Years of being specifically targeted by Amin, the Ugandan military, and the LRA, the large tribe of people of Northern Uganda, called the Acholi people, are finally experiencing peace since 2008.
However, during the most recent war, the LRA forces abducted some 66,000 children, making them child soldiers and many thousands of young girls as sex slaves. From 1986 to 2007, more than 1.5 million Acholi people were displaced, mostly from the Northern Ugandan district of Gulu.
Between decades of war and havoc of disease, countless women have become widows and have taken on raising not only their own children and grandchildren, but also the children of deceased family and friends. The poverty level in Gulu is staggering. Nearly half of the population in the district of Gulu makes less that $3.00 per day.
Thousands of people—men, women and children—live with HIV due to a wartime atrocities and a lack of sex education. Unemployment is extremely high and parents struggle to pay for daily expenses, in particular their kid’s expensive school fees. It has been very difficult for the Acholi people to gain any sort of traction to better their lives and dream for the future.