The Chancellor of the University of the Sacred Heart Gulu; Archbishop Dr. John Baptist Odama has officially opened the “Trauma Healing Retreat for war victims” being facilitated by University of the Sacred Heart Gulu (USHG).

The  5 day retreat being facilitated by the University’s department of Counseling Psychology has brought together 30 participants from Kasese diocese and the Archdiocese of Gulu who are formerly abducted persons traumatized by the experiences of the wars in western and northern Uganda.  Participants include former seminarians and with their Rector who were abducted by the Allied Democratic Front (ADF) from St. John’s Seminary Kasese in 1997, Ladies abducted from northern Uganda including Sacred Heart Girls Secondary School in Gulu,  and some of the 41 students abducted by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) from Sacred Heart Seminary Gulu in 2003 .

The  goal of  the Trauma Healing Retreat is to promote the holistic healing of participants to effectively participate and contribute to the life and development of community, Church and the nation. His Grace Dr. John Baptist Odama used the opportunity to make a call for “the repair of relationships and promotion of peace and harmony among human kind”. Archbishop Odama also commended the University of the Sacred Heart Gulu, Kasese Diocese (and the Foundation of Rwenzururu Abductees and Returnees Organization (FERARO), and MISSIO Austria for organizing the retreat.

The Trauma Healing Retreat is one of the many ways the University of the Sacred Heart Gulu continues to live its mission of contributing to personal and social healing, growth and holistic development.