World Vision reports that the Gospel has been helping in the spiritual recovery of thousands of Ugandan children scarred by their experiences of war and conflict.

|TOP|The report comes as the United Nations continues to increase its presence in the country to help the two million displaced by the 19-year civil war.

World Vision’s, Amy Parodi, says the tragedy has led to a whole generation of young adults knowing only war, reports Mission Network News.

She said: “Rehabilitation, spiritual and psychological counselling and help are going to be absolutely vital, in addition to helping the displaced community and the unemployed community to find employment and to get themselves back on their feet. So they don’t feel like they have to resort to violence to make ends meet.”

Ms. Parodi said the World Vision team is especially sensitive to the effect of the Gospel in this region: “We have a wonderful opportunity, especially through our rehabilitation centres, to share, particularly, forgiveness with these children.”

|QUOTE|Many of the children World Vision works with were kidnapped by rebels in the Lord’s Resistance Army and forced into service, many of them having been forced to first commit atrocities against their own family members.

Many of the children are then left with the terrible guilt associated with self-preservation and are, therefore, deeply scarred by their actions.

Manager for World Vision’s rehabilitation centre, Michael Oruni, says that in its 10 years of operation the centre has helped reintegrate nearly 11,000 children back into the community.

Ms. Parodi explained the success of the programme: “When they come into World Vision’s Centre and the learn that they can be forgiven, that they can start fresh, that somebody else paid the consequences for that, they experience that forgiveness in a way that most of us in the United States can’t even begin to understand.”