A team from Lutheran Church of Hope in Des Moines, Iowa, visited the Lukome Center in Uganda in September. While there, they were able to get a glimpse of what life at the center is like for our students, including how they are healing and learning during their 20-month programs as well as how great the need is for our programs.

We’ve only just begun working with our partners in Ukraine to bring hope and healing to young people affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine and we are already beginning to hear encouraging words from some of them who have participated in volunteer-led House of Youth (HofY) summer camps designed to bring relief from the painful and traumatizing challenges they continue to face.

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.