A Northern Ireland charity has raised more than £100,000 to help thousands of people affected by one of Africa’s most notorious conflicts.
The money raised by Self Help Africa will help families rebuild their lives in a region of Uganda ravaged by warlord Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
The amount is to also be matched by the UK government, doubling the impact of the charity’s ‘Give2Grow’ campaign.
Self Help Africa, which merged with War on Want NI last year, raised the money through an appeal at the charity's shops around the north and other activities staged over the past three months.
Fundraising manager Denny Elliot said it would "make a real impact on the lives of local people".
"This area of Uganda was totally ravaged by the child soldier army of Joseph Kony," he said.
"Homes were burned, crops destroyed, livestock killed, and families lived in constant fear that their own children would be abducted into the LRA. Many fled their homes into government-run camps, and some only returned a decade or more later, to find that their farms had returned to wilderness".
Donations to the campaign can still be made at www.selfhelpafrica.org.
