after all, it was not these youth’s fault that they were abducted and forced to commit terrible acts against their own people. Nonetheless, when they began returning in larger numbers, the community had a great fear of these “former rebels.” The community had knowledge of the acts they had committed and many members of the community had witnessed these acts first-hand and now were faced with accepting those youth who had committed these acts back into the community.

I asked a colleague at Human Rights Focus—a non-governmental organization in Gulu that has been one of the leading monitors and watchdogs of the human rights conditions in the IDP camps over the past few years—the following question: What are some ways to help the youth/former abductees to overcome the stigmatization they usually feel upon reentry into their communities? He responded, “The abductees were removed from their community by the rebels. They were then forced to carry out serious human rights violations and to abduct others. People in the community have a very serious fear of these children when they return to the camps. They are ostracized from the community, ignored, and socially excluded. They are kept in a constant state of rejection.”

He continued on to say that the question, then, that communities and organizations in Gulu are now asking themselves is: How can we help reduce the stigmatization and foster a process of reintegration that encourages harmony, peace, and reconciliation. The Church has begun to take on this role at an institutional level. Archbishop John Baptist Odama did not ask the child soldiers to repent for any atrocities they committed. Nor did Odama set out by laying culpability explicitly with LRA commanders—although he did condemn their actions. Instead, he took the sin of war and of the ongoing humanitarian crisis onto the whole Acholi community. For Odama, the community repents because the community was responsible for the well being of these children—the sin is taken on by the whole of the Church. Furthermore, Odama has never referred to the LRA or those abducted as “the rebels.” He has, instead, continued to call them “his children.”

But action is also taking place among the youth themselves as they realize that any attempt at adequate reintegration into the community will ultimately have to begin with their own efforts. Consequently, many camps now have youth groups that have risen up, formed by young leaders who were once victims of abduction. They have returned with the goal of working to reharmonize their community and especially their fellow youth.

Dennis, the leader of the Yub Pa Lacwey Youth Group in Lacor IDP camp started his group in 2006 for those youth in Lacor IDP camp who were returning from the bush to their community after being abused by the rebels. Dennis himself was abducted at the age of 8—he is now 18—and was forced to do things he says are unimaginable for any human to have to endure.

Indeed, the psychological trauma of these youth is more than substantial and for most, professional treatment is a need. However, there are virtually no psychiatrists in the region and even the NGOs, community organizations, and the Church are often underequipped, undertrained, and underfunded to be able to carry out any substantial and widespread post-trauma and psycho-social treatment.

So, instead, the youth in Lub Pa Lacwey group come together under a common them: unity. In Yub Pa Lacwey’s mission statement, they say their main objectives are to reduce the level of stigmatization that former abductees currently face, to offer each other support emotionally, psychologically, and economically, and finally to uplift good cultural practices through the practice of traditional cultural dances and through the formulation of dramas which offer community sensitization on such topics as HIVAIDS, peace and reconciliation, and landmine awareness.

When I had a chance to witness Dennis and his group performing the traditional Acholi “Bwola” dance, I could sense the role that this was playing in the release of suppressed emotions and tragic memories. The dancing, the harmony, and the unity of the dance itself acted as a moment of peace for these youth, even if only for a few minutes. It reminds these youth that peace is still possible in a world that for them has been torn apart by senseless violence.

Dennis says of the dancing, “It is so refreshing to dance and to meet people who had been through the same things. I feared returning to the village not just because of the stigma and problems of food, but because if the peace talks break down then the soldiers will come back for us and this time they will kill us. But when I’m dancing I forget the past, the bad images and bad dreams. It silences the cries of those I saw killed. It refreshes me.”

The possibilities!

After only a few weeks working in the idp camps, I am already beginning to understand the complexities of development work. Whenever a service is provided or a material item is provided to people who are in very vulnerable situations, such as the internally displaced persons around Gulu, the implications of this give-take relationship can become enormous for the sustainability of any development project. Take, for example, our project with BOSCO. Right now we have installed low power computers, internet access and VOIP telephone service at seven sites in various IDP camps around Gulu. Yet it is not as easy as it sounds to just plop a computer with internet access wherever you please in these camps. First, there are technical things to consider and with the radio transmitters that allow the network to function, there are only certain places in these IDP camps which are accessible.

Secondly, one has to consider security issues. The computer has to be kept in a building which keeps it safe from the elements (this is not always easy to do in some of the camps which lack feasible structures for keeping such equipment) and safe from theft. This means that some of the computers must be kept in traditionally non-public spaces such as a teacher’s office or the residence of the local priests in the rectory of a church.

