Night Commuters

As World Vision sponsors, we receive their quarterly magazine called “child view” and honestly, I sometimes just dread reading it. Although it’s filled with positive stories about how World Vision, enabled by donors, is helping to change lives, it also contains stories about the harsh realities that some people, many of whom are children, live through in this world.

Have you heard anything about war-torn northern Uganda? It’s horrific. Daily at dusk thousands of unsupervised children, as young as 5 years old, leave their huts in rural villages and walk for up to an hour or more. They are fleeing to the urban centres where they sleep on cold, hard floors of schools, hospitals, and shelters to sleep in relative safety. Why are they fleeing? If they stay at home, they are at risk of being abducted by LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) rebels who brainwash and train children to fight in its campaign against the government.

These boys and girls are beaten, tortured, raped, forced to fight, and sometimes killed. Sometimes they are even forced to kill their own family members before they are taken away.

I won’t go into any more detail here, but here are a few links if you want more information or if you want to find out what World Vision is doing and how you can help:

World Vision – Canada – and their information on the situation in northern Uganda

World Vision – United States – and their information on the situation in northern Uganda

Also, if you are aware of any other organizations that are helping, feel free to post information here via the comments section!