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:

I returned last Thursday from Tunisia and Morocco, which I visited following my trip to Uganda. I met with government officials, university presidents and deans in Casablanca, Rabat and Tunis in order to discuss possible areas of collaboration with our University. I found a great deal of interest in potential student and professor exchanges, joint courses of study, and partnerships in research. I will now share that information with our own deans and department heads, so that we can follow up these leads.

As members of la francophonie, both Morocco and Tunisia are very interested in providing their students with access to our French language programs, particularly (though not exclusively) at the graduate level. For our part, collaborating with and learning from scholars in those countries will provide opportunities to broaden perspectives and to create chances for our students and faculty to experience education and research within different and very rich cultures.

While I was in Morocco, I participated in a fabulous program that our Faculty of Education organized in partnership with Moroccan organizations, and that focused on graduate studies. Congratulations to Dean Marie Josée Berger and her terrific team for their great success with this important initiative.

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