War & Displacement in Uganda

War & Displacement | Women's Issues | Children's Issues

Project Have Hope works in the Acholi Quarter, a neighborhood located on the outskirts of Uganda's capital city Kampala. The majority of the Acholi Quarter residents are internally displaced persons who have fled from war-torn Northern Uganda. These individuals experienced unimaginable atrocities at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel army led by Joseph Kony that has wreaked havoc throughout central Africa for over twenty years. It is known for its brutality, abductions, and use of child soldiers. After devastating Northern Ugandan, particularly Acholi, communities for decades, the LRA has moved into other central African nations – the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

With the threat of the LRA tentatively removed, the Acholi people are left to face the physical and psychological destruction it has left behind.  Most of the women Project Have Hope works with in the Acholi Quarter were deeply affected by the war. Some were abducted and escaped, lost family members, and witnessed horrific violence. All have lost their homes in Acholiland. As they struggle to regain their livelihoods, Project Have Hope strives to support them by helping to provide a sustainable income and educational and vocational training programs. We aim to help these women rebuild their lives and the lives of their families.

You can transform these families' lives by making a donation to Project Have Hope.

A Look at The Numbers:

  • 100,000 Ugandans killed between 1986 and 2007 [1]
  • 66,000 Ugandans between 14 and 30 years old abducted into the army from the mid-1990’s to 2006 [2]
  • 30,000 children under 18 years old abducted into the army between 1988 and 2004 [3]
  • 1,700,000 Ugandans internally displaced between 1986 and 2007 [1]

[1] October 16, 2007, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), "Can Traditional Rituals Bring Justice to Northern Uganda." (Note: the statistic on total deaths in Uganda is a rough approximation. The exact number killed is unknown, and different sources vary widely in their estimations, likely due to the long time span of the war, lack of access to information, and deaths to varying degrees attributable to the war.)

[2] 2007 SWAY Report "The State of Youth and Youth Protection in Northern Uganda."

[3] February 2004, UNOCHA "Child Soldiers at Centre of Mounting Humanitarian Crisis."

Thank you to Resolve for this data (http://www.resolveuganda.org/home).