This brings us to the third issue. Who takes ownership of this material item that has been given? In this case a computer with access to the internet and cheap phone service has been installed; so does this belong to the person with whom it resides? Does it belong to the local school? Does it belong to the IDP camp as a whole (populations in the largest camps can be in the tens of thousands). One of the difficulties then is that when the material item has been given it often comes attached with privilege and power as far as who is allowed to access this new material item. Clearly, only so many people can have access to a computer at once so it is not feasible to say that anybody from and IDP camp with 30,000 residents is free to use the BOSCO computer at any time they choose. The question remains then, how can we best set up the expectations to realistically accommodate as many people as possible, facilitating as many users of the computers as possible, while also keeping in mind the restraints listed above.

One of the easiest solutions to this is simply to have more computers. Right now in some of the we have many people who are learning to use basic computer programs as well as discovering for the first time the communications and self-advocacy potential of the internet with email and VOIP. They are becoming capable users of this technology simply because they have access to it and can learn with very little guidance how to use it. In some camps, we even have users that are proficient enough that they have started trying to train other peers in the camps by setting up tutoring schedules.

Consequently, in a short period of time, I am already convinced that one of the key issues to expanding the abilities of those interested in becoming proficient in computers is simply access to a computer. These days, most of us each have our own personal computer at home. Some households have as many computers as people. And how are we (most of us!) able to stay ahead of the curve in our use of a computer to complete our daily tasks: again, simply because of the ease with which we have access. With more computers—even only a handful—at each of the existing sites, we could greatly improve the abilities of the Acholi people to learn to become proficient users and, in time, they can be trained to use the internet to advocate for their own cause.

For example, BOSCO has set up a wikispace page which allows internet users in the camps to collaborate with each other and with those in far off lands such as the U.S. Using this wikispace, the users in the camps have been able to post their own proposals for various causes. The site works like an easy-to-use webpage allowing people in the camps to edit and post their own material. In the Pagak IDP camp, farmers have started to post farming proposals on the BOSCO wikispace. This is a great tool for these farmers to start advocating for their own cause as they resume farming again after being cut off from their main source of income during the war (people living in the idp camps didn’t have access to their land when the conflict was at its peak).

For those interested in viewing one of these proposals, you can visit http://bosco-uganda.wikispaces.com/Pagak . Christopher who currently lives in Pagak camp, has organized a youth farming movement and has posted his farming proposals on the BOSCO wikispace. If you navigate to this site, simply click on the "Organic Farming" link and it will take you to his proposal page. Once users such as Christopher are proficient enough to use the computer and the internet in these kind of ways, the next challenge is trying to get their proposals read by the appropriate organizations who could help fund such proposals. Nonetheless, I think these proposals demonstrate the value of having access to computers and the internet in a post-conflict landscape. I hope that it will continue to be shown that providing people with resources that allow them to advocate for themselves will be a sustainable model of development for BOSCO!

First Step on the Journey

Over a year ago I made my first trip to Uganda. I had just received a research grant from Notre Dame to spend a couple weeks during Christmas break studying the effects of globalization on the spirituality of the Ugandan people. While on my flight to Uganda, I was waiting in line for the restroom when a man in front of me asked me where I was from—he must have noticed that I was wearing a Notre Dame shirt. I went on to tell him that I was a student at Notre Dame and then he introduced himself as Gus Zuelhke, also a Notre Dame graduate doing work in Uganda.

In those next few minutes, Gus explained to me that he had started a project in northern Uganda, collaborating with the Archdiocese of Gulu. Initially, Gus’ idea was to use a technology that we take for granted in the U.S. as a method for saving lives in the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps of northern Uganda. The poorly protected camps were often raided in the past by LRA rebels, leading to the abduction of children to use as child soldiers in their war against the Ugandan government. Gus’ idea was to use wireless internet, solar powered computers and VOIP technology (similar to Skype)—cheap internet phone service—to connect the isolated camps which were often without electricity or effective modes of communication. This, in turn, would allow the camps to alert and warn each other of rebel movements in the region and would act as a deterrent to the rebels by providing immediate documentation and witnesses to the violence committed in the camps. At the end of our conversation, Gus and I promised to meet again back in South Bend to discuss shared experiences in Uganda.

A few months later, I returned to Uganda through Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns International Summer Service Learning Program to teach at a Holy Cross secondary school near Jinja, Uganda. Before I left, Gus told me that he would put me in contact with leaders from the Archdiocese of Gulu so that I could spend a few days in their hospitality. At the time I didn’t think that I would have time to get up to the north because I was only spending nine weeks in the country and eight of them were spent teaching. However, I became convinced that there was another side of Uganda—a forgotten side—that was not apparent to me while I was in Jinja.

