SOS Children in Uganda
Since 2002/2003 SOS Children has established an emergency programme in Gulu in northern Uganda for refugee children, providing a tented camp and medical and social care, with the long term intention of building a permanent SOS Children's community. This includes programmes to help child soldiers by family tracing (many of the child had been abducted) and also with reconciliation programmes to re-integrate child soliders back into their community. The Republic of Uganda in East Africa straddles the equator in the interior of the continent and is one of the most densely populated Black African countries with over 22 million inhabitants.
Although Uganda has now enjoyed more than a decade of relative peace and stability after twenty years of civil war, it remains one of the poorest countries in the world and the people continue to suffer from its position at the centre of an area of violence and ethnic unrest. Health care is poor and malnutrition, malaria and parasites are common. There is a large incidence of HIV/AIDS as well as related illnesses like TB and pneumonia. Less than half the people have access to clean drinking water and life expectancy is low.
The charity began work on the first Ugandan community in 1989 at Kakiri, a small market town in the Lowero triangle, 27 km north west of the capital Kampala. The area was chosen because this part of Uganda suffered most from the war in 1986 which virtually destroyed the town's infrastructure. SOS Children's Kakiri community has twelve family houses and three youth houses where the older children can live in relative autonomy while they take their first guided steps towards independent lives. The community will be their home until they are ready and able to support themselves. As well as the houses, there is a kindergarten, a school for both primary and secondary pupils and a medical centre, all of which are used by families in the neighbourhood.
SOS Children's second site opened in 2003 in Entebbe, the country's second largest city. It has twelve family houses and a kindergarten and is home to over 120 children.
In June 2002 SOS Children began an Emergency Relief Programme in Gulu in the north of the country, in order to help refugee children. This has now evolved into an SOS Social Centre to help orphaned and vulnerable children and their families in Gulu. A temporary SOS Children’s Village was built to give family homes to refugee children who could not be reunited with their families. A permanent village will open in 2007.
Local Contacts
SOS Children in Uganda
SOS Children's Villages of Uganda Trust, 25 Km on Entebbe Road, Abayita Ababiri, Entebbe. P.O. Box 27510, Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256/41/32 33 47
Fax: +256/41/322248
e-mail: sosuganda@utlonline.co.ug
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