After nearly two decades of life in camps in Northern Uganda, more than 90% of the displaced population in the region have now returned to their homes/villages although according to a recent CAP report an estimated 300,000 extremely vulnerable persons are still stuck in camps in Attiak. Most of these disadvantaged persons are women living with HIV/AIDS, formerly abducted young mothers with their children, persons with disability and old aged persons.  They have been rejected by their own families, relatives, friends and the community, and are faced with discrimination, stigmatization as they continue to live hopeless lives in the community. They cried for help to be build homes locally in vein.

However, through Caleb’s Hope their cries reached Canada, and immediately a group of oversee volunteer started mobilizing themselves and resources to come and build homes for 21 women in Attiak. The oversee volunteers arrives in Uganda via Kenya on the 29^th November 2010, teamed up with their counter part in Attiak shortly, and build 21 homes for 21 women in Attiak within three weeks (21 days). No body including myself expected this result but the strong commitment and spirit of voluntarism in hearts of the volunteers, and amazing team spirit among the volunteers made this possible. This was remarkable in the history of Attiak!

I often go to Attiak for meeting with the beneficiaries of our projects and during my time in Attiak, every body in Attiak including our beneficiaries and local leaders that I meet and interact with after saying “hello” to one another, the next questions follow will be “How are the volunteers? When are they coming back? How did you manage to convince those volunteers to come to Attiak in particular? How long have you trained the oversee volunteers with skills of building the local homes? Also it was amazing to the community seeing the oversee volunteers Ladies playing both roles of men and women in building process. Traditionally in building homes, men and women play different roles and never will you find women playing roles of men in building process. A woman said, “we have to learn from those oversee volunteers and start playing any role in the building process”. These are some of the talks people in Attiak continue to say Five months after the extraordinary work of the volunteers in Attiak, and to all the volunteers I remain proud of your work and indeed you made history in Attiak!

Posted by Oneka Richard, Gulu Uganda
In times of war, children suffer incredible loss of childhood, treasures as significant attachment, love, trust, hope and moral development! The Ayolli story has all the horrifying hallmarks of a child soldier’s tale, an eight year old boy ripped from home, starved, terrorized and forced to fight.

Twice before, the rebels came; Ayolli (not real name) was too young and small, the rebels came to his village when he was 3 and again when he was 6, but took other children. Then, one morning in 1995, he was weeding his family’s cassava field when he was surrounded by the rebels. At 8 years, he was big enough: they beat him, tied his hands with his T-shirt and marched him into the bush. His attackers were about his own age, dressed in rags and odd pieces of camouflage, their hair in Rasta braids. They carried machetes, food and weapons. Ayolli was held in the jungle for a few days, and then marched into Sudan with a 30 kilograms load balanced on his third-grader’s head.

The commander’s told Ayolli that they were fighting to bring peace to Acholi-land and to stop people from breaking the Ten Commandments. “Initially, I believed in [Mr. Kony], but then I saw his soldiers killing.”  I then became confused, Said Ayolli.

As an initiation into the rebel group, Ayolli was beaten 50 strokes on the buttock and sadly for him, some of the abducted children like him were spunk with a hot “Panga” or knife as initiation in to the rebel group. “What happens is that, you stand and bend down with the head down looking and hands holding your toes. They then spunk your back with the hot knife four times” Said Ayolli.

Ayolli started to forget what home was like – the classes at the primary school, the long games of soccer with other boys. But still remembers that they took/abducted him from his father’s cassava field. “They cost me my education, the care of my parents and above all, the love from my friends.”

Inside Sudan, at 8 years, Ayolli was taken for military training and during the training, you are told all the parts of the gun, as it’s being dismantled and assembled. When they are done with all the illustrations and demonstrations, you are given the gun to dismantle and assemble while naming the parts as you fix back the parts. If you fail to master or recall any parts, your neck is ‘brushed’ with the rough cassava stem until blood comes from neck. If you yell or scream extremely high, you are killed. “When you are trained and have a gun, you are a soldier. The rebels don’t consider anybody as young” Said Ayolli.

If you are given a gun to carry and accidentally it falls down from your hands, you are suppose to stand still and straight and fall backside like the gun that felt from your hands without bending. If you don’t do it well, you are ordered to stretch your legs over the burning fire in between the legs and stand still without moving until you are ordered to get away. Sometimes you are ordered to carry the food direct from the fire in any case there is an attack by Uganda People Defense Forces (UPDF). Hot as it is, you have to carry and run with it. If you pour or drop it, you will be beaten 50 or more strokes.

“There was no sharing of ideas with the others, about coming to Uganda,” he said. “If you raised the idea, you were killed immediately. Everybody behaved as if they were staying there. But each one made their own plan of escape.” For five years, he saw no way out. The Sudanese People Liberation Army stood between him and home. Ayolli wants desperately to go home to be a little boy who plays soccer again, but he walks with military bearing and carries his LRA years in harsh lines of his face. “People may think badly of me when I go back, “he said, his ancient composure cracking. “But I was forced. I didn’t do these things because I wanted to.”But one day, his detachment was raided near Attiak, about 75 kilometers north of Gulu town, and his line of marchers was straggling. “I saw a chance to escape and ran,” he said.

