I began this article on the Paris to Los Angeles leg of a 24-hour trip home from Africa. I had just spent two-and-a-half weeks on a humanitarian tour with Aid Africa, an American NGO based in Bakersfield that helps the poorest of the poor in Uganda, an east African country of 49 million people.
Many in Uganda live below the international poverty line, especially in rural areas where most are subsistence farmers residing in mud huts without access to electricity, clean water, modern sanitation, or health care. Uganda has a history of colonial rule, winning its independence from Britain in 1962, and like many African countries with similar pasts, maintaining democracy and controlling militarized gangs has been challenging. In the 1990s and early 2000s, warlord Joseph Kony terrorized parts of Uganda forcing many into refugee camps. Aid Africa was born in 2006 to help villagers rebuild their communities after returning from the camps.
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