​ Our Story In 2004, at the height of the armed conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda, communities across the Acholi Sub-region were living through unimaginable suffering. Entire villages had been displaced into overcrowded Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. Families had lost their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones. Men were being killed or abducted, women were becoming widows, and children were being left without parents or proper care. Fear defined everyday life. People could not freely leave the camps to cultivate their land, earn a living, or provide for their families. We depended almost entirely on food assistance from the United Nations and humanitarian agencies to survive. At the same time, people were becoming seriously ill. They became weak, slimmed, lost weight, suffered persistent diarrhoea, cough, skin rashes, and other illnesses, and many died without anyone understanding what was happening. At first, many people believed it was witchcraft or a spiritual punishment. Families sought help from traditional healers and spiritual leaders, but the deaths continued. It was in the middle of all this that a group of women, mainly widows, decided to come together to understand what was happening in their community and to find ways of supporting one another. We were seeing our husbands being killed or disappearing, children being left without parents, people becoming sick and dying, and families struggling to survive in the camps. We felt that we could not simply sit and watch. In 2004, we started as a small group called Patongo Widows and Orphans Support Group. We began mobilising women and community members, talking about the challenges we were facing, supporting widows and orphans, and trying to understand the sicknesses that were taking people's lives. As we moved from household to household and talked to community members, we began hearing more about people who were becoming very thin, sick, and weak without knowing the cause. We started sensitising the community to seek information and health services and to understand what could be causing these illnesses. It was during this mobilisation that a health worker approached our group. The health worker had heard that we were sensitising communities and trying to understand the sickness that was affecting people. She told us that two women had been tested at a health facility and were HIV-positive. Because of the fear and stigma surrounding HIV at that time, the two women were afraid to come forward publicly. The health worker therefore asked the group to support them. This was an important turning point for us. We began to understand that some of the sickness and deaths we had been seeing were linked to HIV/AIDS. We established a meeting point where the two women and others who later came forward could meet safely, receive counselling and support, and talk about their experiences without being exposed to public stigma. The two women did not simply become beneficiaries of our work. Their experiences helped us understand the reality of HIV in our community and strengthened our determination to sensitise others. We began encouraging people to seek HIV testing, linking those who tested positive to health facilities, supporting them with home-based care, and speaking openly about HIV to reduce fear and stigma. As more people heard the messages and began coming forward for testing, we discovered that HIV was affecting many families in the community, including people who had never understood why they were becoming sick and losing weight. What had started as a small group of women trying to understand the problems affecting their families was becoming a wider community effort to save lives, protect children, support widows, and respond to the growing HIV crisis alongside the effects of war. From a Small Group to a Community Organisation As our work grew, the local government recognised the value of what we were doing. They saw that we were responding to real needs in the community and that our work was making a difference to women, children, and people living with HIV. They encouraged us to formally register so that we could operate legally, strengthen our work, and engage more effectively with government and other partners. In 2005, we were registered at the district level as a Community-Based Organisation (CBO) under the name Widows and Orphans Support Organisation. This was an important step in our journey. It gave us a formal identity and opened opportunities to work more closely with government, communities, and other organisations. Thereafter, humanitarian and development partners also began to come in and support our work. The American Refugee Committee (ARC) visited the group and became one of its earliest supporters, providing home-based care kits and strengthening community outreach. The World Food Programme (WFP) responded to the group's advocacy by providing nutritional support specifically for people living with HIV, whose health required more than the standard emergency food ration available in the camps. Other partners soon joined, including the Northern Uganda Malaria, AIDS and Tuberculosis Programme (NUMAT), which supported HIV prevention, testing, referrals, community mobilisation, and home-based care. The Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) strengthened access to HIV care, treatment, and management of opportunistic infections, while the International Rescue Committee (IRC) contributed to expanding community-based support. These partnerships helped us strengthen what we had already started at the community level. With support from our partners, we were able to reach more people, identify vulnerable households, link people to health services, provide care and support, and expand awareness about HIV and other challenges affecting our communities. Even with this growing support, the heart of our work remained the same. We continued