Yet, it wasn’t until my second month of teaching that the conflict in the north would really enter my consciousness. Next to the schools, there was a novitiate for the Sisters of the Holy Cross and we would occasionally go over to eat with them. After lunch on this particular day, we had an extra hour so the sisters asked us if we wanted to see a new documentary that they had just received on DVD. It was called “Uganda Rising” and was a chilling and poignant description of the events that had occurred just 200 miles north of us over the past twenty years. Watching this documentary deeply affected me; the documentary showed how the policies from both within and outside of Uganda had affected the life of the conflict and the continuing neglect in seeking a peaceful solution. It showed pictures of human atrocities (a photo of a brain hacked out of someone’s head was shown), killings, and of many acts of absolute human terror. To say the least, I was touched, terrified, moved, speechless, and upset all at the same time.

After watching it I was emotionally exhausted and had no words left in me. It was a surreal experience, one in which you realize only silence remains—there was so much evil seen, so much gratuitous suffering that all that remains in the silence of God. At the time, I could think of nothing else to do except to pray in the sister’s chapel, so I did just that. I asked God for peace, for love, for the softening of hardened hearts. And I thanked Him for the gift of hope.

It was at this point that I started to contemplate going to the north to learn about the conflict first hand—to see if I could discover the forgotten side of the Ugandan story. I thought to myself: how can I continue to neglect this conflict and the Acholi people who had been left behind?

I did eventually make it up to northern Uganda at the end of my time in southern Uganda. I had the chance to be hosted by key leaders in the Archdiocese of Gulu and to visit the IDP camps to see with my own eyes what had been shown so poignantly by the “Uganda Rising” documentary and what had been spoken so passionately about by Gus and others during their work in and around Gulu.

As my senior year at Notre Dame began, I remained abreast of news coming out of northern Uganda and kept in touch with Gus, learning more about how communication could lend itself to peacebuilding and development in the region. Sometime during Christmas break I decided that I needed to return to Uganda after graduation. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do this as I learned that there was not room for any more volunteers at the Holy Cross secondary school I had taught at the previous summer. Northern Uganda was on my mind, yet I didn’t know how I would be able to contribute. I talked to Gus about possibly returning to northern Uganda to work with the BOSCO project and the Archdiocese of Gulu. He agreed that there was plenty of work to be done and that I would be able to make a substantial contribution. So we outlined a basic proposal about what I might work on over the course of the year in northern Uganda. It all sounded good and exciting until I realized that BOSCO had never had a full-time volunteer from the U.S. before. It is an organization run full-time by committed board members who do a fantastic job of contributing to the growth of the project from within their other professional commitments as lay catechists, IT specialists, and physics teachers, among others.

In short, I came to the realization that to make this possible, I would need to raise all of the money in order to support myself for the year. So I sat down, did some research, and figured out that with the cost of airfare, health insurance, room and board, transportation, etc, I would need to raise almost $23,000 dollars to support my work with BOSCO. It seemed like an impossible task at the time and I was not convinced that I wanted to go forward with it. After all, I was busy trying to keep up in my classes and enjoy the last couple of months of my senior year, while also applying to other service programs as a safety net in case returning to northern Uganda would not be an option.

Gradually, however, the donations started rolling in from family, friends, and supporters at Notre Dame. By March I had raised half of the money necessary to support myself for my work with BOSCO. And within a few weeks after that I was able to finish my fundraising efforts—It seemed that as I followed my heart and sought something that I find great value in, all the world conspired to help me achieve it. I have been blessed and humbled by all of those who have made my upcoming journey possible through their selfless generosity.

Finally, as I arrive in northern Uganda I will be living at the Archdiocese of Gulu’s Catechist Training Center, where they often host visitors. My role will be similar to that of a “community organizer.” I will be visiting the IDP camps frequently to assess how the BOSCO systems are being used and to try and facilitate greater and more effective use of the technology so that leaders in the camps can communicate with each other and with the Archdiocese. This will help the Acholi people to become self-advocates for peace, by relieving some of the isolation they currently experience with the lack of communication resources in the camps and with the outside world.

I ask for your prayers and continued support as I undertake this endeavor. I have been blessed with this opportunity and I intend to take full advantage of it. Really, all I am trying to do is follow my heart, follow what I’m most passionate about, and to seek to live fully and learn from those I encounter.