Lives Restored

The sleepy town of Gulu, Uganda lies some 200 miles to the north of the capital city of Kampala, just 90 minutes from the South Sudanese border.  Located in Acholiland, the city and the surrounding area were devastated by war for almost 20 years.  After President Yoweri Museveni forcefully took over the country in 1986 from Tito Okello, who was Acholi, sentiment rose against Museveni in Acholiland.  The movement, familiar to most of us as the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), eventually turned on its own people in order to "purify" the Acholi and turn Uganda into a theocracy.  Atrocities such as rape, murder, and kidnapping of children for the army followed, until 2006, when Kony and the LRA were finally driven out of Uganda. (see Joseph Kony, Wikepedia).

Peace in Acholiland has brought the opportunity for restoration and new beginnings.  ECM's work is located in an area called Tegot Atoo, which was a displacement camp during the war.  The name comes from the two nearby adjoining hills ("Tegot"), and the fact that so many lives were lost in the area during the war (Atoo, roughly translated, means "place of death.").  Many of the children we work with still have memories of the war, and some lost their parents.  Those parents and caregivers still living have few if any memories before 2006 that did not include death and devastation.  Yet these very children gave many testimonies during my visit of God's goodness, and expressed thankfulness for ECM and our work in the area.  In the Tegot project, ECM helps the children attend school, provides uniforms, and works closely with the families to ensure that the children are well provided for.  By helping these children become successful in school we give them hope for today and tomorrow.  By sharing the love of Jesus with them, we give them hope for eternity.  I think that about covers it, don't you?

To read more about ECM's work in Gulu, click here.

Primary school children in ECM's Tegot Atoo project in northern Uganda. There are more than 70 children in this project, making it ECM's biggest project in Uganda.

ECM's secondary school students and Gulu staff.  As the oldest children in the project, these children still have significant memories of the war.  They are doing well in school and for the first time have a reason to be optimistic about the future!