WRITER CALLS ON MEDIA TO SPOTLIGHT UGANDAN “NIGHT COMMUTERS”
By Ernest Waititu
Just before dark, thousands of children in northern Uganda leave their homes for town.In their villages death
abounds, and not even the comfort that a home is supposed to provide can beat the fear that darkness
brings. As the sun begins its journey down the hills, these boys and girls, now commonly known as “night
commuters” because of their nocturnal travels, must also begin the 3-miles journey (sometimes longer) to
the towns in search for security.
However, security is not always guaranteed: Human rights groups have reported that the children are usually
poorly sheltered from extreme weather conditions making them fall sick. According to theNew York-based
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children (WCRWC), the “night commuters” also get sexually
abused by would-be security providers. For these children, it is many times a choice between the devil and the
deep blue seas.
This not withstanding, the tragedy has for years escaped the attention of local and international media.
However, in the recent months, journalists have “discovered” this tragedy and are now uncovering it to the world.
One such journalist is Carolyn Davis, an editorial writer with the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Davis, the keynote speaker at Children@ work from the Streets in Africa, organized by Ohio University’s Institute
for the African Child on June 16-18, 2005, told the conference of the harassment, the pain, and the suffering
that these children in Uganda are going through, and the urgent need for the world to answer to their needs.
In Davis' words, the situation in northern Uganda is the worst for children, in the world. “I don’t known of any
other conflict where children are a target as they are in northern Uganda,” Davis said.
Davis, one of the few American journalists who have visited Uganda to follow up the story, said she was healed
and that her cracked faith spackled after experiencing the plight of the “night commuters.” In one of her
stories, now a running series in the Inquirer, Davis narrated how she joined more than 50 kids in the evening,
and followed them from their homes to their hideout in town. In this camp, she spend a night with them and
shared a glimpse of their pain: “ I heard the rainfall and felt the cold and hunger that squeezes so many in
northern Uganda…I looked over the 50 or so kids and could not believe that in 19 years, the world has not
come to these children’s rescue.”
But there also is a positive side to the story: Davis told the story of the children’s resilience as they try to make
the best out of the worst --learning and doing their homework in scant light in preparation for school the next
day.
In an interview with the Toguna, after the conference at Ohio University, Davis said that the media have a
significant role to play in ending the crisis. She called on the media, both local and international, to help in
addressing the conflict by “spotlighting the problem.”
The Western media, she said, should also encourage the readers to contact their elected officials and demand
action in northern Uganda. In Africa, the media should seek to promote responsible leadership, Davis said. In
Uganda, the media should help in bridging divisions in the country so that other ethnic groups who form the
Ugandan public can support the call for ceasefire in the war that has killed so many people, mainly the Acholi
ethnic group.
According to the BBC, the war between the government and the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda
has gone on for 19 years, killing100,000 people and displacing I.6 million. 20,000 children have been abducted
and used as fighters or sex slaves, while 40,000 of them now known as “night commuters” flee their homes by
night to avoid raids.
To read Carolyn Davis’s stories on “night commuters” visit: http://go.philly.com/uganda
