Brett's Report

War's Effect on the Youth of Northern Uganda

“The emergency situation [caused by the conflict with the LRA] stretched over years or even decades, and inattention to schooling and economic activity, risks losing a whole generation to poverty; while inattention to food and sanitation risks losing their lives. ¹”
           
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda recently agreed to another agenda item in the peace negotiations, an encouraging sign that the turmoil that has wracked northern Uganda for the past 21 years may be coming to an end.  While the Juba peace talks may bring an official end to the conflict in the region, this should by no means be interpreted as a declaration that all is finally well in the region.  An official peace declaration will be a tremendous step towards revitalizing the North, but this will also leave in place a host of problems. 
           
Lack of infrastructure, political representation and security in the North are among the most immediate concerns of the Ugandan people and should be officially addressed over the next several years.  However, there is a far more serious aspect of the rebuilding process that must be dealt with to ensure that the North becomes a productive part of the country’s future: the improvement in the lives of the region’s youth. ²  The LRA’s activities have had more of an impact on northern Uganda’s youth than on any other group.  The rebels have abducted an estimated 28,000 children, brainwashing young boys into senseless killers, while forcing young girls into marriages and or to serve as sex slaves.  Over the course of the conflict, an astonishing eighty percent of the LRA’s fighters have been children³. 

During the height of the conflict and to avoid abduction, up to 45,000 children known as “night commuters” walked several miles each evening from their homes in the displaced person’s camps, taking refuge in town centers and church yards.  Despite the cold and dark of night and the lack of latrines and water, the children slept on the ground until daybreak when they walked home and then on to school.  In an informal survey conducted by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, at least 50 percent of the children interviewed at four night commuter centers stated that simply having scholastic materials or light at night to read or study by would make their lives at the centers better ^4.

Marginalized Through Lack of Education           

While 99% of youth in northern Uganda have attended school for at least one year, it is only those who have nearly completed primary school (or better) who appear to be functionally literate ⁵.  Although there is a fair rate of enrollment in primary schools among children in the camps (70 percent in 2002 ⁶), several factors have prevented the youth in the region from obtaining the level of education that would allow them to read and write or pursue more valuable opportunities than the low paying, menial jobs which are occasionally available to them.
 
First are the inevitable interruptions in education due to the insecurity created by war.  Second are the costs associated with schooling.  Although primary education is free in Uganda, there are various school fees that must be paid.  Meanwhile, lack of buildings, classrooms, desks, latrines and water, a shortage of teachers, illness and night commuting also prevent children from attending school on a regular basis and make it difficult for effective learning to take place when children do attend ⁷.
           
The deficiencies in the education system have thrust northern Uganda’s youth into a cycle that will keep them marginalized.  Without a complete primary education, much less a secondary one, they are unable to obtain higher levels of education or technical and vocational skills that would help them escape poverty.  As they reach adulthood ignorant of their political rights, they have resigned themselves to the hopeless existence in which they find themselves and do not pursue their constitutional right to participate in policy formation or demand access to information that could transform their lives economically, socially, and politically ⁸.  “The outcry of the youth is that they have been left out, hence ignored in the peace process, yet they are the most affected and…the key to everlasting peace in the Northern Region lies in them⁹.”      
           
In April 2007, twelve young people from northern Uganda traveled to Kampala to ask the government to allow them to be part of the peace talks in Juba.  According to Judith Akera, Team Spokesperson, “the meeting [was] aimed at discussing key issues concerning the youth and their role in the peace building process.  We need to actively participate in the process of peace building because we are the most affected group of people," she explained.  Africa Odong, the Team Leader of the campaign, added "we want safe homes not camps, a home free from land mines, clean water and sanitation and most of all a home without war.  The time is now or never so we call upon all the youths [sic] in Uganda to join us as we continue to advocate peace in the north¹⁰.”
 

A Loss Of Culture    

Due to the conflict, an entire generation in northern Uganda knows nothing beyond life in the camps.  The area's rich ethnic history and culture, the farming and agriculture that once defined the region, even the general idea of peace and prosperity are not truly understood by any child born in northern Uganda within the past 20 years.  A member of the Acholi Youth Strengthened Strategy, a local non-governmental organization (NGO) working for the empowerment of young people in Gulu district, observed:  “For the past 10 years young people in IDP camps have woken up in the morning and gone out riding bicycles and doing small jobs.  At the end of the day they came back home with money in their pockets, and they are now used to this way of living.  While in the traditional Acholi village the only time someone gets money is once a year, when he sells the produce of his fields.  They wouldn’t like this way of life.  They won’t use the land as their elders think they should¹².”  Being away from their land for almost all of their adult life, it is unclear how much they will be able to set up productive farming activities or to cope with the hardships of subsistence farming¹³.
           
As people begin to leave the camps and move back home, assimilation to life outside of the camps will be crucial.  Meanwhile, the presence of relief organizations and other international NGOs in the region has been both a blessing and a curse.  Obviously, without outside help, the situation in the camps would be much worse, but at the same time, the people of the camps have developed a dependency which may have extremely negative effects, especially on the children who have grown up knowing the NGOs to be a common part of survival.  Through no fault of their own, the children of the region have become accustomed to receiving handouts with nothing expected in return. 

Once peace comes, however, the redevelopment of northern Uganda will continue to require substantial outside assistance, especially from larger global organizations such as the United Nations.  Although it is essential that the Ugandan government lead the way in redeveloping the North—that it be held accountable and responsible for the rebuilding and renewal process—the ongoing support of those organizations that have provided assistance over the years to the youth of the North will still be needed once the conflict ends.  Examples of this assistance include the education of child mothers, designing income generating schemes for young adults, specially training teachers on techniques for dealing with former child soldiers and sponsoring educational and vocational courses—all essential and all calling-out for similar support from the both the national and local government.  At the same time, the people of northern Uganda must demonstrate a willingness to support themselves and help one another, with the hope of gradually ending their learned dependency.

¹Youth in Crisis: Coming of Age in the 21st Century: North Uganda: Displaced Youth: The Challenges of Displacement, the Challenges of Return, IRIN,2007. 

² By traditional Acholi definition, youth are those between the ages of 14 to 30.   

³ Learning in a War Zone: Education in Northern Uganda, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, 2005.

⁴ Learning in a War Zone: Education in Northern Uganda, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, 2005.

⁵ Annan, Jeannie, Christopher Blattman, Roger Horton.  The State of Youth and Youth Protection in Northern Uganda:  Findings from the Survey for War Affected Youth, 2006.

⁶ Global Survey on Education in Emergencies, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, 2004

⁷sup> Learning in a War Zone: Education in Northern Uganda, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, February 2005.

⁸ Oryema, Geoffrey. Project Proposal of Acholi Youth Peace and Reconciliation Initiative. February 2006. Unpublished

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Ntabadde, Ashah.  “Uganda: Northern Youth Ask to Be Included in Juba Peace Talks.”  The Monitor.  Kampala.  17 April 2007. 

¹¹ Annan, Jeannie, Christopher Blattman, Roger Horton.  The State of Youth and Youth Protection in Northern Uganda:  Findings from the Survey for War Affected Youth, 2006.

¹² Youth in Crisis: Coming of Age in the 21st Century: North Uganda: Displaced Youth: The Challenges of Displacement, the Challenges of Return, IRIN,2007.

¹³ Ibid.