uNight sponsors and supports innovative projects to help reclaim and rehabilitate the lives of thousands of children and youth affected by the war.  The civil war in Uganda has claimed thousands of lives, affected millions of children and youth, and forced over 1.8 million people into squalid makeshift camps where over 1,000 people die each week. The rate of violent death in northern Uganda is three times Iraq’s, and the level of suffering and dislocation surpasses that of Darfur in the Sudan.

In partnership with the Ugandan community in the US, uNight has mobilized grassroots support through film screenings, panel discussions, community events, and public demonstrations and marches.  In October 2005, uNight organized a highly successful public march in New York as part of GuluWalk, a global campaign that was carried out simultaneously to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda. uNight has also launched chapters at schools and universities nationwide to galvanize support for the children and youth of northern Uganda.  

Prior to co-founding uNight, Ms. Boston visited Uganda for the first time in 2001, where she spent six months living in rural Masaka, working for Student’s Partnership Worldwide (SPW), a not-for-profit organization that recruits and trains young adults as volunteer Peer Educators to lead programmes addressing urgent health and environmental issues of local communities in Africa and Asia.  In spring 2004, Daniella returned to Uganda to study with the School for International Training (SIT) as part of their Development Program.  In summer 2004, the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies sponsored Daniella’s research on political development in Uganda.  Daniella Boston’s thesis, a culmination of her practical experience and research in Uganda is entitled “One-party, No-party or Extra-party Democracy? Political Culture, Participation and the Movement System in Uganda.”

For two decades, the international community has ignored the genocide in northern Uganda. uNight is determined to mobilize an constituency of people, especially in the US and UK, who will fight for the human rights of the victims of Uganda’s civil war, especially the children of northern Uganda, the most “invisible” victims of this senseless war.

Katie Hill joined the Acumen Fund as a Portfolio Analyst through the John Gardner Fellowship for Leadership in Public Service. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, studying International Relations and Economics. Ms. Hill received the Firestone Medal of Excellence for her senior honors thesis on the commercialization of microfinance in Uganda, which involved six months of research in the field. In addition to her work in Uganda, she has significant volunteer and work experience in rural education in Nepal and urban poverty in Ecuador.

The Rt. Rev. Macleord Baker Ochola II is a retired Bishop of the Diocese of Kitgum in Northern Uganda. He was the first Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Kitgum, serving from 1995 until his retirement in 2002. He is one of the founding members of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI), an interfaith organization that was formed in 1997 and formally inaugurated in February, 1998, as a proactive response to the conflict in Northern Uganda.

Bishop Ochola had seven children with his wife, the late Winifred Ochola, but one of their daughters, the late Joyce Adong, committed suicide on May 1, 1987, soon after her human integrity was violated by the rebels in Northern Uganda.  In 1994 Bishop Ochola was consecrated and enthroned as the first Diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Kitgum in the midst of the turmoil in Northern Uganda. As the Diocesan Bishop, he spent most of his time burying the dead and comforting the grieving families. He was himself bereaved when his dear wife, the late Winifred Ochola, was brutally killed on May 23, 1997, in a landmine blast as she was coming home from Bishop Ochola’s home village at Agoro. She became, like their daughter, a victim of this senseless war in Northern Uganda. Life has never been the same for Bishop Ochola since his great bereavement, but he has forgiven all those who robbed him and his family of their dear ones and killed many of his innocent parishioners.

Since his wife’s death, Bishop Ochola has dedicated his whole life to work for the peace of the world, especially in Northern Uganda and in Uganda at large. His profound dedication and commitment to work for peace and the reconciliation process has already earned him international recognition. Bishop Ochola received the Fraternity Award from the Mundo Negro magazine in Madrid, Spain, in 2002. He also received the Paul Carus Award at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona, Spain in 2004. As an interfaith group of Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, and Muslim leaders, ARLPI was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize by the Niwano Peace Foundation in Japan in May, 2004. 

The Rt. Rev. Benoni Y. Ogwal-Abwang is the former Bishop of northern Uganda. Bishop Ben also served the national Church of Uganda as Deputy Executive Provincial Secretary (1970-1972) attending to the welfare, physical and spiritual needs, and education of thousands of refugees from the many African Countries including Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, Southern Africa , Sudan and Ethiopia. After Idi Amin was overthrown in 1980, Bishop Ben initiated the “Ministry of Reconciliation and No Revenge (MRNR)” with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Gulu, Uganda. He has now served in Episcopal Church in the USA parishes for the last 16 years, currently as the 5th Rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Simon the Cyrenian in New Rochelle, NY.

Ochoro E. Otunnu Ochoro E. Otunnu is Chairman of the uNight Board of Directors. He is a corporate finance lawyer with a practice in New York.

Mr. Otunnu has previously worked for Oxfam America, where he was the program coordinator for Southern Africa. He is also the co-founder and former executive director of Africa AIDS Initiative, a New York-based group that has campaigned for better funding and effective support for the HIV/AIDS campaign in Africa. 
 
Mr. Otunnu has consulted for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Council for Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) in Geneva, Switzerland, and many international organizations and corporations. He is also a frequent public speaker.  He has appeared on Voice of America (VOA), the National Public Radio (NPR), Radio Africa International, and has spoken at
the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Health Organization, the Arco Forum at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Global 
Citizens Circle, the World Association of Non-governmental 
Organizations, and at the United Nations, among others. 
 
Born in Uganda, Mr. Otunnu received his university education at Columbia Law School, Oxford University, and Dartmouth College.