For over two decades, Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army abducted over 60,000 children in northern Uganda to serve as child soldiers and brides. More than 2 million civilians were forced to flee their homes, living in the squalor and instability of Internally Displaced Persons camps, some for over a decade. More than 100,000 people were killed. The LRA left behind a society psychologically traumatized by war, poverty, lack of education, sexual violence, and hopelessness.

In 2010, THRIVEGulu gave birth to the region’s only trauma recovery center. Our founder, Professor Emerita Judy Dushku of Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA identified a need for women survivors of the LRA war to have a safe space to gather, support one another, and begin to recover individually and collectively from trauma.

From an original vision to build a community of strength, hope and healing has grown an organization internationally recognized as a leader in innovative, holistic psychosocial interventions and individual and community empowerment. Our commitment is twofold: Go to the most marginalized places and war-affected peoples, and work with individuals and communities as partners. From survivors to THRIVERS, we triumphantly proclaim: “Together We THRIVE!”