Children of Hope Uganda

Releavant vocabulary

abduct
displaced / displacement
recovery
reintegration
trauma
counselling
tailoring
livestock
caregivers
bee hives
income
generate
self-sufficiency
massacre
provide

Children of Hope Uganda is a Ugandan-based project providing educational support andvocational training to 462 Ugandan youth who were affected by the decades long armed conflict.

The Ugandan team works tirelessly to implement a variety of community projects which promote the development of sustainable communities. Our various projects reach over 5000 local Ugandans.

The war in Uganda, Africa’s longest running conflict, has been responsible for the displacement of 1.8 million people in northern Uganda, the killing of over 10,000 villagers and the abduction of over 20,000 children to be used as child soldiers or sex slaves.

COHU is working to support the recovery of two war-affected communities in northern Uganda, Lira and Barlonyo. To assist the re-integration of formerly abducted children and children who lost parents to war or AIDS, COHU supports their education, either by paying partial school fees at primary and secondary schools or by providing vocational training at the new Barlonyo vocational school.

Children of Hope Uganda’s mission is to use education as a primary tool to promote the recovery and reintegration of war-affected children in northern Uganda.

Children of Hope Uganda was started in December, 2006 as a trauma-healing project for 43 children whose parents had been killed during the armed conflict. In one of the towns, the streets were full of orphaned children trying to sell anything they could to make money.

The organization started small. It began holding Saturday gatherings for the original 43 children, ages 10 to 14, who were in desperate need of help. The children were offered tutoring, psychological counselling and gifts of vitamins, bandages and scholastic materials. The group sang songs and played soccer and other games to ease the trauma of seeing, and at times being forced to participate in, the war.

In the summer of 2007, with funding from a Canadian donor another 100 children were added to the project and the decision was made to focus on partial payment of school fees to supplement the distribution of scholastic materials.

By the summer of 2008, the organization initiated several Income Generating Activities to help the people become independent. These activities have grown to include raising goats, pigs, and chickens, bee-keeping, orange tree planting, tailoring and paper bead jewellery making.

In November, 2008, another 10 children were added to the project. These were orphans whose parents had been killed in a massacre at Barlonyo village. Other children were added bringing the total number of children in the project to 165.

In January, 2010 COHU celebrated the graduation of the first 57 tailoring students, who were each awarded a sewing machine to begin their own businesses.

In July, 2010 COHU opened the new Barlonyo Technical and Vocational Institute. The school now trains 236 students, the majority of whom were formerly-abducted children, in carpentry, bricklaying and tailoring.

The IGA program is enabling northern Ugandans to support themselves. It has also strengthened the bond between families because caregivers are now coming together to learn trades and work on organization-wide projects. It has strengthened the financial situation and optimism of the whole community.

Some progress so far includes

  • 50 goats given to 50 households
  • 90 pigs given to 45 households
  • 320 chickens given to 40 households
  • 2 oxen with ploughs given to Barlonyo community caregivers
  • 30 bee hives given to caregivers in 2 communities
  • Free tailoring classes given to 57 (42 returnee mothers and 15 caregivers)
  • Paper bead jewelry production generating income for 30 caregiver/beaders
  • Orange tree seedlings given to 164 caregiver households

COHU pays partial school fees for 164 orphans and vulnerablechildren who attend 31 primary and secondary schools in and around Lira, northern Uganda. Students aged 10 to 18, are in Primary 4 (grade 4) to Secondary 3 (grade 10)

University sponsorship was initiated by COHU for 12 Aboke Girls, to continue their studies after returning from captivity. All were abducted from their school on October 10, 1996. Most returned from captivity 8 years later in 2004. Help is still needed to pay school fees for the 18 children of the Aboke girls born in captivity.

Student Example: Immaculate Awor

Immaculate’s story starts as far too many other children in northern Uganda. In 2003 she was living with her family in in a small village when the army raided her home. This resulted in her abduction at the young age of seven. She spent two years in the bush where she was forced to be a child soldier. During this time she was trained and forced to brutally kill others.

She was rescued in 2006 and was one of the first children chosen to be part of the COHU’s school fee scholarship program. When she was returned to her family she learned that her father had been killed. She currently lives with her single mother who is HIV positive, her brother and three sisters.

Immaculate’s family has received two piglets from the Income Generating Activities Program and is raising them to earn an income for the family. Immaculate is doing well in her studies, and wants to continue to go to school and become a nurse.

Student Example: Oscar Kidaga

Oscar Kidaga has suffered greatly as a result of the war in northern Uganda. In 2005 when he was just nine years old he was living with his family in a small village when the army attacked. Both of his parents were killed and he was abducted during this raid and was forced to carry out the commands of the rebel army for two years. The task they assigned to him was to cut off people’s noses. He explains that they gave him this duty because they told him he had a small nose.

He was rescued in 2007 and was reunited with one of his uncles. Although he is now in a safe place his uncle, a peasant farmer, is struggling to support him, his own three children and two other children left orphaned by the war. The Children of Hope Uganda has tried to assist the family by giving his uncle two piglets to raise as part of the Income Generating Activities Program. Despite his hardship Oscar is working hard and achieving his goals in school. He wants to be a doctor when he grows up.

How donations are used:

  • $1 buys breakfast and lunch for 1 student at the Barlonyo vocational school
  • $2 buys an exercise book, pen and math set for 1 COHU student attending a Lira school
  • $5 buys a chicken (to sell eggs for school fees)
  • $10 buys a malaria bed net and de-worming pills
  • $15 buys a school uniform
  • $20 buys a mattress for dormitories at Barlonyo vocational school
  • $25 buys a goat (to sell milk for school fees)
  • $50 buys 30 keyhole saws for Barlonyo vocational school
  • $95 buys a treadle sewing machine for the free COHU tailoring classes
  • $100 buys a triple-decker bunk bed for Barlonyo vocational school
  • $120 pays primary day school fees for a COHU student for a year
  • $485 pays secondary boarding school fees for a COHU student for a year
  • $1000 buys 5 work benches and carpentry tools for 30 students at Barlonyo vocational school
  • $1600 pays a teacher’s salary for Barlonyo vocational school fora year
  • $2000 buys bricklaying tools for 30 students at Barlonyo vocational school
  • $6000 pays school fees for the 164 COHU students attending 31 Lira-area schools for one term
  • $10,000 builds one fully equipped classroom for theBarlonyo vocational school