Speech for the Opening of the USAID Gulu Office

USAID Director, Margot Ellis
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Ministers and Members of Parliament
US Ambassador Browning
District and City Officials
The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda
Chiefs, Elders and Religious Leaders
Implementing Partners and Fellow Development Partners
Members of the Private Sector
Ladies and Gentlemen
All Protocol Observed

• Welcome to the official dedication of the USAID Gulu Office.  Thank you all for coming to help us celebrate the launch of this new field office.  We wanted to use this occasion not just to introduce all of you to our new office and staff, but also to highlight the many activities the US Government supports in northern Uganda.  I hope many of you had a chance to attend the open houses held by USAID partners throughout Gulu town this morning and to view the displays here.

• I thank all our partners who made the effort to open their offices and set up displays here today.  I think the displays around us send a strong message about the US Government’s goal to provide quality assistance to northern Uganda.  We can only do this through strong collaboration with local government, the people of northern Uganda and our implementing partners. Extending USAID/Uganda’s presence to Gulu will strengthen this alliance.

• As you can see the US Government provides support across all sectors: from life saving humanitarian relief to prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; from the distribution of seeds and tools to rural savings and credit cooperatives; from reintegration support for former abductees to local and national peace forums, from education to the environment.

• For instance, USAID worked with one young woman who became a child-mother after being abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army.  Once rescued and taken to a reception center in Gulu, she was reunited with her family.  For this young woman, now 26, being home was not enough.  She joined the Northern Uganda Peace Initiative team in order to send messages by radio into the remotest parts of northern Uganda and to talk with her fellow Acholis about peace and reconciliation throughout the region.  They must have heard her messages of peace. 

• In Gulu we also worked with Aber Grace, a young deaf woman and mother of a one year old child who benefited from a sign language training program.  She did so well, that she was chosen to teach a two month class for other deaf people in remote parts of Gulu.

• And baby Komakec, whose name means unlucky.  His mother had already lost two children to malaria.  After getting treatment, he received an insecticide-treated net to sleep under and has suffered fewer bouts of malaria.  In fact, his mother is back working in her fields because she does not have to care for a sick child. 

• These are the stories of the most vulnerable in Uganda.  These are the people that the USAID is helping.  And we are committed to working in partnership with the people and government of Uganda, with the other development partners, with local organizations, and with the hundreds of communities and the thousands of families with whom we work. 

• Today we find ourselves at a critical juncture and a real opportunity to make lasting change.  People are returning home, accessing their land and rebuilding.  We plan to work hand in hand to help make this a sustainable transition home.  We hope to help people to resume peaceful, productive lives to resolve and heal the wounds of the conflict, and to prevent future conflicts. 

• Now it gives me great pleasure to introduce the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda, who has graciously donated space to USAID for our Gulu office, and has opened the space to all of us today.  Thank you, Mr. Governor, for your generosity.