|
Creating a new generation of peacemakers in Uganda
By Dan Nixon
For more than 20 years, northern Uganda lived in the grip of a civil
war that killed over 300,000 people, displaced 1.8 million more, and
forced 36,000 child soldiers as young as seven years old to fight in
the resistance movement.
Although a truce brought an end to the violence in 2006, much work
remains to secure a lasting peace.
In November, The Rotary Foundation awarded a US$16,096 global grant
to the Rotary clubs of Rubaga, Uganda, and Lambert Airport,
Missouri, USA, to provide training in peace-building to 200 teachers
and 1,300 students at 10 high schools in the region. The sponsor
clubs will work with the Great Lakes Center for Conflict Resolution
in Gulu to carry out the project. The effort also will create “peace
clubs” at the schools, which will use music, drama, and other means
to provide ongoing education about conflict prevention and
resolution to the surrounding communities.
The Great Lakes Center is the brainchild of two former Rotary Peace
Fellows, Robert Opira (2005-07) and Godfrey Mukalazi (2004-06), who
came up with the idea while studying at the University of Queensland
in Australia. The non-governmental organization is working to
address conflict and security challenges in the five-country Great
Lakes region, where more than five million people have died since
the mid-1990s in conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Rwanda, and Uganda alone.
After the grant project is completed, the center will integrate the
training curriculum and peace clubs into its activities and continue
to work with the 10 schools. The knowledge and skills acquired by
the teachers and students will enable them to become lifelong agents
for peace in their communities and the nation.
The project, which is aligned with the peace and conflict
prevention/resolution area of focus under the Future Vision Plan, is
supported by districts 1911 (Hungary), 5890 (Texas, USA), 6060
(Missouri, USA), 6200 (Louisiana, USA), and 9200 (Eritrea; Ethiopia;
Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda). The districts together contributed $14,597
from their District Designated Fund, and the Rubaga club provided
$3,000.
Rubaga club members helped plan the project’s training curriculum
and will participate in the training and promote the effort in the
local media. They will also assess the project’s impact to help
ensure its sustainability.
The Lambert Airport club is monitoring the effort’s progress and
promoting it in the media.
The Great Lakes Center “is grateful that it is working as a partner
with The Rotary Foundation,” says Opira, a member of the Rotary Club
of Gulu. “There are a lot of conflict and security challenges in the
region. Through the family of Rotary, we can better serve our
community.” |