Ayolli hid in the bush for three days, without eating or drinking water before local people tracked his footprints, got him and persuaded him to turn himself for home. He was afraid of the UPDF, who had been his enemy; the troops held him in Gulu barracks for some few days, asking him on LRA tactics and weapons and was finally taken to the Reception Center for rehabilitation; later re-united with his family and started seeing the new world after 5 years in captivity!

 Did you know that in 2003, UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland described the Northern Uganda conflict as “the biggest forgotten, neglected humanitarian emergency in the world?”  Nearly two million people were displaced by the conflict, which was characterized by child soldiers, abduction, and the frequent use of rape. In addition, the war killed thousands of civilians, more than 36,000 children abducted and recruited as child soldiers, thousands were maimed and raped by the rebels, economic and livelihood activities disrupted, education and health services provision drastically declined and people are living in abject poverty.

The Juba Peace Talks that started in 2006 led to cessation of hostilities in Uganda and finally brought the war to an end inside Uganda. Northern Uganda is now in a period of relative peace and stability and call for rebuilding of the community, and about 90% of displaced persons have returned to their homes. Despite the high number of return, it is estimated that 300,000 people are still stuck in camps in Amuru district and are not able to return homes; majority are in Attiak. These are mainly orphans and child headed households/families, widows, widowers, persons with disabilities, and terminally ill persons -many of them are living with HIV/AIDS. These categories of people have not return homes and are still in camps. Worse of all, they have not received support from government and development partners  and have been ignored and labelled  as those who do not want to return homes and all recovery support are targeting those who have returned homes. This has aggravated the situations of the vulnerable displaced persons still in camps in Northern Uganda, leaving them in the state of hopelessness. Their living condition is appalling and calls for immediate actions from people with hearts for humanity like YOU!!!

In response to their calls, Caleb’s Hope has designed Project Build to help fundraise for building them houses that will enable these helpless and hopeless people return to their legitimate homes, resettled and reintegrate just like others in the communities and have decent houses to live in.

Help us give these unfortunate people that opportunity to live in decent houses! Your kind donation and support to project build is crucial in the lives of these vulnerable persons stuck in the camps in Northern Uganda.

Also be our Ambassador and tell others about project Build Initiative!

Many thanks for your kind support toward the rebuilding of the war ravaged Northern Uganda.

Posted by Oneka Richard, Attiak, Uganda

We are all living in a Global Village but did you know that within the Global Village there is a ghot village called Attiak? Attiak  is located at the extreme North of Amuru District, Northern Uganda in East Africa, covering an estimated area of 1,052 square km and has a population of twenty four thousand, seven hundred and ten (24,710), according to the Uganda National Housing and Population Census 2002. The Sub-county is bordered by the Sudan in the North; Kitgum and Adjumani Districts in the North-East, respectively. The Sub-county has reasonable road network linking it neighbouring Districts, Sub-counties as well as the Sudan in the North. Before the Northern Uganda insurgency,  Attiak was productive with agriculture being the main economic activity  of the population.

How Attiak became a Ghost Village within a Global Village? Since 1986 Lord’s Resistance Army (rebel group) have abducted, killed, and maimed thousands of civilians and destroyed a lot of property in the region  and Attiak being at Uganda-Sudan border suffered most from the cross border atrocious activities of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).  At the start of the war in 1986, rebels burried a man alive  in Pacilo and also killed another man in Okidi  in Attiak for unknown reason. The same year in December, 32 people were killed at Pabbo Center, 31 of whom were people from Attiak. In 1987, rebels abducted 13 people  of  Parwaca in Attiak and killed 8 of the abductees. 1n 1988, the rebels abducted and  killed 17 people in Pupwonya, and 9 people  at their garden at Awer in Attiak. In 1993, rebels lead by Vincent Otti killed 32 people across Pacilo  in Attiak. On 20^th April 2005, the LRA killed over 250 people in Attiak in a single night massacre. Again a week ofter this deadly massacred, about 20 people were killed  at Palabel still in Attiak. Apart from those mentioned, many other killing and atrocities that took place in Attiak were unaccounted for,  and hundreds of people abducted where about are not known. These massacres and other subsequent killings, and atrocities by the rebels have devastated Attiak and has retarded all development effort in the area and above all, made Attiak a Ghost village within the Global Village! This explain why Caleb’s Hope have come up to rebuild the war ravaged Attiak with a mission of turning Attiak in to an Ideal Village within the Global Village.

Down on the ground in Attiak, on my own behalf, and on behalf of our beneficaries and the entier commmunity of Attiak, we thank Caleb’s Hope for coming up to rebuild our community and we ask you to support the organization programme