George Omona works to release, rehabilitate and reintegrate socially Ugandan children who have been affected by armed conflict, particularly those who were abducted by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army to serve as soldiers.

Programme Co-ordinator for Gulu Support the Children Organisation (GUSCO) since 1997, he has been working with GUSCO since it was founded in 1994. In addition to his direct work with children affected by armed conflict, Omona is a founder member of the Gulu Women Empowerment Network, an umbrella organisation for women advocating peace and the protection of children during armed conflict. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Concerned Parents Association (CPA) - Gulu branch, which mobilises parents of abducted children. The CPA lobbies for the release of all children being held by the Lord's Resistance Army. It was formed following the abduction of 130 girls from Aboke School in Apac, northern Uganda in October 1996.

GUSCO - Gulu Support the Children Organisation

A Ugandan charity, GUSCO works with children affected by war, as well as with teachers and other professionals who will come into contact with them once they have returned to their communities.

About 100 children live in GUSCO's rehabilitation centre in Gulu, northern Uganda, around 15 per cent are girls. They are given food, clothing, shelter, medical help, and counselling to help them come to terms with the violence they have committed and which they have also suffered.

The centre, run with Save the Children, Denmark, has rehabilitated more than 2,300 children and helps to reunite them with their family. Using a long-term, community-based approach, staff help the children to readjust to life as civilians, in part, by developing their self-esteem and sense of trust.

According to its approach, the children are not the sum of their actions. As Omona says, 'two principles guide the work at the centre: that children are perceived not as sick victims but as survivors with individual resources, and that most children, given a protective and understanding environment, will go through a healing process.'

Children live at the centre for about four to five weeks where, apart from counselling they attend school and are encouraged to express their feelings through sport and creative activities. Once they have returned to their communities, GUSCO social workers visit them at regular intervals over a year, monitoring their transition to normal life.

Because many child soldiers have committed terrible atrocities, killing members of their family, relatives and/or members of their communities, they meet hostility on their return home. But society's acceptance of these children and an understanding of their plight are central to their recovery. Because of this, the centre works with the different elements of society that will have contact with the children helping to ease their integration.