Facts About Uganda

Uganda has been described as one of the world's poorest countries. It has also been described as one of the world's friendliest countries.
Lush jungle vegetation, majestic mountains and roaring white water rivers create a visual mix of stunning natural resources to be enjoyed.
Uganda is also famous as the home of the endangered mountain gorilla.

Each year thousands of travelers visit Uganda on safari to immerse themselves in its beauty and vibrant culture. However, there is another side of Uganda that many tourists never see and that is the poverty and suffering of the child victims of HIV/AIDS and of war.

For the last 20 years the so called Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has claimed hundreds of thousand of lives in Northern Uganda, more than 20,000 children some below the age of six have been abducted by the cult leader for use as soldiers, slaves to carry loots and as sex slaves.

During the night armed child soldier captives of the LRA storm into villages brutally killing the adults with rifles and machetes and kidnapping any children left alive. Their parents are powerless to save them. As a result, every evening hordes of children march for many miles from their villages into nearby cities in search of charity sponsored "safe houses" in which to spend the night.

It is a sad and seemingly hopeless situation and has totally disrupted family life in Uganda. It has been described by some relief workers as the world's largest neglected human tragedy. These are some of the children that Restorer's of Hope's House of Hope seeks to help.

Information on Uganda

Some facts on the difficult situation which exists in Uganda today are as follows:

• According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the population of Uganda is around 27 million, 10% of which are orphaned children.
• According to UNICEF orphans amount to 20% of all children in Uganda.
• The Gross National Income per capita in 2004 was US$270 per year.
• The percentage of the population who live on less than one dollar per day is 85%.
• The majority of Ugandans live in rural areas where 84% of the population are self-employed in subsistence farming and petty trading.
• Child labour is common and child marriage is still practiced in the rural villages.
• The mortality rate for children under 5 years of age was 138 deaths per every 1,000 live births in 2004.
• As at 2004 USAID, a United States foreign aid and service organization, reported that 2,365,000 children under the age of 15 have lost one or more parents to AIDS.
• 23% of Ugandan children under the age of 5 years old are malnourished.
• AIDS orphans amount to almost 1,000,000 children in Uganda today.

AIDS Epidemic & Civil War

HIV/AIDS has struck all of developing Africa with a force of
unimaginable magnitude, claiming lives of thousands every day. Persons living with AIDS do not have the resources or access to medical care causing untold suffering, hopelessness and despair. An unimaginable number of children are orphaned, leaving children as young as 5, 6, 8 and 10 years old to take care of themselves and of younger siblings.

Almost two decades after the 1st reported case in Uganda, HIV / AIDS still remain a significant public health challenge. HIV / AIDS has affected individuals, communities and the entire Nation. The orphan crisis has gone beyond all normal levels that in every four families there is an orphan as a result of war or HIV / AIDS.

This war has accelerated the HIV / AIDS rate as innocent people have been displaced out of their villages to live in tented camps. Innocent children whose parents have been abducted or killed find their way to the streets of towns for safety and food and some find their way to the streets of the capital city Kampala. Still there is no safety on the streets; children are sexually abused as they beg on the streets for food.

After watching their parents succumb one by one to a horrible death from AIDS, many of these children wind up on the streets of Kampala alone, starving and helpless. These are the children that Restorer's of Hope is trying to reach with your help.

Related Sites

Below are some sites about Uganda and the orphans who live there:

http://www.unicef.org/sowc06
http://www.streetchildren.org.uk/