I recently returned from a week away visiting northern Uganda, where an NGO I chair called The Uganda Fund ("the Fund") is active in helping the region recover from a 20-year conflict that took thousands of lives and displaced millions of people.

The death and destruction arose from a violent insurgency involving a mad militia called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA's signature atrocity was the abduction of tens of thousands of the region's children from their families over the years. The children were then forced by the LRA into service as child soldiers and sex slaves.

Those who returned or escaped face deep trauma, as well as community rejection, and the Fund's focus is to assist war-affected children and youth by helping them reintegrate into their communities, seek education and training, and overcome the trauma caused by the violence.

I visited Gulu and Pader to meet with the young people involved in our programs and to look at other possible projects. The travel was hard (many hours driving over rough roads between the towns!) but the Fund's work is going well and it was uplifting to see the progress.

The first time I visited the region five years ago, the violence was still raging and the camps for the displaced were still full. Those camps became hellish places where brutality, hunger and disease took a thousand lives a month at the height of the conflict.

With the violence over, the camps are emptying and the population returning to the land. While enormous challenges remain, at least the acute phase of this crisis has passed.

Here is a video about the Fund:

At Gulu University, located in northern Uganda, solar panels are used to power computer laboratories. Some 50 desktop and 26 laptop computers allow students to access content online.

This is Pauline. She is 19. She is in Grade 10 at the Pader Girls'  Academy, which is funded by The Uganda Fund.

When she was 11, Pauline was abducted by the LRA and spent 7 years as their captive. She underwent a horrific ordeal surrounded by violence and horror in the bush. Pauline is one of scores of former sex slaves who now learn and live in the safety of the Pader Girls' Academy, receiving a high school education. The vast majority of the girls have babies as a result of rape. They are therefore not eligible for Ugandan public schools.

Pauline was elected Head Girl of the Academy recently. She is a most impressive young woman. And what a testament to the strength of the human spirit!

I have been to several towns and villages in northern Uganda visiting existing and potential development and recovery projects as part of my work with the NGO The Uganda Fund. I’ve included a few photos to give you a sense of the work being done in northern Uganda.

Un enfant dans la région Gulu | Child in Gulu Area

En attente de vaccination contre la Polio a Aroyo | Lining up in Aroyo for Polio Shot

Université Gulu | Gulu University

Nos ordinateurs à l'oeuvre | Using our computers

I leave Wednesday evening for Africa. I'm going first to northern Uganda, where I'll visit communities terribly affected by the brutal conflict in that area that has killed and maimed tens of thousands over the last 25 years. The main victims of the mad militia called the Lord's Resistance Army have been children. Over 30,000 of them have been forcibly abducted and used as sex slaves and child soldiers. I chair an NGO called The Uganda Fund that invests in development and recovery projects in communities across the north focused mainly on children and youth. It's an effort to save a “lost generation” of young people whose lives were made a living hell in a brutal conflict that drove almost two million people from their homes and into “camps” for the internally displaced. Here is a piece about the conflict I wrote for Maclean's Magazine a couple of years ago. Video about the Uganda Fund, which has just been awarded a major multi-year grant.

The purpose of my trip to Africa is to check out potential new projects to invest in and visit projects already in place. I will be in Gulu, Pader and maybe also Kitgum and Lira, if time (and road conditions!) permits.

After Uganda, I will travel to Morocco to take part in a conference on education organized by the Moroccan government and featuring many participants from our own Faculty of Education, including Dean Marie Josée Berger. My last stop will be Tunisia, where I will visit universities and meet with government officials. These will be welcome opportunities to draw positive international attention to uOttawa and our fabulous faculty and to work towards recruiting more students from (and promoting more exchanges with) two important partners in la francophonie.