Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
22 August 2008
Konigstein — KÖNIGSTEIN, August 22, 2008 (CISA) - Many of the persons internally displaced by the civil war in the north over the past 20 or so years have forgotten what it is to live a "normal life", a priest from the area says.
Almost an entire generation has been born or grown up in camps, and while many have since returned to their villages, numerous others are afraid of returning because they no longer know how they are going to shape a life outside the camps.
Fr. Cosmas Alule, rector of the seminary of Alokolum, told the German-based international Catholic pastoral charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the church must help and counsel people, because the state is not even aware of the problem.
"The entire working culture has been destroyed, because people have been receiving their food rations each day and no longer know how to earn a living independently", Fr. Alule said.
While the government is giving the returnees some building materials and seed, that is not the answer to the whole problem, for it is a matter of "helping the people to re-establish their lives in a psychological, cultural and spiritual sense as well".
The inaction to which the people in the camps had been condemned has moreover led to an increase in alcohol abuse and sexual immorality, which in turn has led to an HIV/AIDS rate that is at least three times higher than in the rest of the population, the priest said.
Fr. Alule further said that many of the people are deeply traumatised. "They have seen their children kidnapped, their sisters, mothers, daughters and wives raped, and their fellow humans murdered."
In the seminary of Alokolum, located within one an IDP camp, the future priests are being specially trained to support the traumatised people. Many of the 171 seminarians currently training there have themselves suffered deep trauma.
Yet, Fr Alule said, it is important that these "future priests have actually shared the experiences of the people themselves", because "we need priests who know what suffering is".
The Catholic Church in northern Uganda is also endeavouring to encourage the refugees to help one another. The older ones, who still know how to plant the fields and run a household, now need to pass on this knowledge to the younger ones, the priest said. The Catholic Church is pinning her faith in this "strategy of solidarity." The priests are sharing the lives of the ordinary people, identifying with them and in this way, they are in a position to understand and encourage the faithful.
Fr Alule expressed "profound optimism" that peace will indeed be restored following ongoing negotiations.
The war in northern Uganda, between the government and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels, has seen the signing of a number of partial peace accords. But the final accord is yet to be reached.
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