A few nights ago, over dinner with a workmate, we found ourselves lost in a conversation about parenting. We compared the way we raise children today with the way we were raised, and we both agreed that our generation of parents is much softer. We laughed at how we...
Read MoreIn the year 2000, I was in Bishop Angelo Negri College School, a catholic boys’ boarding school in Gulu, Uganda. In October that year, pressure was building on us like a storm. We were in Senior Four, preparing for the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations set by the...
Read MoreWhen I landed in the Philippines in April 2014 to begin my assignment as an Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeper, I anticipated conflict resolution work, community dialogues, and security briefings. I had been assigned to Pikit Municipality in North Cotabato, Mindanao, a region known more for the Moro (Muslim) fight for...
Read MoreUnarmed civilian peacekeeping plays a vital role in conflict zones. Most international peacekeepers engaged in this type of work are deployed in countries other than their own. That means they shed light on what’s happening locally. Their presence allows the world to see what’s happening in places affected by...
Read MoreWhen I was a child growing up with my siblings and our mother in Gulu City, Uganda, I had a limited understanding of what leprosy was. If I saw someone with signs and symptoms of leprosy on the road, I didn’t want to greet them. I would simply run....
Read MoreI still remember the year 2000 as if it were just last week. That was the year I completed my Ordinary Level Education at Bishop Angelo Negri College in Gulu, a city in the North of Uganda. Back then, there was a belief in northern Uganda that if you...
Read MoreI tasted alcohol and its most devastating effects on the very first day I tasted Pagee Wine from St. Mary’s Lacor in Gulu, Uganda, in 1998. Pagee Wine is a local wine made from pineapple. Even though that moment happened nearly 27 years ago, just the thought of walking...
Read MoreDear Honorable Akol and Mapenduzi, I write to you not only as members of Parliament but as sons of Acholi, a region that has endured significant poverty and underdevelopment under the current regime. Recent news reports have suggested that you both have defected to the National Resistance Movement...
Read MoreOn 11 February 2024, the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) released the 2024 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) results under the competency-based curriculum, sparking a wave of reactions across the country. The new system emphasizes skills, values, and real-life applications of knowledge, aiming to foster competencies like critical thinking,...
Read MoreBack then, school in Uganda wasn’t quite the same as today. Some students were much older than us in primary school, and I’m talking much older. Some of the “boys” in the upper primary classes in my school had wives, kids, and their own houses but were still stuck...
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