Travel to Uganda to renovate rehab centre

Five World Vision volunteers will fly to northern Uganda this week.  The three men and two women from Nova Scotia, Ontario and Alberta, along with two World Vision staff members, will renovate the organization's Children of War Rehabilitation Centre in Gulu.

"These volunteers are a Godsend," said World Vision aid worker and team leader Philip Maher.  "The centre is the first 'home' these children have known in a long while and making it a more comfortable, welcoming place for them is truly a valuable thing." 

In 1986, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) began abducting children to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves in its war against the Ugandan government. Since 1995, World Vision's Children of War Rehabilitation Centre has attempted to undo the trauma inflicted on the children who manage to escape the LRA.  The centre provides shelter, food, clothing, health care and psychosocial counselling to the children, all of who experienced torture and intimidation.  Staff at the centre also traces the children's families through community networks and work with both the children and their families throughout the reconciliation process. 

After caring for 10,000 children, the centre needs repairs and a general facelift. To create a warm and welcoming environment for the children, the volunteers will renovate and paint the health clinic, counselling room, kitchen and bathrooms.  Recently, the centre has been especially crowded, housing upwards of 600 children and youths at once in a facility designed for a maximum of 400.   

The volunteers are excited about the opportunity to help, including Calgary's Lisa Whitney.  "In my heart I will be helping rebuild these children's lives," she said.

World Vision is an international Christian humanitarian relief and development organization active in more than 90 countries around the world, providing help to more than 85 million people each year.

Click here to help the children of Uganda.