|
IRIN Web Special on Life in northern Uganda
"when the sun sets, we start to worry..."
W A I T I N G���F O R���T H E���L I G H T
Young children at the GUSCO centre
|
"I don't think of the future.
I don't think I'll go to secondary school.
There is no one to help."
12-year-old child night commuter
When the sun goes down in northern Uganda, thousands of people leave their homes in villages, outlying suburbs and IDP camps, bound for major towns such as Gulu and Kitgum. Some walk as many as 10 km. Most are children aged between eight and 16 years - those most likely to be kidnapped by rebels. However, many adults also seek the relative safety of the big urban centres each night. They and the children are known as night commuters.
In Kitgum, one of the main destinations of the night commuters is the St Joseph's Mission Hospital, whose compound accommodates more than 10,900 of them each night. Gulu receives an estimated 14,000 child commuters every evening. Around 1,200 of them go to the Noah's Ark accommodation centre for night commuters, which was set up in February 2003.
Another 1,000 find lodging each night at the town's main bus park, where an accommodation centre supported by the African Medical Research Foundation has been established. The centre has two dormitories: one each for boys and girls. However, they are too small to hold all the children, so some have to sleep outside on the dusty ground.
Early in the evening, social workers and district officials look in on the children to make sure nothing is amiss. The lights are left on for a while for those who need to do their homework. In the morning, the children wake up, wash their faces and leave for school without breakfast.
A social worker at the centre said the children always complained of cold, hunger and illnesses, mainly malaria, coughs and skin infections. The Gulu bus park and other shelters do not have the capacity to accommodate all the children commuting into Gulu, so residents offer their verandahs for the children to sleep on. However, when it rains they have nowhere to go and some of them end up on the street.
In both Kitgum and Gulu, some people begin as night commuters and end up staying on in town. According to sources at the St Joseph's Mission Hospital, 450 former commuters no longer return to their homes each morning. Instead, they camp under a huge mango tree outside the mission gates. Early in the morning, men and women go to look for work as casual labourers around Kitgum town. They return in the mid-afternoon, prepare their only meal of the day, and then retire inside the mission for the night.
There is not enough accommodation for child commuters at the St. Joseph�s Mission Hospital so some sleep outdoors each night
|
The group has been there since May 2003, when their camp was destroyed. Shortly before that, the rebels had ordered them to return to their villages. When they insisted on staying, the LRA took punitive action. "The rebels came, burned our camp and killed many people," the leader of the group said. "We don't want to hear anything about going back to the camp. We have been displaced too many times. We have nothing. We are traumatised. We have lost faith in the ability of the government to protect us."
In Gulu, some of the children refuse to go back to their communities because life is too hard and dangerous there. They stay in town to clean buses or help sell food in the market. There have been frequent reports of children being harassed by drunks and thieves, who beat them up and take their blankets away. The police have been patrolling the town regularly to prevent this.
Geoffrey, a social worker employed by the St Joseph's Mission Hospital to protect night commuters who sleep in the mission compound.
"The compound accommodates anyone who goes there seeking a safe haven for the night, but the tents are reserved for children, the sick and the elderly. The rest sleep on verandas and in any other spaces available in the compound.
The biggest problem we have is that when it is about to rain, like now, the seven tents are not enough to shelter everybody, so people just get wet because they have nowhere to go. We also have a severe shortage of blankets. Many people do not have anything to cover themselves. Most of their household items have been looted by rebels.
We have to make sure that rebels do not infiltrate the compound. A few days ago, we caught four rebels with guns tucked inside their blankets. We know each and every face that enters this compound. If you don�t watch out, then the LRA can easily infiltrate and abduct people from here. You can say it is only God who is protecting us here. The UPDF are here, but we don�t see them and we have no communication with them. If the rebels come, we have to run and look for them.
Young children sleeping on the ground at the bus park in Gulu
|
Half the inhabitants of this area come to this centre. Some people also go to public houses, schools, market places, and government buildings. The whole district is displaced. Even the hospital staff are displaced. They sleep in a separate tent with their families.
If commuters fall ill, the hospital only provides drugs for the night. During the day, you have to go to the outpatients' department, where you have to pay money. But these people don't have any money. There are many children who don't go back home. They only roam around and return here in the evening. At night, they cry and ask for food. Some people have slept here for three years. They just go home to cook and come to sleep in the evening. If you have nothing to cook, then you just stay here. Even as social workers, life is not easy. Last week, one of our colleagues was bitten by a snake. We took him to the hospital.
Consy Abwol, a local councillor from Kitgum District, sleeps each night at the St Joseph's Mission compound.
We are just trying to cope with the situation as best we can. They [LRA] are killing day and night. They only fear this place a bit because it is a mission. Our children have a lot of difficulties with schooling. They can't learn well, they are traumatised, they can't sleep well, but they force themselves to study. Women are afraid to sleep in their homes, not only because of rebels but also because they fear they might be raped by army officers. They don't care if you are young or old. Rape is very common in northern Uganda. If you report a rape, they just transfer the soldier.
Continued�
|
