LIFE AGAIN - Background

After 2006 the time that marked the beginning of the return of peace ; the year of the silence of the gun, as popularly know in northern Uganda, the communities and people of the region are gradually setting towards restoration and recovery of the earlier experience, values and social and economical way of life of the community. Economic depression, broken social system and abject poverty characterised the period. Now people are redefining the society with the hope of a new beginning for a better future. According to Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situation (CCVS), a regional support center in northern Uganda, which focuses on development and elaboration of psychosocial and psychotherapeutic support for war-affected young people and their families in Lira district, Northern Uganda has been affected by an armed conflict between 1986 and 2006, which resulted in the death of more than 100.000 persons. Two million people - almost all of the population in northern and eastern Uganda - were forced to flee their homes and settle in a crowded confinement; Internally Displaced Peoples’ camp. In November 2013, Jan Egeland, the UN under-secretary for humanitarian issues, described the situation in northern Uganda as "one of the worst and least known humanitarian disasters in the world". More than 66.000 children were abducted by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) and forced to participate in war cruelties.

From the time the war intensified, a lot of humanitarian organizations supported the civilians both during and after the end of the conflict. Special attention was placed on the shelter, food, physical health, education support and reintegration of thousands of formerly abducted children. Attention concerning mental health, behavior management and attitude management for these children, adolescents and their families was however limited. Today, this oversight has left the communities in the region with a big task to mitigate the effects of war in the life of formerly children now youths and adults who were directly and indirectly affected by the war. Many continue to struggle with psychosocial consequences as a result of their confrontation with war and experience difficulties in their social life; decision making, coping with community challenges and fitting within the society systems, laws and organization.