Religion

The Ugandan Police is hunting traditional healers who kidnap children to sacrifice them. And it's fighting against the greed of a new middle class, which rely on magic rituals to get richer.

Note: This article was originally featured in the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which ran this story shortly after Marco left Uganda. Story by Arne Perras, photos by Marco Vernaschi.

Click on the image above to read the article in Italian.

To access Marco's photo piece on child sacrifice in Uganda for The Sunday Times, users will need to sign-up for a one month free trial.

Visit the following link and then scroll through the thumbnails to view his story, "Facing the Demons":

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia_library/Spectrum/

[Print edition published Apri 18, 2010]

Richard Omongole, a Ugandan lawyer and former country director for Amnesty International, is legal adviser to the Gideon Foundation, a small organization that was founded by the father of a child who was killed during a ritual sacrifice.

Job opportunities were low in Kampala so when a friend offered Paul Odida a job in South Africa the prospect of some money was encouraging. He sold his car, left Kampala on a bus, and headed for Johannesburg. What Paul didn’t know was that the job was to work as a “traditional healer”. Ugandan traditional healers are renowned throughout much of Africa as experts, but Paul had no idea of what the work was about.

Pulitzer Center grantee Marco Vernaschi reports on the popularity of child sacrifices among witchdoctors in Uganda.

Pulitzer Center grantee Marco Vernaschi explores the phenomenon of child sacrifices by witchdoctors in Uganda.

Arturo Perez, for the Pulitzer Center

Jerusalem is a complicated place.

Trying to sum up the story of this city or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in one 10-minute film, or even in this blog post, would be disingenuous and wrong. So let me just say - right off the bat - that this film isn't trying to do that.

Arturo follows two young people and has them tell their story to the camera. Through interviews you get an understanding of why others refuse to talk with members of different faiths, why they decided to take part in the interfaith communication and what their hopes are for the future.

Any bleak assessments suggesting a collapse of Kerala's Model overlook the greatest asset this multicultural state possesses: its people. Here are four examples—the catalyst of Kerala's achievements.

The economy of consuming-but-not-producing in Kerala results in a brain drain, as its educated population migrates abroad—especially the Persian Gulf, sparking numerous profound social issues.