moving from household to household and community to community, listening to people's concerns, mobilising them, and helping them find solutions to the challenges they faced. Expanding Beyond HIV. Over time, NUWOSO realised that HIV was only one symptom of a much larger crisis. Communities were struggling with extreme poverty, food insecurity, trauma, gender-based violence, child abuse, poor access to healthcare, environmental degradation, and the long-term effects of displacement. The organisation therefore expanded its work to address these interconnected challenges through integrated programming. When the war gradually ended in 2008 and families returned home, recovery proved far more difficult than expected. Years of displacement had left deep emotional wounds. Land disputes became common as families struggled to reclaim ancestral land. Gender-based violence increased. Alcohol abuse, trauma, broken family structures, and weakened traditional support systems continued to affect communities long after the guns had fallen silent. NUWOSO adapted once again. Building on the resilience of the women who had founded the organisation, NUWOSO expanded beyond emergency response to focus on long-term recovery, resilience, and sustainable development. Today, our work is guided by seven integrated programme areas Health, including HIV prevention, treatment, nutrition, and sexual and reproductive health. Human Rights, Gender Equality, and Protection. Sustainable Livelihoods, Food Security, and Economic Empowerment. Education and Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. Disaster Risk Reduction, Preparedness, and Humanitarian Response. Climate Change, Environmental Protection, and Natural Resource Management. Coordination, Advocacy, Institutional Development, and Organisational Sustainability. Responding to New Crises Our experience during the conflict also prepared us to respond when new emergencies emerged. Northern Uganda continued to receive people fleeing conflict and instability from neighbouring countries, creating new humanitarian needs among refugee and host communities. We understood that displacement does not only happen during one war or in one place. Communities can be affected by conflict, disease, disasters, climate change, poverty, and other emergencies at any time. The continued arrival of refugees and the occurrence of other disasters reinforced our understanding that resilience must go beyond surviving one crisis. Communities need the knowledge, skills, systems, resources, and confidence to prepare for, respond to, recover from, and adapt to whatever challenges may come. We therefore continued strengthening our work in disaster preparedness and response, early warning, climate change adaptation, environmental protection, livelihoods, food security, health, protection, and community resilience. From Northern Uganda to a National Organisation As our experience and reach continued to grow, so did our responsibility. In 2019, we expanded our outreach beyond our original area of operation to communities across Uganda, responding to the consistent occurrence of disasters, humanitarian crises, displacement, and other vulnerabilities in different parts of the country. With this national expansion, we registered as a national NGO and became known as the Northern Uganda Widows and Orphans Support Organisation (NUWOSO). The name reflected our journey and our growth, from a small group of women responding to the needs around them, to a formally registered organisation with a wider mandate to serve vulnerable communities across Uganda. Our journey can therefore be traced through three important stages 2004 — Patongo Widows and Orphans Support Group We started as a small group of women, mainly widows, who came together during the conflict to understand what was happening in their community, support one another, protect children, respond to sickness and HIV, and speak out about the challenges facing their families. 2005 — Widows and Orphans Support Organisation We were formally registered at district level as a Community-Based Organisation, strengthening our ability to work with government, communities, and development partners. 2019 — Northern Uganda Widows and Orphans Support Organisation (NUWOSO) We expanded our outreach nationally and became a registered national NGO, responding to the continued occurrence of disasters, humanitarian crises, displacement, and vulnerabilities across Uganda. Our Work Today Today, our work is guided by seven integrated programme areas Integrated Health Sustainable Economic and Livelihood Empowerment Human Rights, Gender and Protection Education Services and Support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children Environmental Protection and Climate Change Management Coordination and Advocacy Organisation Development and Sustainability These programme areas are interconnected. Together, they help us address the realities that women, children, young people, and vulnerable communities face while strengthening their ability to withstand future shocks. We have supported Millions of women, children, young people, refugees, and vulnerable households to rebuild their lives with dignity. Our work is rooted in one simple belief: every person has the right to live a life of dignity, safety, and opportunity. ​ For us, resilience is not simply surviving war. It is helping individuals, families, and communities develop the strength, knowledge, skills, confidence, and opportunities to overcome the challenges they face and build a better future. That vision remains unchanged today. From a small group of women in an IDP camp in 2004 to a national women-led organisation, our journey has always been driven by the courage of communities and the belief that lasting change begins from within. Together, we continue to empower women, children, and communities to become resilient, claim their rights, and build a future where no one is left behind.