Scottish Catholic Observer

Scottish Catholic aid agency SCIAF has hailed a $250,000 donation to its sister charity from American rock legend Bruce Springsteen.

The US icon pledged the money to Caritas Denmark after recently playing at the country’s Roskilde Festival. The charity has said it will use the funds to help farmers in Uganda.

SCIAF said the significance of the windfall cannot be underestimated as it will provide urgent support for people on real need now.

“This donation shows the Boss really does have the human touch,” Val Morgan, SCIAF’s communications officer, said. “The population of Northern Uganda were terrorised by the ruthless Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army for many years. Now the war is over it is vital they receive all the help they can get to recover and start fending for themselves.

“On behalf of our sister agency we are extremely grateful for this help. It will change many lives for the better.”

In 2011, SCIAF donated £132,000 to three projects in Uganda and it will send out a further £134,000 over the course of this year.

Uganda is recovering from more than 20 years of civil war, between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan Government forces, which forced 1.8 million people out of their homes and saw approximately 30,000 children abducted by the LRA. In September 2006, the LRA agreed to a ceasefire but it still faces massive challenges.

Uganda is 161 out of 179 in the UN Human Development Index and 35 per cent of the population live under the poverty line.

SCIAF’s partners in Uganda are St Monica’s Girls Tailoring Centre, Radio Wa and the Comboni Samaritans of Gulu. The Glasgow-based charity works in more than 16 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America, to help some of the poorest people in the world to work their way out of poverty.

Bruce Springsteen, above, whose hits include Born in the USA and Glory Days, took his world tour to London at the weekend and is scheduled to perform two concerts in Dublin this week.