Life in an IDP camp

If you are in the UK and listen to BBC Radio 4, or follow the BBC news, you might have noticed a lot of reports and coverage on Northern Uganda, The Lords Resistance Army and the elections that took place yesterday.  .http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12472574

Many of the reports refer to IDP camps - Internally Displaced Persons camps and I thought you might be interested in seeing these pictures I took during my first trip to the IDP camps around Gulu.  The photos show just how grim life is in these camps.  The huts (you can't call them houses) are so close together which means a huge fire risk as they do their cooking inside... there are no medical facilities or schools and you can see that the children are very creative in their toys - string and banana leaves make a football.  You can see bigger pictures here: Youtube version of photos .

Our farmers in Northern Uganda all lived in these camps for more than 10 years.  Thankfully, they have now left the camps and returned to their homes, which is no mean feat.  Their homes were destroyed and they went home in an atmosphere of fear and with no belongings, food or income.  I am really looking forward to visiting their homes and seeing all these people in their right environment, not herded like animals.  I still find it hard to accept that animals in our farms here in the UK have a much better quality of life than the people in the camps.

So here ends my second attempt at a blog - there is another one for February which celebrates moving into the 21st Century and using technology!  It would be great if you could click on the "follow button", so you automatically receive updates - which I hope and plan to be more often than our older updates.