The Drop-in Centre - Help when people need it, and a heart for a community recovering from war

The Drop-in Centre provides a much-needed focal point for the community.  Our local partners and counselling programme directors, Constantine Odong and Agnes Lagen, are always on hand to offer individual help and support to the many trauma survivors.

Patongo hosted tens of thousands of refugees and was regularly raided by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) during a war that lasted for 22 bloody years. Thousands were killed, millions were displaced, and the LRA abducted more than 50,000 children, forcing them to be soldiers, porters and sex slaves.

Almost everyone was forced to abandon their farms to live in dismal and squalid refugee camps, where they have been for more than 20 years.  The war stopped only recently and while many international NGOs have been and continue to be active in Gulu to the west, Patongo was largely neglected, as it was deemed to be too dangerous.

The war reached into every hut and family.  Everyone witnessed violence, experienced fear, and felt utterly defenceless. Now the violence has moved elsewhere, but the devastating legacy remains.

The Drop-in Centre provides a much-needed focal point for the community.  [CB1]  Our local partners and counselling programme directors, Constantine Odong and Agnes Lagen, are always on hand to offer individual help and support to the many trauma survivors.

The Drop-in Centre also provides training and confidential advice, with information available on trauma, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, alcoholism, domestic violence, gender rights, nutrition and hygiene, farming techniques, peace building and reconciliation and other subjects about which the community asks for information.

Peer Counselling Community Outreach Programme