Children at Risk

Projects

Kacel Watwero Project

Kacel Watwero - Together We Can

For more than two decades, a civil war has been ravaging Northern Uganda. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives and nearly two million people have been forced to flee their homes. Children are born and raised in camps set up for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP).

During this war, 25,000 children have been abducted and forcibly conscripted into a rebel army as soldiers, sex-slaves, and laborers. As traumatized children return home and integrate with other vulnerable children, their emotional and psychological needs are overwhelming the social fabric of these communities.

To help meet these needs, World Learning, in partnership with the Ugandan NGO Straight Talk Foundation, is implementing a project called Kacel Watwero, which means "together we can" in Acholi. The project is designed to serve the needy and vulnerable children of Northern Uganda using the greatest resource available: the older brothers, sisters, and neighbors of the at-risk children.

World Learning has implemented a Youth Leadership Training initiative that is preparing youth to raise awareness and analyze the problems facing younger children in their communities. Following this training, Youth Leaders will return to their home villages and, with the continued guidance of World Learning and Straight Talk, work to help build better lives for vulnerable children.

Read Uganda: Care for the Exploited and Vulnerable Children of Uganda Project Summary. (PDF).

Speaking for Ourselves - An Assessment of Needs, Resources, and Gaps in Services Available to Children and Youth in Kitgum, Northern Uganda

In December 2008, World Learning and Straight Talk Foundation completed an assessment of needs, resources, and gaps in services available to children and youth in Kitgum district. Conducted in six sub-counties of the district, the report collected information from 24 focus group discussions and 13 key informant interviews.

The assessment aims to:

• identify the most vulnerable children and youth in Northern Uganda,
• examine which programmatic interventions for these at-risk children could be most effective,
• promote community projects that can contribute to the rehabilitation and reintegration of conflict-affected children into their communities, and
• assess the long-term impact of interventions for conflict-affected children and their communities.

Additionally, the assessment highlights interventions and resources that are already in place to aid these children; identifies which interventions and resources are known to and accessible to the children; and makes recommendations on additional interventions that are still needed. The assessment provides a tool to better set priorities for planning activities and organizing support for children in Kitgum District.

Read Speaking for Ourselves: An Assessment Document (PDF).

Straight Talk Foundation

Straight Talk Foundation (STF) is a leading health and development communication NGO based in Kampala, Uganda, working to foster a healthy, educated, prosperous, and peaceful Uganda. STF focuses on empowering adolescents - especially girls and those living in poverty and conflict-affected areas - to stay in school, live secure and satisfying lives, protect themselves from HIV/STDs and unwanted pregnancies, live positively with HIV, and manage challenging circumstances such as conflict and deprivation.

STF produces mass media programs that educate young people about sexuality, inform them of their sexual rights, and facilitate cogent dialogue about sexual health. Since 1997, the STF model has incorporated face-to-face outreach and training activities for greater impact. Perhaps most important in this face-to-face work are the STF Youth Centers based in Gulu and Kitgum - two of the districts in Northern Uganda that have been most heavily-affected by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) conflict. Started in 2003 and 2007 respectively, Gulu Youth Centre (GYC) and Kitgum Youth Centre (KYC) provide voluntary counseling and testing for HIV (VCT), facilitate weekly call-in radio shows on a range of health and development topics, empower local youth by training peer educators, and offer basic medical and family planning services free of charge.