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United Nations - Let us pay attention.
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Dear Friends,
Jan Egeland, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitaria Affairs & Emrgency Relief Coordinator says that the crisis in northern Uganda is "perhaps the most under-reported story in the world today."
* For nearly two decades, northern Uganda has been plagued by a civil conflict between a rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and the Ugandan government. The conflict has displaced over 1.5 million Ugandans. Eighty per cent of the populations of the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader live in camps.
* Whereas displaced populations usually find some protection in such camps, the camps in northern Uganda are actually magnets for rebel attacks because that's where rebels can find food, pharmaceuticals and children, tens of thousands of whom have been abducted and forced into combat. Many child soldiers, in fact, have been forced to kill their families and neighbors, effectively preventing them from every returning to their communities. Girls are forced into sexual slavery. Many people have also been massacred in the camps.
* All social structures are in upheaval, with the local and regional economies having changed from balanced, rural-based economies to distorted, war-related and relief-influenced economies.
* And because the camps themselves are targets, there are now about 45-50,000 "night commuters," rural chldren who walk into main towns in the evening, seeking protection against violence and abduction. There, they spend the night in the open grounds of schools, hospitals and shops.
* Within the camps, sanitary conditions are abysmal. Also, people live very close to each other. There is a real risk for contagious diseases to spread very quickly once an invection has teaken place.
* Throughout the north, there is insufficient health care. The government-run health centers are few and far between, and most are chronically under-staffed and under-funded.
* Uganda's current HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, according to UN figures, is 4.1 per cent, but Ugandan health officials put prevalence rates in the north and eastern districts at between 16 to 18 percent.
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As I said in a previous communication, I want to support anything Mr. Egeland is concern with. The problem in northern Uganda is enormous, however, maybe we can make a difference in a little way.
May I suggest that if you don't know where it is already that you look at a map of Africa and locate Uganda. Find out what the capital is, who is the president? Maybe research part of Uganda's history. Learn something about Uganda. Once we know something about a place, we naturally become more involved and concerned and the next time we see something about that particular place in the newspaper say, our eyes will focus on it and little by little, if one person's eyes turn, the world's attention will turn.
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With Love,
Lorna |
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8/8/2004
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Lorna Kelly
"Write that book for the Glory of God
and the Good of people"
- Mother Teresa
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