Fund for War-Affected Children Andyouth in Northern Uganda

A Uganda Fund grant to Gulu University and Tulane University’s Payson Center for Technology Transfer and International Development supports ICT development for youth in northern Uganda. Located in one of the most underserved war-affected regions in Uganda, Gulu University is expanding access to higher education and has a vision of development through information technology. The project provides youth groups with greater access and training in ICT; offers university scholarships to young people for training in information sciences; increases Gulu University’s overall ICT capacity and offers computer equipment, bandwidth access and computer training to community youth leaders.

The Gulu District NGO Forum is a network organization that promotes a rights-based approach to sustainable development in northern Uganda. The Forum undertakes a variety of initiatives to empower the people of northern Uganda, and Gulu District in particular. With a grant from the Uganda Fund, the Gulu District NGO Forum has created a Youth Leadership Project in collaboration with local authorities and community-based organizations to support leadership development for youth throughout the Acholi sub-region.Young people, many of them former child soldiers conscripted into the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), have been particularly affected by the longstanding conflict in northern Uganda. Yet, they have often not been engaged as a priority group in regional development initiatives. The Youth Leadership Project is building the capacities of young people to effectively and constructively engage in policy discussions on the rebuilding of their society by supporting leadership training and capacity building to strengthen grassroots youth groups, providing small grants to support youth organizing and youth-led activities, and awarding scholarships to increase access to university-level education in the field of development studies.

Created in 2004 by 5 former abductees of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Empowering Hands is an organization now operated by 30 young women that works in internal displacement camps and communities in Gulu and Amuru to help reintegrate former child soldiers into their schools and communities. Empowering Hands has helped over 1,000 children surmount the social, psychological, and economic obstacles of resuming their lives after being abducted. Support for Empowering Hands through the Uganda Fund contributes to effective reintegration of former child soldiers and other war-affected youth through activities such as peer-to-peer counseling, microcredit lending, community education to reduce stigma and discrimination, peace building, and the use of creative outlets, such as music, community theater and radio programs, to deal with trauma.

Convened by the Justice and Reconciliation Project of the Gulu District NGO Forum, this group is a model for responding to community transitional justice needs. It builds capacity among, and collaborates with, member organizations and war-affected communities toward a culture of accountability, governance and respect for rule of law. Comprised of community leaders and skilled project administrators, the working group proactively engages with key activists to ensure coherent momentum and advocacy for a more comprehensive and inclusive transitional justice process for Uganda as a whole. This project was recently funded by the Uganda Fund; 2008 highlights are not applicable.