It was 2006 when Network for Africa first dipped its toe in the challenging waters of northern Uganda. Patongo was the last place to be occupied by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a paranoid and vengeful militia. The LRA had just withdrawn over the border to Sudan, and the conflict felt very real and too close for comfort. The walls of houses were scorched from attacks, and families who had fled the violence were in squalid internally displaced people’s camps.
So why were we there?
I blame the redoubtable Baroness Caroline Cox, a lifelong human rights activist and humanitarian champion. She led by example, illegally infiltrating Myanmar, at enormous personal risk, to take testimony from persecuted minority groups; repeatedly visiting embattled Armenians who were confined to an enclave by Azerbaijan; dodging the Islamic State-adjacent Boko Haram jihadists in Nigeria; and risking her life to seek the truth about the race-based killing of Black Africans by the Sudanese regime – all this while Caroline was aged in her seventies and eighties. At a time when her peers were taking cruises or babysitting grandchildren, Caroline was sleeping in a tent in a war zone or cornering UK government officials in order to report her findings. Caroline advised us to go to northern Uganda to meet survivors of the vicious civil war between the LRA and the Ugandan security services – a battle in which civilians paid an enormous price.
On our first day there, we met a man who had been a farmer before the war. Scarred from his injuries, he said it was hard to live three metres from the next hut, when he was used to being a hundred metres from the nearest homestead. He was appalled that his children knew nothing about agriculture, when for generations his family had prospered, proud that they had never experienced a famine.
Our hosts, who ran an orphanage, took us to visit a hospital six miles away. As we drove along the dusty track, they gazed around like tourists taking in an exotic and unfamiliar land. They hadn’t left the camp for nearly twenty years, growing up without going to the next village because of the danger that had very recently been lurking in the forest along the road. As part of a British generation used to inexpensive flights, making weekends in Rome, Nice or Vienna seem routine, this was unimaginable.
Although we were in a remote rural area, Patongo was far from the Africa of safaris. On my first morning, I was woken by the sound of pigs rooting around outside my room, and I noticed the walls were alive with a Natural History Museum-worthy selection of bugs. Through the window I could hear a sports report on the BBC World Service, discussing the merits of the Tottenham Hotspur versus Arsenal teams.
The only money being made in the camp was by women brewing devastatingly powerful alcohol. When I heard what people had survived during the conflict, I understood why they wanted to blot out reality. Everyone had either witnessed an atrocity or been subjected to cruelty and kidnapping.
Fast forward to 2026
Together with our local partner, BNUU, Network for Africa has delivered trauma counselling to thousands of local people. We have also set up seventy-one self-help groups where survivors offer each other support in rebuilding their lives. An essential stepping stone is finding a sustainable way to earn an income. Each self-help group has financial literacy and enterprise training, as well as raw materials like seeds. Some members are cooking goods for sale in markets, while others buy livestock which they raise and sell, reinvesting the profit on more animals. Together they save money and plan for a secure future.
Our thanks go to Baroness Cox for encouraging us to go to northern Uganda twenty years ago, and to BNUU for their commitment and hard work. We also thank our supporters who have made this possible. To continue helping us, please visit our our donation page.