Village of Hope in Gulu, Uganda
Uganda, like many African countries, faces serious social challenges. Extreme poverty and disease are the results of Uganda’s ongoing civil war, which has lasted for more than 20 years. While warring against the Ugandan government, The Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group, has abducted over 30,000 children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves.
Children as young as 10 are taken from their homes by the LRA. Young girls are abducted and forced to be "wives", concubines, and domestic slaves of commanders. The boys are used as soldiers, or to tend cattle and work as slaves. Children make up an estimated 80% of the LRA forces. The girls, or "Child Mothers" as they have come to be known, were not cared for by their captors. They were raped, and lived foraging for food, while dodging bullets and running for their lives in war zones. Some have reported having their breasts brutally amputated to prohibit the feeding of their babies.
These young girls have been forced to endure some of the worst brutality and unspeakable evil anywhere in the world. After their rescue or escape, they may have spent recovery time in a Trauma Center, but as they returned home, were usually shunned by their community because their children were fathered by LRA rebels. They have nowhere to go, and have nobody to turn to for help. They are crippled by extreme physical and emotional trauma and are in tremendous need of medical, practical, and spiritual assistance.
African Leadership is partnering with Action International/Children in Crisis, in Gulu, (pop. 120,000, Uganda's second-largest city) who have created the Village of Hope, supporting and serving approximately 500 Ugandan women and their children. Hope was lost for these young women and their children, and at Village of Hope, they can begin a new life, with help from Christian men and women who love them in the Grace of Christ. African Leadership has partnered in building dozens of homes, a central Community Center, a Medical Clinic, a Technical Training Center, the Childcare Center, a community bathroom building, and a fresh water well. As funds allow, more property may be acquired to serve an even greater number of women.
As women rebuild their lives, they are offered opportunities in job skills training, and micro-enterprise capital programs for their small-businesses. Child care at the Daycare Center further enables the women to work to support their families. The greater Gulu community is also being served, as Gulu men and women outside V.O.H. find opportunities there for training at the Technical Training Center. The Village is built and modeled in the Acholi tradition, and in addition to the principal buildings and missions, there are self-supporting projects such as gardening, agriculture, livestock, and craft businesses.
The Village of Hope will use your financial help to complete the Village and provide supplies for the Medical Center, the School, and the Office. The construction of more homes and a school is needed, which will require tens of thousands of dollars. The hope and dignity these women find at Village of Hope, was beyond their wildest dreams just a few years ago, when they lived as slaves. Please consider giving to the Village (click here) to meet the urgent needs in Uganda, bringing hope to those who cannot recover without our help.
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