The Labondo Local Integration Pilot Project is a community development initiative established by UNHCR in collaboration with the Adamawa State government. The idea is to create a safe environment for Nigerian IDPs that is free of the dangers of further violence or ongoing displacement. The challenge now is to give new residents the vital counseling and trade skills training services they need.

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

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.

Recently, our Class 15 graduates of the Lukome Center took their Uganda Directorate of Industrial Technology (DIT) certification exams. We are pleased to announce that all of them passed, most of them with excellent scores!

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.

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.

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.