Radios to Empower Women - Uganda

For more than 20 years the people of Northern Uganda have witnessed the erosion of the security, economy and culture of their homelands. After a negotiated peace between the government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in 2006, people are slowly returning to their villages and their old lives.

In Northern Uganda radio is supporting the moves towards peace and reconciliation. Local radio stations carry programming that encourages LRA members, sympathisers and abducted children to engage in dialogue and the peace process. The Amnesty Act is explained and returnees talk about traditional customs of forgiveness and being welcomed home. Returning to traditional lifestyles is difficult, especially for the young who have lost out on education and vocational training and have few skills to manage subsistence farming. Women, who already experience gender discrimination, find it particularly hard to return to normal life.

In partnership with John Coghill and Radio Waa in Lira and Mama FM in Kampala, Lifeline radios were distributed to young women in the Tree Planting Women’s Group. These young women, who were forced out of school and ostracised because of unwanted pregnancies, are learning to become self sufficient by growing fruit trees and trees for fencing.  Lifeline radios were also given to women farming groups in north eastern Uganda.

The radios were funded by the Frontline Charitable Club and the Oswald Family Foundation in the US.