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About NEHRO |
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The revolutionary war in northern Uganda is Africa's longest running conflict. For more than 20 years the Acholi people of northern Uganda, have not known peace and have seen their security, homes and economy destroyed. One point seven million Ugandans have been displaced and several hundred thousand have died. In 2003, Jan England, the United Nations undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said "I cannot find any other part of the world that is having an emergency on the scale of Uganda that is getting so little international attention." Little has changed since then.
More than twenty years ago, religious leader and healer, Alice Auma, claimed that God told her to stop healing people and overthrow the Ugandan Government. It was then that she began kidnapping children to fight her revolution. After fighting the Ugandan Government for approximately one year, she was exiled to Kenya in 1987 and died in 2007. However, those that supported her mission continued to abduct children for soldiers.
The current manifestation of Auma’s revolution is the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), lead by Joseph Kony, Auma’s nephew. He continues to fight against the Ugandan Government to this day with kidnapped children he has forced to be his soldiers. Kony is said to guide the LRA with a kind of apocalyptic mysticism grounded in the Bible. As part of their initiation, the children are often required to kill their own parents so they have no family to return to. Many children are used for sex or target practice. The LRA is currently composed of 3000 or more abducted children controlled by a core group of 150-200 officers. Under Kony’s control, LRA forces have been responsible for tens of thousands of rapes, assaults and murders of unarmed civilians. They frequently torture their captives.
All total, an estimated 30,000 children have been kidnapped over the last 20 years and have been forced to witness, commit and suffer atrocities. Most of the 30,000 children abducted have died, but a few have escaped.
NEHRO is a non-profit humanitarian relief organization with no political or religious agenda, founded by photographer Cruz Stamets, when she returned from northern Uganda in early 2007. Cruz documented the plight of children who had been abducted by the LRA with her photographs. She also digitized the handwritten letters of many abducties to tell the story of their capture, what it was like while they were held by the LRA and how each of the children escaped. The letters can be difficult to read. Many of the children that escaped are still living in refugee camps along with scores of adults that have fled the violence. The trip to northern Uganda proved to be both emotionally and physically challenging for Cruz. She stated, "I have traveled all over the world and to many developing countries, but this is the first time I truly feared for my life. These people broke my heart". Upon returning to the United States, she vowed to dedicate herself to doing whatever is possible to help the refugees remaining in the camps.
NEHRO's vision is to raise awareness of the atrocities plaguing the people in Northern Uganda, involve as many volunteers as possible to help end the suffering, and to raise funds for the refugee's basic needs. With your support, NEHRO can help them realize their true potential. NEHRO will help by providing food, cooking pots, seeds, mosquito nets, medicine, clothing, and even feminine hygiene supplies for girls. Young girls cannot go to school when they are menstruating simply because they don’t have sanitary napkins. NEHRO will raise funds for basic education and for no-interest micro loans to help individuals start small businesses.
We are especially excited about providing funds for orphaned children's secondary education in a safe environment. Cruz states, "One of the many things I learned about the wonderful Ugandans I met is that the children who have completed their education almost always return to help others get their due education". Secondary school is not attainable for orphaned children unless we help them. The Ugandan government does not provide education beyond the primary grades and often children in refugee camps do not even have access to primary education.
Because there is so much government corruption in Uganda and other developing countries, it is often the small non-government-relief-organizations (NGO's) like NEHRO that provide the most help to people in need. Unlike larger organizations, NGO's usually have very low overhead so virtually all of the money goes to where it is needed. NEHRO is an all-volunteer organization with no overhead for staff, offices, etc. All contributions go directly to humanitarian relief. NEHRO is dedicated to speak on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves.
NEHRO is a non-profit humanitarian relief organization, registered with the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under section 170 of Code 501(c) (3). NEHRO's IRS tax identification number is: 26-1184237. This number is required on your tax return and allows you to deduct your contribution to NEHRO. |