Gulu IDPs Return Home But Poverty Remains a Problem

from All Africa

The Monitor (Kampala)

By Nabusayi L. Wamboka
Gulu

IT is warm again. The closeness of the cooking pot inside the hut brings back memories of a happy home that was long forgotten.

Mr Constantino Opio, 24 and his young wife Lucky Anena, 20 are determined to start a new life, a life they had never known before.

In their newly built mud and wattle hut, the smell of fresh cow dung hangs in the air but the freedom that comes with breaking away from crowded internally displaced peoples camps is such a relief.

It makes home sweet again, even when that home is a house in the middle of bushes in Adak village, Omoro County in Gulu District.

Ms Anena had all her hopes in a bright future. She had just completed her Senior Four at Sacred Heart Girls Secondary school in Gulu, scoring an impressive Aggregate 28.

"I passed very well even if we were in the camp. But I got pregnant after and my parents decided I should get married. My husband is a P7 drop out and we decided to stay together," she said.

Ms Anena is no doubt a brilliant young girl whose English, though fluttering, is perfect. When the Vice President Prof Gilbert Bukenya, walked through their garden to the front of her house and introduced himself, Ms Anena mistook him for Mr Matthew Bukenya, the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) Executive Secretary. "You are the one from Uneb. Eeh, I know you, I used to hear about you," she said excitedly.

When Prof Bukenya said he was not Mr Bukenya of Uneb but Prof Bukenya the vice president, Ms Anena was both excited and confused. "Eeh, the vice president? I know Bukenya the vice president. I hear about him. You are the one?" she exclaimed.

Mr Bukenya of Uneb had stirred her hopes of returning to school, something she is willing to die for.

"I want to go back to school. My parents said they have no money. My husband also wants to go back to school, but now we have nobody to leave our daughter with. But if somebody can help us, we can ask our parents to keep the child and we complete our education," she said.

Ms Anena's wish to return to school is so strong that she named her daughter Sheila Limpe, meaning 'there is no money' to constantly remind her, that if she had not got pregnant, probably her parents would have kept paying the fees until she completes school.

Ms Anena's husband is a member of a farming group, Adak Group Farm which Prof Bukenya supported as a seed multiplication centre in Adak IDP camp. The group farm, which was also supported by Caritas Gulu, a Catholic NGO and Naads, was given upland rice seeds for multiplication and distribution to IDPs returning home.

"Peace is returning to the north and families such as these will be the ones to encourage others to come home. They have started opening up their land and for some who came earlier, their rice is about to be harvested," Prof Bukenya said.

"This seed multiplication centre will help because after harvest each member will take enough seeds to plant on its own and ensure they have enough food in their homes as they rebuild their lives."

The VP, who was on a nationwide popularisation tour of the Bonna Bagaggawale said there is need to fast track development in the north to encourage more people go back home.

According to Unicef, two decades of armed conflict between the UPDF and the rebel LRA created a complex humanitarian situation marked by violence, poverty and the internal displacement of more than 1.5 million people.

Children and women represent 80 per cent of the IDPs and have been direct targets of sexual violence and abductions perpetuated by the LRA.