On January 10th 2010, as the rest of the country was slipping and sliding on icy footpaths, I found myself in sub-Saharan Africa in 34 degree heat, carrying a camera bag, a tripod and two suitcases. Rewind a couple of weeks and I’ll explain how I came to arrive in this part of the world.

In October last year I entered the ECHO (European Commission for Humanitarian Aid department) ‘Crisis Correspondent – Reporting from Uganda’ competition. The prize was a trip to northern Uganda to visit the ECHO-funded projects, along with a video camera and sound equipment to record a documentary. I was shocked to make it to the final on December 7th and even more shocked to learn I had won this fantastic competition and that I had just four weeks to pack my bags and prepare for Uganda.

ECHO is the largest public donor to humanitarian crises in the world, donating over €900 million in 2008 to provide relief for 120 million people in 60 different countries. They work in partnership with NGOs in crisis-affected areas, funding their projects directly, rather than through governments. I travelled to Uganda with Simon Horner, Head of ECHO’s Information and Communication department. When we arrived we teamed up with ECHO partners GOAL and Concert to tour the Pader district in northern Uganda and film a documentary.

My eyes were opened towards a beautiful land with a violent, traumatic history. The conflict in northern Uganda has been largely forgotten by the world’s media, a fact made all the more startling when the scale of the tragedy is taken into consideration - 1.8 million people were internally displaced, 20,000 children were abducted and forced to become child soldiers and hundreds of thousands of people were killed. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) committed unspeakable crimes against innocent civilians, such as rape and mutilation, whereby they would cut off the lips and ears of those they suspected of talking to Government forces. The LRA was engaged in violent uprisings against the Government and the people of Uganda for over 20 years. Thankfully peace and stability have returned to the region, with an unofficial peace agreement in place since 2006.

During the conflict, Pader’s entire population (340,000 people) were displaced and forced to live in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. These camps sometimes housed up to 60,000 people, living in cramped, overcrowded conditions, each depending on the same water supplies for their daily washing, cooking, and cleaning needs, as well as basic sanitation. Outbreaks of disease were widespread and threats to personal security for staff and the people living in the camps ever present. While I was in Uganda, I spoke to drivers for different NGOs, who had been ambushed and shot at during the course of their work. Some had seen their co-workers die before their eyes. The resilience of the African people is hard to describe to those who haven’t experienced it first hand. To have suffered so much and to find the strength to carry on is not easy. However, in this part of Uganda, where most people live in extreme poverty, there is no choice. You get on with your life or you lie down and die.

I was exposed to a wealth of human experiences and emotions in Pader, which left me questioning my own value system and appreciation of life. I witnessed the everyday activities of people rebuilding their lives. Some of the memorable sights include people trading grains and vegetables underneath the shade of the mango trees; a dozen women walking through the fields in single file, all carrying bright yellow jerry cans to the nearest watering hole; and two four year old boys walking over 10 km to their nearest village, each carrying lengths of sugar cane on their heads.

The impact of ECHO’s funding and the phenomenal work carried out by the different NGOs cannot be underestimated. In addition to various water, sanitation and hygiene projects we visited, Concern and Goal also provide the communities with livelihood programmes, HIV & AIDS programmes and protection programmes. People can now hope and plan for their futures thanks to the implementation of such programmes. Over 80% of the people living in Pader’s IDP camps have been returned to transit camps or villages. The people who remain have different motivations for doing so, they may be elderly or vulnerable, or have built up a life for themselves in the camps over the last 20 years. There are teenagers who have never known life outside the camp.

I feel privileged and honoured to have been given the opportunity to visit Pader and hear the individual stories and challenges now faced by the people of Uganda. I look forward to sharing these stories through my documentary. There are many obstacles to be overcome to rebuild this region and allow people to live a normal life. Further attention from the world’s media and support from international donors such as ECHO must be continued in the hope that a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Northern Uganda is not just a distant dream.