Peter Returns to Uganda

I'm preparing to go to Uganda again next Monday, June 4th. My purpose is to tape documentary material for Aid Africa so that when I get home I can edit it together.

Here's a short refresher course on northern Uganda. Almost 20 years ago the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) started terrorizing villages, raiding them and burning them, grabbing what they could, killing the adults who didn't escape and stealing the children. Girls became wives to the LRA officers and the boys were made to be killers. Those who could, escaped to the larger towns where they started camps around the schools and churches. They arrived with nothing, sometimes not even their clothes. Now, 1.6 million people are displaced from their homes and live in terrible conditions in camps ranging from about 2500 upwards to 60,000. Many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) work to support these people, including the U.N. and, of course, Aid Africa.

Just a year ago in May, the leaders of the LRA, seeing their influence ebb surrendered to officials in southern Sudan. The Sudanese government had been a major supporter of the LRA, so the leaders are in Juba, Sudan, negotiating the terms of their surrender with Ugandan representatives. I really don't know what they have to negotiate about. They lost! Anyway, peace has broken out in northern Uganda. So everybody can go home, right? Well, no.

There are many barriers to returning to normalcy. First, since it's been 20 years, many people don't know what "normal" is. Life expectancy is about 43 years in the country and less in the camps. So many people have been born in the camps and have never seen their homes and farms and don't know where they are. If they do know, the only way to get there is to walk and for many people -- the elderly, infirm, very young, and care givers, can't go. The U.N., to entice people away from the camps, has set up new camps in the countryside and stopped services - like food - in the camps closer to the towns. So some people have moved to the new camps. Those left behind have nothing.

When a farmer returns to his farm, what does he find? The bush has grown over everything there and the house is ruined. The land must be cleared, a home built, water well dug and crops planted. Then wait a season or two to harvest the crop to get some money. Nobody has the resources to do all that. So they stay in the camps because they have no alternatives.

Aid Africa has set up our office in the town of Gulu. There are 43 international NGOs there and over 100 Ugandan NGOs. The district government has done pretty well organizing the organizations, holding weekly meetings so that everyone knows what the others are doing. Except that many NGOs (seems like most!) aren't doing anything. Aid Africa is active in its purpose. We are working in the camps every day! Our niche is building the Six Brick Rocket Stove. However, when we're in the camps telling the women about our stove, we see many sick babies and children, many with what my friend Ken Goyer and I call MAD - Malaria, Anemia and Diarrhea. (Ken started Aid Africa and developed the Six Brick Rocket Stove.) About a third of children younger than two years dies. I spoke with Ken just this morning and today he took a vanload of seven children to Lecor Hospital for various ailments. The hospital, run by the Italian government, is both chaotic and efficient and the staff is actually grateful to see us bring in the sick children. Of course it would be better to prevent the diseases in the first place. We're working on anti-malarial training, nutrition (the cause of so much anemia) and clean water. We hope in the near future to have a well drilling rig so that we can help ensure clean water in the camps, greatly reducing the incidence of diarrhea that kills so many.

Ken is in Gulu starting a project to build 100,000 stoves. We have a paid staff there to help us; Freda, Priscilla and Martin are our main people. We also have Rosette who is our administrator in Uganda and Nick, our driver. From time to time Bam comes up to help from Jinga where he works with the Rotary Clubs there. There are no courses that teach what needs to be done in the camps, so Ken is teaching about the reasons for the stoves, how to make our special bricks and assemble the stoves and how to teach the women the importance and use of the stoves. He's also teaching all those other things that are necessary, like public health issues and how to tell when a well needs repair. Our staff needs to see what has to be done and then see that someone at the appropriate NGO gets it fixed if we can't do it ourselves.

Of course it takes lots of money to do all that we need to do. Several Rotary Clubs and many individuals see the importance of what we're doing and have made donations to us to keep us at work. I've made several presentations about Aid Africa and I need to do more. Neither Ken nor I nor the other officers of Aid Africa can get to all the people we'd like to know about us. So I'm going to Gulu to record the story of Aid Africa and the Rocket Stoves in the camps there and make a documentary DVD. Maybe it will be on YouTube, too!

When we've trained more about our stove program and how to work in the camps, we will expand our program as we are able. We partner with other groups, like the Rotary Clubs of Jinga and Tororo and the International Lifeline Fund to advance our goals and there are other stove projects in Lira and in the Darfur district of Sudan. We would like to expand to Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania as quickly as we can.

All it will take is time and money. If you know of a group that would like to hear the Aid Africa story, I'll be available to make presentations when I return in early July. We need to do more awareness raising and fund raising. More directly, if you would like to make a donation I would certainly appreciate it. Each stove costs about a dollar. Taking a baby to the hospital, getting tests done and receiving medication costs about seven dollars. I know of no other organization as efficient as ours in getting money directly to where it is most needed. All of us Americans who work with Aid Africa are volunteers. Our paid employees receive appropriate African pay and we are committed to keeping them all employed. I wish you all could meet the wonderful people we've found there!

I'll keep you posted on my adventures in Uganda. Thank you all for your support. And I don't mean just the money. I am grateful that I have the time, money and ability to do what I do. But I depend on all of you for that community of support we all need. If you'd like to come to Uganda sometime and volunteer with us, let me know. We'd love to have you.

Sincerely,

Peter

P.S. If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to Aid Africa, send it to our U.S. office:
Aid Africa
285 Maple Street
Eugene, Oregon 97402