Apeya is an 18-year-old South Sudanese mother. She was 11 years old when rebels came to her family’s home and brutally killed her father. Along with her mother and siblings, she fled to Imvepi Refugee Settlement in Uganda. Her five-day trek on foot through incredibly dangerous wartime conditions was just the beginning of a journey of loss, heartbreak and despair.
Situation Report: The Democratic Republic of Congo
The DRC remains the country with the largest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Africa -- more 6.3 million, or 6 percent of the DRC’s total population. Largely forgotten amid stories of more recent outbreaks of war in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, DRC has been embroiled in sectarian violence for over 30 years, particularly in the country’s eastern provinces. Astonishingly, some 120 armed groups remain active in in Ituri, North Kivu, South
The rebels came to our house that night. . .
Imagine: You hear men at the door one night. They drag your husband outside. As you watch through the window, they brutally kill him in cold blood. Then they move on to other houses.
Your nightmare has just begun. Leaving nearly everything but your baby behind, you flee in tears while you have the chance.
I know this is a brutal story. But it was the stark reality for Kasime, an adolescent mother from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who was forced to flee her home last year amid rising violence.
The Role of Sport and Art in Healing
Haylie Wright, a master’s degree student at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), recently cited ChildVoice as a model nonprofit organization in her master’s dissertation (thesis in the US). Haylie’s focus was on the therapeutic benefits of sports activities (and adjacent activities such as art, dance, and drama) as a tool to enhance the efficacy of psychosocial healing for war-affected youth. Although she was unable to visit our facilities in Uganda, Haylie interviewed multiple staff members both in the US and Uganda to complement her research.
Helping Young Mothers Achieve Ongoing Success through Aftercare
Five years ago, Kalista had no hope for any kind of future. She had fled South Sudan’s civil war with her six younger siblings to the relative safety of Imvepi Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda. She escaped the violence of war. But sadly, at Imvepi she exchanged the threat of violence for the heartbreak of sexual exploitation.
Voices Rising - Summer 2023
Intern Spotlight: Akira
Akira Imanari is a remarkable young man from Japan who recently completed his internship at the Lukome Center in Gulu, Uganda. A trained nurse who has worked in a hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Akira initially hoped he would be able to offer some of his medical skills. He quickly learned that expectation and reality don’t always align. And while Richard Kyitarinyeba, ChildVoice’s Head of Office in Uganda, was at first skeptical of welcoming an intern from Japan, he quickly became impressed by Akira’s determination to contribute – and to learn.
Update: Uganda & Nigeria April 2023
As we reported in January, the enhanced agriculture training program we initiated last year in response to a growing hunger crisis within Imvepi Refugee Settlement produced remarkable results. A total of 200 adolescent girls participated. One of those students is Caroline. At harvest, her crop yield was more than impressive: 440 pounds of sorghum, over 600 pounds of maize, and more. Selling excess crops allowed her to buy clothes and bedding for her children, renovate her small thatched house, and purchase goats. And she has stored enough cereal grain to last her family until mid-May.
Update: Uganda & Nigeria, January 2023
In Imvepi Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda, Africa’s hunger crisis was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as severe international food relief cutbacks. In response, we initiated a hybrid agriculture program designed to provide the youth we serve in Imvepi supplemental food relief, while also giving them the training, tools, and supplies they needed to grow their own food. Now we are thrilled to announce that the agriculture initiative has proved to be a resounding success – and your support made this possible!
UPDATE: Uganda & Nigeria, October 2022
In what the British Red Cross is calling “the worst food crisis in 40 years,” some 146 million people across Africa are experiencing extreme hunger. War and conflict, climate shocks, and soaring inflation have conspired to create a perfect storm of hunger in countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan. In response, we devised a hybrid program to provide supplemental food relief, agriculture start-up packages, and agricultural skills training.
GROWING FOOD INSECURITY AMONG REFUGEES IN UGANDA
A looming hunger crisis is taking hold among refugee populations in Uganda for the second time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, a confluence of two concurrent events – drastic reduction in food relief and a rapid surge in inflation – have brought South Sudanese, Congolese and other refugees living in Imvepi Refugee Settlement and other camps close to the brink of starvation.
SPOTLIGHT: THRIVE Project Volunteer Carolyn Baldwin
If you had asked Carolyn Baldwin a few years ago whether she thought her sewing skills would someday help young women half a world away stay in school, she might have shrugged you off with a laugh. In fact, that’s more or less how she reacted when Krista Brown, ChildVoice Donor Relations and Outreach Coordinator, first approached her about volunteering to help make reusable menstrual pad kits for ChildVoice’s THRIVE Program.
Interview with THRIVE Project Volunteer Carolyn Baldwin
Volunteers have been a key part of the success of ChildVoice’s programs over the years. Our volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Sometimes, they possess a skill set they never would have thought to be of use to war-affected youth living in a far-off country. One such volunteer is Carolyn Baldwin, whose considerable sewing skills have made her an integral part of our THRIVE reusable menstrual pad programs. Carolyn is not only a volunteer; she and her husband, Mark, are committed Amplified donors and give monthly to ChildVoice.
ChildVoice recently sat down with Carolyn to discuss her background, her interest in humanitarian aid, and how her sewing skills have proved far more valuable to ChildVoice’s THRIVE Project than she could ever have imagined.
Three Adolescent Girls, Three Stories of Heartbreak and Hope
Margaret is a 17-year-old South Sudanese child mother. She and her grandmother fled to Imvepi Refugee Settlement in northern Uganda to escape war in South Sudan. Sarah suffered ongoing domestic abuse in her home in Uganda. She was once beaten so badly that she was hospitalized and unable to use her hands for several days. Fatima escaped from the hell of a violent forced marriage in December 2021. At the age of 14, she was abducted from her village in Borno, Nigeria by Boko Haram.
