Life in Northern Uganda
Tom Fred Obonyo, 41, is the Chairperson of Agoro Community Development Association (ACDA), Coordinator of RESPECT Uganda and Security officer with Oxfam GB (Uganda). In and exclusive interview with RESPECT International, Tom explains the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps of northern Uganda.
"I am Tom Fred Obonyo, born in 1964 in Agoro sub-county Kitgum District in the parish called Pobar Goloro village. I am married and have four children."
The violence against IDPs in northern Uganda is the common phenomena. The school children, adults, women, no one is safe there. Lack of food, clothes, clean water and health facilities, are some of grave problems before displaced masses in camps of Agoro. Education is the other thorny choice for budding youth in Agoro. The helplessness of refugees' community and atrocities of Lord Resistance Army (LRA) yet go parallel.
On March 19, 2005, three female students, Lama, Abwo, and Josephine, aged 9-12 years, from Potika P.7, along with twelve other women, were abducted by LRA when they went to collect firewood with fifty other women about two miles from their camp.
A group of young girls, exercise books in hand, crowd the lamp-lit passageway between tents. They tentatively use the English they have learned in school: "I walked five kilometers tonight."; "We are studying for school in the morning"; "I'd rather sleep at home, but am scared of soldiers." They are among the 50,000 children and adolescents of Northern Uganda who commute to urban centers each night for fear of abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army. Tonight the group is preparing for examinations. Amazingly, despite the dangers of traveling between home, schools and the night commuting centers, lack of time for study and the burden of poverty, the girls continue to struggle to gain an education.
Nicolai, Susan (2005). "Education that protects." Forced Migration Review, 22, 11-12.Two of the students have been released; the other student and twelve women are still with them. The whereabouts of the missing yet not known, however, according to unconfirmed reports some of them were taken to Sudan.
The women are afraid to raise their voices against the LRA; their families and community are too weak take action against LRA. The police do nothing except giving words of support. Life becomes very miserable in such circumstances for people living in the camps of Agoro.
On being asked about the community response towards LRA carnage, Tom says:
"The families are not happy with the latest information coming from the community about the children who have lead the LRA to the area. There is nothing being done by the government to alleviate the situation, apart from giving word of support to the affected families and the community in the area."
While explaining RESPECT International's and ACDA's concern about the refugees and IDP problems in area, Tom adds:
"RESPECT is trying to highlight the issues of refugees and IDPs, human rights mobilizations, sanitization, HIV/AIDS awareness, education programmes through pen-pal letters (global letters exchange) by introducing the refugees and IDP students to their non-refugee friends in other parts of the world, and through health education.
"RESPECT ACDA is also one of the actors in the peace talks through its member organization CUSPON which believes that it is only through dialogue that the situation the communities are going through can change."
Though various International agencies are operating in the area - giving food, health education, and clean water, it will be a long time before IDPs will have a dignified life, Tom predicts.
Education is difficult choice, Potika P.7 School with about 400 students, holds three blocks, one latrine and one behold. The borehole is for both students and scared community which could not fetch water from three miles away due to fear of rebels.
The insecurity, shortage of teachers, lack of scholastic materials, school uniform, food shortage, frail support from parents/guardians due to poverty, lack of health facility, poor bedding, orphanage, families headed by children, and eating one type of food (beans and maize flour) are some of the major obstacles to seek education for growing children in camps.
"There is not any freedom of movement for the refugees. There is no way that the community (refugees) can do to support what they are getting from the World Food Program (WFP), when they try to go out of the camps they fear that they can easily be killed or abducted by the LRA, which has contribute a lot to food shortages in the camps. Poverty is having a negative impact on the refugees".
Poverty becomes the main obstacle to school children who are forced to stay at home and end up indulging in bad habits like drinking, smoking, and are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection.
"There is no way the refugee community can support their children to move to higher education like passing from primary 7 to secondary school. Many of the families in the refugee camps can not manage to pay school fees for children in secondary school.
This changing behavior of children not being able to go to school, not only poses a negative impact on Acholi the culture, but is a permanent threat to the cultural identity of its future generations. The children who do go to school, leave home at 8:00AM and come back in late hour which is not a part of Acholi culture.
Tom believes that living in camps means loss of respect and dignity and hence lack of respect for human rights.
On being asked if there any hope for return of IDPs or refugees from camps to their homeland, Tom exclaims:
"There is no hope that soon the refugees can go back to their homeland, because there is no sign to show that such a development can happened, the war continues, the failure of the peace talks have contributed much in the on-going suffering of the refugees. All the fighting groups must be stopped and put their arms down to allow the return of the community to their homeland; or if they can not agree to the peace talks, they cannot solve the problem using AK-47s. So there is an urgent need for the international community to come in and support the return of the community."
"If the war can come to an end the community should [be] supported with grant[s] to start new development and other activities that can make at least some little income and other development activities in the area."
While showing his concern on security issues, Tom says: "The community must get enough protection and support for their day to day living. There is a need to double the support that is now been given to them. Sufficient health care facilities are needed in all the camps."
On education he says: "Education both in primary and secondary school must be improved. There should be an adequate water supply."
Toms says that refugees must be taught and made aware of their rights to protect themselves. He urges the international community to send more reporters to witness the situation and give good information to the donor and international communities so they know more about the situation in Northern Uganda."
"Many people have been killed, but the response of UN towards the sufferings of the Acholi community is very poor; war, and HIV/AIDS is claiming the Acholi community region.
Please talk to your group and come down to see the situation on the ground," Says Tom.