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Updated: March 2009

Uganda

Overview | World Vision's history in Uganda | World Vision in Uganda today



Overview

Located on the equator in East Africa, the Republic of Uganda is a small, landlocked country bordered by Sudan, Kenya, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Tanzania. The landscape features flat highlands throughout most of the country, with a lush river valley in the northeast. Four large lakes highlight Uganda’s topography: Lake Edward and Lake Albert, both along the western border with the DRC, Lake Kyoga, located in the center of the country, and the majestic Lake Victoria, the world’s fourth largest lake, which dominates the southeastern border with Tanzania. The Nile, one of the longest rivers in the world, has its origins in Lake Victoria. Natural resources include copper, cobalt, hydropower, limestone, and salt.

There are dozens of ethnic groups who live in Uganda. The Baganda, Banyakole, Basoga, and Bakiga peoples occupy the central and southern regions of the country, while the Langi, Iteso, and Lugbara live in the north. There are also more than 1 million refugees who live in the country, most from Sudan and the DRC. English is the official national language—used in schools, government, and media—but Swahili, Luganda, and other languages are widely spoken.

Uganda gained its independence from the United Kingdom in October 1962. Less than nine years later, a young army officer named Idi Amin took control of the government and proclaimed himself “president for life.” In his eight years of rule, it is estimated that Amin killed 300,000 leaders, officials, and anyone perceived to be an enemy of Uganda. He was defeated by a band of exiles in 1979 and fled the country. In the next seven years, wars against the government further damaged economic and social conditions. The war from 1981-1986 was fought by a guerrilla army, the National Resistance Movement, which took over the government in January 1986. Since Yoweri Museveni became president in 1986, he has introduced democratic reforms and has been credited for substantially improving the country’s human rights record.

Uganda map
Ugandan flag 

Country statistics 
Population29.9 million
Land mass91,135 square miles
People per square mile328
Life expectancy52 years
Under age 5 mortality rate134/1,000
Literacy rate67%
Access to safe water60%
Average annual incomeUS$300
Religion
Christian83.9%
Muslim12.1%
Other3.1%
None0.9%
President Museveni has also instituted economic changes that have produced some advances in the past three years. The country’s economic growth has risen to five percent, but continued conflict with LRA rebels and others has been a distraction and has led to a setback in international trade. Also, recent floods have destroyed a sizable portion of Uganda’s agricultural output, which accounts for approximately a third of the country’s total market value of goods. Many Ugandans, especially in rural areas, face high unemployment rates and food insecurity. More than 85 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day.

Improvements in Uganda’s education system have begun to take effect, but access to quality education is still limited. School attendance rates for children drop from 82 percent in primary school to just 16 percent in high school. In some areas of the war-torn north, only 1.3 percent of children complete primary school. Many children throughout the country stay home to care for parents suffering from HIV and AIDS or choose to work to help provide for the family.

Uganda continues its 22-year battle against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), an extremist rebel group now based in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the war’s history, an estimated 25,000 children have been abducted by the LRA to be trained as soldiers, and approximately 1.5 million families have left their homes as a result of violence and the fear that their children will be kidnapped.

The two decades of conflict between the government and the LRA have set off a severe humanitarian crisis marked by massive migration away from the north and widespread health problems. Uganda ranks in the top 25 countries in the world whose children die before reaching their fifth birthday. Malaria, respiratory infections, and diarrhea are the primary causes. There are 1 million people living with HIV and AIDS, and 1 million children who have lost one or both of their parents to the disease. Uganda has, through prevention education efforts, decreased its HIV prevalence rate from a high of 19 percent in the early 1990s to its current 6.7 percent.

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World Vision’s history in Uganda

In 1972, World Vision hosted 650 people at a pastors conference in the capital city of Kampala. When Idi Amin’s government persecuted Christians between 1977 and 1979, funds were used to help Ugandan Christians who had fled to Kenya. After Amin’s overthrow in 1979, a World Vision relief and rehabilitation program allowed for the purchase of farming equipment and food for people in the West Nile Province. The Ugandan Relief Project in the late 1970s assisted Christian refugees fleeing persecution by providing medicines, baby food, blankets, maize, seeds, hoes, and machetes.

During the 1980s, projects focused on training farmers, developing clean water, increasing public health and hygiene awareness, and improving nutrition and food production. A program office opened in 1985, and sponsorship began two years later with 4,000 children. Efforts included:
  • The West Nile Fishing Rehabilitation Project purchased and distributed 1,000 fishing nets and 200,000 fish hooks to the Madi people in the West Nile Province.
  • The Buvuma Island Project, located in Lake Victoria, provided immunization against childhood diseases, public health training, and brick- and tile-making classes.
  • The Gulu Displaced People Project offered emergency aid to 10,000 people fleeing from hostilities in northern Uganda, providing health care, blankets, and clothes.
During the 1990s, the Lord’s Resistance Army perpetrated extreme violence, abducting thousands of people, mostly children, and forcing them to commit terrible atrocities against other children and their own families and communities. In response, World Vision provided rehabilitative care for children and their families. World Vision also began addressing needs related to HIV and AIDS. Projects in the 1990s included:
  • The Kyakwa Homepak Project addressed the needs of 100 widows and desperately poor families who returned to their homes in central Uganda to find them in ruins.
  • The Northern Uganda Children of War Center received and counseled former child soldiers, providing formerly abducted children with psychosocial counseling, vocational training, spiritual nurture, and medical treatment. The centers also facilitated a smooth reunion of the children with their families. More than 15,000 children and adults passed through the centers.
  • The Bundibugyo Child Survival Project in western Uganda reduced the mortality rates of children under age five through improved hygiene, immunization, and training in breast-feeding practices.
  • The Masaka Orphans of AIDS Project provided education and vocational skills training to more than 10,000 orphans who had lost one or both parents to HIV and AIDS.
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World Vision in Uganda today

World Vision is committed to partnering with the people of Uganda to enhance their lives today and to help enact sustainable solutions for the future of their communities, families, and children. Currently, 150,752 children are registered in the World Vision sponsorship program. Several times this number of children and other family members benefit from World Vision activities. Of these registered children, many have World Vision sponsors in other countries. U.S. donors sponsor more than 40,000 girls and boys. In addition, World Vision operates 50 development programs, 13 of which are supported by U.S. donors. Highlights of these efforts include the following:
  • The HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Prevention Program seeks to help people in Uganda’s north-central region by expanding access to HIV, TB, and malaria prevention, treatment, care, and support. This project will offer psychosocial support and basic health care to orphans and other vulnerable children. Goals include providing nutritional programs, clean water and sanitation, and income-generating initiatives, as well as training to 900 health workers. Approximately 700,000 people will directly benefit from this project in 2008.
  • World Vision’s Education Project for Needy Students in northern Uganda focuses on helping orphans, impoverished children, and former child soldiers receive an education. Sixty students will be awarded scholarships to attend three-year degree courses at Ndejje University in Kampala. The beneficiaries, 30 men and 30 women, are those who qualify for a university education but are not able to afford it. Neighborhoods and villages will benefit from this project as well when, during school vacations and after they receive their degrees, these students will hold jobs that will address the needs of their community.
For more information on World Vision’s efforts in Uganda, please contact the United States office.

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