One of the things Quakers can be most proud of is constantly plugging away at the war in Northern Uganda which is destroying an entire generation of the Acholi people. From the ground in Uganda and in small groups in other countries to the Quaker UN offices, Friends have been working to draw attention to the conflict, to fundraise for work there and give support.

I distinctly remember the first time I heard about what was happening, in the QUNO office in New York over two years ago. So far away from the reality of the IDP camps, the night commuters and the brutalised child soldiers, somebody took the time to make me aware of something that I hadn't read about in the newspapers or seen on TV. I remember hoping that something might happen that year and 18 years of war might end. I thought the story was shocking enough that if more people wrote about it and talked about it, something had to change. Plenty have since and little has. It isn't the sort of the thing that blows up, it is simply the unrelenting tragedy of children robbed of their childhood, people killed, mutilated and displaced, year after year.

However, two years on more people and governments do know about it and the Responsibility to Protect agenda, agreed by the UN last September, has started to make people say that we should be protecting the children of Northern Uganda. Not in a military way because the LRA are mainly the children, pushed to the frontline as cannon fodder, but with protection so civil society can function. Until the international community comes together to provide fully resourced protection, in villages rather than camps so that people can regain their economic independence and society, there will be little progress. Quakers have already been running programmes to help the child soldiers reintegrate into society and the people of Northern Uganda are ready for reconciliation. There are arrest warrants for the leaders of the LRA. All that remains is the will of governments to put their resources into this tragic conflict. If or when the peacekeepers come, it will be the work done by Friends and other NGOs with the people themselves which will ensure a lasting peace.

On Friday 3 March at Friends House in London, David Newton, Quaker Peace and Social Witness representative in Gulu, will be talking about their work there to promote peace and reconciliation. If you want to go, contact contact John Fitzgerald: johnf @ quaker.org.uk. If you're not informed about this already, go and see the pictures and try to tell other people. It's not something any of us should be ignorant about.