Women are the most marginalised and wounded people in Africa. Through Watoto’s Living Hope program in Uganda, vulnerable women receive crucial support that enables them to stay alive and care for their children. Most of the women at Living Hope are HIV+ single mothers who struggle to take care of their children. Some women were forced into marriage as young girls. When their husbands died from AIDS, they were left destitute and sick. Others became child soldiers and were forced into a life of sexual slavery when LRA rebels abducted them during the war that devastated Northern Uganda for much of the past three decades. Some were disfigured and mutilated by rebel soldiers for resisting abduction or trying to escape captivity.

Living Hope’s mission is to restore dignity in the lives of these women through discipleship, vocational training, and trauma counselling. Living Hope Centres in Gulu and Kampala are a safe haven for many women, where Watoto offers them the opportunity to regain control of their lives and stand on their own feet again.

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