The integration of refugees into Uganda's education system

This is a proposal for a four-year research programme designed to monitor the impact of the process of integration of educational services for refugees in Adjumani, Arua, and Moya Districts. This process will be part of the implementation of a new policy of the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In July 1998, the GoU/UNHCR announced its new policy, 'From Local Settlement to Self-Sufficiency: A Long-Term Strategy for Assistance to Refugees in Uganda, 1999-2002'. Initially it is to apply to Sudanese refugees in three northern districts. Over a four-year period, the GoU and UNHCR aim to bring the refugees in these three districts to self-sufficiency and to integrate services for refugees with those of the host society. These districts also contain large numbers of self-settled refugees who are already using local services, including schools.1 Moreover, some of the 'refugee schools' provide education to the children of nationals. The proposed research has been conceived and will be implemented as a discrete study within the broader framework of an EU-sponsored project, Research on Policy Issues in "Refugee Health and Welfare. A major objective of this umbrella project is to build local capacity in research and teaching. Collaborating 2 institutions are the Refugee Studies Programme (RSP), University of Oxford, UK; the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium; Institute of Public Health, Makerere University, Uganda, and the Centre for Refugee Studies/Medical School, Mai University, and Kenya.

Family law in Sierra Leone: a research report

After an introductory chapter on the assumptions and methods of the study, which was carried out in Sierra Leone in 1971, this report contains chapters on marriage, divorce, property rights of women, maintenance responsibilities, rights over children and adoption under customary law in Sierra Leone. Then the authors attempt to indicate areas where conflicts of law exist or where certain social problems are created or aggravated by the inadequacies of the law. Finally, a number of problems relating to the administration of customary law are considered. Throughout the report the inferior legal position of women in the face of changing social and economic conditions has been stressed.ASC – Publicaties niet-programma gebonde

Quests for therapy in northern Uganda: healing at Laropi revisited

This article presents a case of diachronic ethnography. It examines quests for therapy among the Madi people of northern Uganda. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in and around the small trading centre of Laropi; originally in the late 1980s and again in 2008. By revisiting the same field site at different points in time, and by drawing on related ethnographic material collected in the 1950s and 70s, we are able to examine how such quests have altered and to discuss factors influencing these changes. We also comment on shifts in conceptual approaches of medical anthropology that have influenced perceptions and analysis. Laropi lies close to the border with Sudan and its inhabitants have experienced much upheaval and political isolation. We examine how this has influenced understandings and responses to ill-health and misfortune. Particularly important in recent years has been the increasing availability and accessibility of biomedicine, which the population have embraced and indigenized as a mark of progress and political recognition. On the face of it, this has rendered recourse to more "traditional" forms of healing obsolete. However, as we describe, the situation is more ambiguous. Notions of witchcraft, spirit possession and ancestor veneration are more pervasive than they might seem