The Mbale Community

Located in Natondome Village, FDNC serves the Sironko, Mbale, Manafwa and Bududa districts of Uganda. Ninety percent of the population in this region lives in a rural community. These communities face a number of development challenges: illiteracy rates are high due to the prohibitive cost of education beyond the primary level; rates of malnutrition are high despite fertile land and abundant rainfall because many lack training in sustainable agricultural practices; and, lacking adequate healthcare, HIV, AIDS, and malaria have taken a tremendous toll.

FDNC's most recent project, Bye Kamahono ("Something Created by the Hands" in the Lugisu language) is a comprehensive art and design center, which invites talented local artisans to train students in the production of art to sell locally and internationally. The program has created a showroom space and retail store in Mbale town. Participants use grass, bark cloth, banana fibers, natural dyes, tree leaves, sisal, and other sustainable materials to make handmade cards, wall hangings, and other art pieces. Depicting scenes of the daily life in rural Africa, the cloth batiks and greeting cards are dyed and hand-painted in vibrant hues. Women of the community paint the images using watercolors while younger students glue and assemble the greeting cards. Participants in this income generation project also receive primary healthcare and life skills training.

Region: East Africa
Capital: Kampala
Population: 34.6 million (2011 est.)
Size: Slightly smaller than Oregon
Year of Independence: From United Kingdom in 1962
Currency: Ugandan shilling
Languages: English (official), Swahili, Luganda, various Bantu languages

Literacy Rate: 75% (2005-2010)
Education: Universal 7 year primary school
Life Expectancy: Male 53 years; Female 51 years (2005-2010)
Infant Mortality: 66.15 deaths/1000 live births (2006)
HIV/AIDS rate: 6.7% (2005)
Poverty Rate: 31% living under the international poverty line (2005-2006)
Access to Clean Water: 65% of population (2009)
Access to Proper Sanitation: 48% of population (2008)
Doctor to Patient Ratio: 8 doctors for every 100,000 people (1990-2004)

All statistics from CIA World Factbook 2011, UNICEF, UNdata, Department for International Development

Uganda is bordered by Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Kenya, with Lake Victoria to the east and the Rwenzori Mountains to the west. Following its independence from Britain in 1962, Uganda struggled through a series of coups and counter-coups in which the military dictatorships of Idi Amin and General Milton Obote destroyed the national economy and committed countless human rights abuses that killed over 800,000 Ugandans. In 1986, Yoweri Museveni came into power, bringing the hope for democracy, stability, and economic prosperity to Uganda and was elected president in 1996 in Uganda's first popular election. Museveni has recently faced calls for his resignation, spurred by violent protests against rising commodities prices.  The next election in Uganda is scheduled for 2016.

Conflict in Northern Uganda

While much of Uganda has lived in peace and stability since Museveni's election, the northern region is plagued by violent war. Since 1987, an armed rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, has waged war against the Uganda government and terrorized the Acholi people who live in the north. Throughout the last two decades, the LRA has committed numerous massacres and kidnapped many civilians, including 30,000 children. Upon capture, children are tortured and forced to become child soldiers, often made to attack their own villages, family, and friends. In order to avoid getting kidnapped, many children become "night commuters ," leaving their homes at night to sleep on verandas and in guarded hospitals in towns. Due to the conflict, about 1.7 million people have also been displaced from their homes and now live in IDP (internally displaced persons) camps. The conditions of these camps are so poor that 1,000 people die each week from malnutrition and disease. Although peace talks have begun, the conflict continues. In 2003, the United Nations undersecretary for humanitarian affairs declared that the most forgotten humanitarian crisis is in northern Uganda. The conflict, however, is not unsolvable: it simply needs the political will of the international community to achieve peace. The recent independence of South SUdan and subsequent instability will affect the Ugandan economy- Sudan is Uganda's largest export partner.

HIV and AIDS in Uganda

On a continent where AIDS has taken a severe toll, Uganda stands out as a country whose HIV rates of infection have decreased. Uganda has been praised for its efforts to control the HIV and AIDS epidemic with several government run campaigns including the AIDS Control Program and the Uganda AIDS Commission. Uganda was the first country in Africa to open a voluntary HIV testing clinic. Although HIV and AIDS still takes a toll, killing tens of thousands each year, in much of Uganda, its prevalence has decreased from 15 percent in the 1990s to around 6.7% today.

Uganda has great potential for development. While war ravages the Acholi region of the north, the rest of the country lives in relative peace. The warm climate and two rainy seasons means that the country has the ability to grow an abundance of crops, including coffee, a primary export. With political stability and investment in these regions, Uganda's economy has continued to improve.