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.”