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IRIN Web Special on the crisis in Northern Uganda
Night Commuting
Girls forced to spend the night away from home.
Credit: IRIN
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Children seek refuge away from home at night
Before the war, Mary Atieno (not her real name) lived in Patiko, a village some 22 kilometres from Gulu town. When Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels attacked her village she was forced to move her family closer to the town for greater security, but she says her six children are still not completely safe.
"This is not even my home. We left our home many kilometres from here. We live near the town, but our children are still not safe. I feel that they are much safer in the town [itself]," she told IRIN. "I feel pain because there is better I can do for my children."
Mary has been able to relocate her family to a spot some 5 km from Gulu town. While this move has not ensured the family's safety from LRA attacks, it has enabled her children to 'commute' on foot to the town at night, where they can sleep in relative safety with thousands of fellow child 'night commuters'.
Eric, one of Mary's children, is a pupil at a school for displaced children near to the family's new home. The 15-year-old shelters each night at the Noah's Ark, a recently built centre in Gulu town accommodating some 1,800 child night commuters.
In order to attend school, Eric must walk the 5 km from the Noah's Ark to school every morning. During the late afternoon, he visits his parents and eats his one daily meal before preparing to depart for the 'Ark', where he will spend the night.
As a result of all the walking he must do during the day, Eric's daily schedule is hectic and tiring. "It is a tiresome life. I feel hungry most of the day; I don't get enough to eat. I spend most of the day walking," he told IRIN at his home.
"There are so many children at the shelter. We have to share the blankets. Some children urinate at night. Sometimes you are given their smelling blanket to use," he adds.
Nelson Acon, a counsellor at the Noah's Ark centre, says that although the centre is crowded, the children are safe compared to those forced to sleep on shop verandahs as the rehabilitation and accommodation centres are guarded by UPDF soldiers.
"Accommodation is a big problem here. That is why some children go to the street," Acon explains. "On the street children don't use blankets. If you have a blanket, it will be taken away. So they decided not to use blankets. They are also exposed to violence from older children, drunken people and even police."
Acon says most of the children who come to the centre are aged between 9 and 16. "This is the rebel target group. They can easily confuse them," he says. "It is easy to change children at this age. It is easy to make them kill."
Spanish priest Carlos Rodriguez, one of the religious leaders who in July 2003 slept on the streets with the children in an attempt to draw international attention to their plight, says he did not sleep at all on his first night out.
"There was a big shoot-out near where we were. I was terrified. The next day I was coughing; the children were also coughing. I only did this for four nights, but what about the children who have continued with this routine daily for one year?" he says.
Like many others, Rodriguez is worried about the generation of children emerging in northern Uganda. "These children who sleep on the verandahs, what kind of people are they going to be tomorrow?" he asks.
Education
Just as worrying in the long term is the downward trend education has taken in northern Uganda.
According to Davide Naggi of AVSI, an Italian non-governmental organisation that runs a children's hospital in Gulu, less than 50 percent of children in Gulu have access to education.
Local officials say over half the schools in Kitgum District, and 90 percent in the more insecure Pader District, have not been opened since January 2003. "What kind of generation is that?" Naggi says. "The future of many children here has been destroyed. Children are growing up in a helpless situation. They don't have the rights they should have."
Naggi, who also slept in the street with the children alongside Rodriguez, believes it is "impossible" for children who are forced to sleep on the streets to stay awake and concentrate in class. "I did not sleep. The night is just another reality for them; I cannot describe it. I did it only for four nights. The children have done it for a year," he adds.
In July 2003, some 20,000 children marched through northern Uganda's streets. Their message was clear. "We don't want to become killers. We do not want to die. We children cry day and night for peace", their placards read.
[ENDS]
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