Since TCON’s birth in 2005 our primary focus has been upon the widows of the TESO sub-region of Uganda. This eastern sub-region is home to an estimated 2.5 million people and it encompasses 8 out 111 different districts throughout all of Uganda. When Dave first connected with Beatrice (our TESO Widow’s Advocate), she had founded a Widows Development Initiative (TEWIDI) with a total of a few hundred women. TCON agreed to come alongside TEWIDI to offer agricultural business initiatives and further development support. Over the past six years the organization has expanded its membership to tens of thousands, with recently-widowed women joining the organization everyday.
A couple of years ago, as relative peace in the northern Acholi sub-region became a reality once the LRA was finally driven out of Uganda, a widow from Gulu heard about what was taking place in TESO. Upon learning of an upcoming conference sponsored by TCON in Soroti, she was determined to attend so that she could see with her own eyes the power of a vulnerable people banded together. What she witnessed challenged her to begin a widows development initiative in the Acholi sub-region. Since she attended that conference two years ago her initiative has grown to 7,000 women and TCON has been actively assisting this organization with similar agricultural projects.
During my first full day in Soroti, where TCON is based in Uganda, we held a meeting with three of the leaders of this initiative, including Caroline, the founder of this young organization. They traveled for hours to sit with us and share of their development and need as an organization as well as their collective trauma and the beginning signs of recovery.
Back in 1996, the Ugandan government ordered all civilians from the Northern region to go to Internally Displaced People Camps (IDP camps) in response to the uprising of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) headed by Joseph Kony. Many believe that this decision ultimately resulted in leaving the civilians even more vulnerable to the violence that persisted well into the first decade of the 21st century. The atrocities and human rights violations perpetrated against these people are some of the worst in human history. The horror of their suffering is difficult to fathom, and yet, sitting before us on this particular day were three strong women who had survived and were committed to rebuilding and restoring their lives, their communities and their hope for a new and brighter day.