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Have Oxen Plough, Will Travel
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Jessica Huber, Uganda Fund Project Director |
 On a recent trip to Alero IDP camp with Gulu NGO Forum’s Youth
Leadership (YLP) project, we watched as the Can Coya Youth Group
proudly showed off their best ox plough techniques with one of the
mulish bulls acquired with a small loan from YLP. The bull let out a
groan as the very pleased project leader, Robert, deftly charged
ahead surrounded by his equally enthusiastic colleagues.
Can Coya is excited to have its new bulls and says that in
addition to the land they are opening up near Alero camp, they hope
to move deeper into the bush toward their original homes and till
that land soon. “We hope to have 20 acres ploughed here and also in
the village,” said Beatrice, a member of the group, as she adjusted
the small child strapped to her back.
Can Coya’s excitement is matched throughout Amuru District and
all over northern Uganda, where recovery is at long last the order
of the day. Although violence has been absent for nearly two years,
it has been only the last six months that stability and recovery
have become visible. Of 1.8 million IDPs, over 50% have returned in
their homes and 25% are in transit sites closer to their home.1
The positive space that now exists, however, is coupled with the
enormous challenge of rebuilding lives shattered by war. 22 years of
conflict has meant that destruction and neglect from the war are
deeply rooted. Enthusiasm for development projects must be tempered
with patient, conflict-sensitive transitional activities.
Opportunities to begin farming exist near the IDP camps, but
imagining traveling deeper into the village is just too difficult.
There are land challenges like uncultivated land, as well as
ownership and boundary disputes. There is also little or no access
to water, health facilities, a functional justice system, or schools
in villages, forcing families to decide whether to stay where
facilities are but opportunities are scarce or to go live on the
frontier in the village. Or worse, some families split up, leaving
their children in the camps unattended so that they can be closer to
schools and health clinics, but creating new and dangerous
protection concerns.
The people of northern Uganda are tireless in their efforts to
move on from war, as is clearly visible in Robert, Beatrice and Can
Coya’s eager scheming of their next farming ventures. However, they
are doing so under the yoke of arduous recovery. Indeed, that lesson
has already hit home for Can Coya. They confessed that one of the 8
bulls they bought with their grant died shortly after they received
it, due to a lack of veterinary services in the remote part of Amuru
District where they are based.
And Can Coya are the lucky ones – there are countless youth
looking for income generating activities and schooling
opportunities, but resources are still very much dwarfed by the
need. |
