Education: A Priority in Northern Uganda

Above:  Different local leaders in front of the new peace monument in Gulu, Uganda.  From left to right:  the LC5 of Amuru district, the mayor of Gulu, the Dutch Ambassador to Uganda, Archbishop Odama, and IC Country Director Jolly Grace Okot

Invisible Children isn’t the only organization in northern Uganda concerned about improving education.  More than a dozen NGOs and a large group of government officials recently met in Gulu to celebrate the educational progress taking place in the area.  To commemorate education’s importance in ensuring peace, The Dutch Embassy commissioned a sculpture—two children reading from a pillar of books—that now stands in the center of one of Gulu’s main intersections.  After speaking at length about education’s role in a post-conflict environment, the Dutch Ambassador, Jeroen Verheul, celebrated the sculpture’s unveiling by hosting a lunch for local community leaders.

When so many local government officials, as well as influential regional leaders like Archbishop Odama and different heads of area NGOs, come out to recognize the importance of education, it sends home a clear message to the Gulu community:   Education, in its ability to open doors and create life opportunities, is valuable to a society’s development.  The speeches we heard that day reconfirmed that both Invisible Children and the local governments in the North value the same educational goals.  While listening to the mayor of Gulu, Jolly leaned over to me and said, “I’m so glad we decided to focus on education when we started Invisible Children.  Education is something that unites everyone.”  Hearing politicians of opposing parties express their similar hopes for students in Uganda, I couldn’t agree more.

For those of you who are Gulu-bound, the new sculpture can be found near Standard Chartered Bank, where the Kampala Road meets the Juba Road.

A New Vision newspaper article about the unveiling can be found here.

Above:  The new sculpture in downtown Gulu