Radios for Peace - Uganda

Northern Uganda has endured one of Africa’s most savage civil wars for nearly two decades. The invasion by the Lord’s Resistance Army left a trail of massacres, rapes and mutilations across the region and more than 1.6 million of the local Acholi people were forced to live in harsh conditions in camps for the internally displaced.

Overcrowding has led to the near-total destruction of family and social networks.  Children suffer most. Acute malnutrition is widespread and children are vulnerable to malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea and other diseases. With no schools and no prospect of work or other occupation, young people have nothing to do but sit idle in camps.

With the war coming to an end, radio is playing a vital role in resolving the conflict. Local radio stations carry messages of peace and reconciliation and provide news, health advice and life skills information to people living in the camps.

Working with former journalist turned humanitarian John Coghill and the Uganda Radio Network, we distributed 100 Lifeline radios earlier this year to women and children in camps in the Kitgum and Pader districts, which suffered the most during the civil war. Radios are given to guardians who formed listening groups to hear radio broadcasts, improving life skills and increasing trust and social cohesion within the camps.

The radios were funded by the Economist Trust in the UK.