Located in East Africa, on the northern shore of Lake Victoria, UGANDA is a magical country. Once described by Winston Churchill as the ‘Pearl of Africa’, this staggeringly beautiful country is home to a magnificent natural landscape and incredibly friendly people – but it is a country almost constantly in turmoil.

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Background

Idi Amin Dada’s tyrannical regime (1971-79) was responsible for the deaths of at least 300,000 Ugandans. Guerrilla war and human rights abuses under Milton Obote (1980-85) are estimated to have claimed at least another 100,000 lives. The rule of Yoweri Museveni since 1986 has brought relative stability, but a 21 year-long insurgency by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony, has resulted in the displacement of at least 1.3m people and the recruitment of child soldiers.

The Economy Today

Uganda has made great strides in instituting much needed political and economic reforms. These have created a more stable, growth-orientated, and liberalised, political-economic climate. In spite of this, Uganda remains one of the world’s poorest countries, with approximately one-third of the population living below the poverty line and a per capita income of approximately £250 per annum – an average of 68p per day, per person


rush hour

Rush hour in Kampala

Population Increase

Uganda has one of the highest population growth rates in the world: The country’s current population of 31,367,972 is projected to explode to 130 million by 2050, a nearly five-fold increase. Women in Uganda have an average of 6.81 children, compared with a global average of 2.6.

HIV/AIDS and other diseases

HIV prevalence in Uganda is 4.1% with approximately 940,000 people living with HIV and a further 1.2 million children having been orphaned by AIDS. As a consequence life expectancy in Uganda is just 52 years old, compared to 79 years in the UK. And it isn’t just HIV/AIDS that is a killer – in 2006, there were a suspected 10.6 million cases of malaria.

Deaths among young adults leave behind millions of orphaned children, placing a burden on the community and the state. In 2005 UNICEF calculated there are 2.3 million known orphans in Uganda – that’s the same number of people as live in Manchester, UK.

Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development

Child’s i Foundation representatives met with Mr Otim, Commissioner Youth & Children Affairs. Our project is aligned with the government’s strategic policy for orphans and vulnerable children and The Ministry of Gender welcomes and will fully support Child’s i Foundation.