Uganda – psychiatric care for traumatised child soldiers

Battles between the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan army raged in Northern Uganda for more than twenty years. During this period, it is estimated that more than 25,000 child soldiers were forcibly recruited by the LRA. The number of killings, rapes and cases of torture of civilians ran into the tens of thousands. In a region where the infrastructure was largely destroyed and the refugee camps cared for about 1.4 million people in abject conditions even after the official end of the war, a generation grew up that had never known peace or non-violence.

The aim of CHILDREN FOR TOMORROW – UGANDA was to enable children traumatised by war, especially former child soldiers, to access psychotherapeutic treatment and thus give them the chance to reintegrate into society. 

The CHILDREN FOR TOMORROW outpatient centre was the first and only psychiatric care facility for children and adolescents in Northern Uganda. Although the focus was on treating children traumatised by war, children and adolescents with any kind of mental disorder were also seen – provided this was possible in an outpatient setting. In order to reach a larger number of people, CHILDREN FOR TOMORROW – UGANDA later held clinics in the camps for internally displaced people in addition to the outpatient centre.

In 2011, CHILDREN FOR TOMORROW made it possible to hold additional clinics in the surrounding villages by building small round huts. Theatre workshops and art sessions were also organised in these huts.