News

Jul 23, 2012

Lighthouse Network is set to travel to Uganda to minister to the mental and spiritual needs of Ugandans and for those with drug and alcohol addictions.

Dr. Karl Benzio, founder of Lighthouse Network, points to the lengthy conflict in Uganda and specifically to Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army, well known for kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers.

Dr. Karl Benzio (Lighthouse Network)"It's just been a sort of perfect storm of Joseph Kony and his activities that have led to a lot of abuse, extreme physical and sexual trauma that the kids have either witnessed or been victims of -- and some of them have even become perpetrators as they were forced to be in his army and do some rather atrocious things to family members or other people," says Benzio.

"And they've also experienced just extreme loss regarding their family, regarding their homes, their villages. When they've come back, just neglect of being orphaned and being cast off in their villages or societies or the refugee camps that they were displaced into."

With poverty in these situations, sex trafficking has also often occurred, he adds. Without mental healthcare services, there's no process for healing. Benzio's group provides a process through counseling, training and through Christ.

"Our focus is really to get to the core and to the foundation of who a person really is," he says. "A lot of the treatment processes these days look at symptoms and sort of superficial behavioral aspects and we really want to cut to the core -- to cut to the person's spiritual essence -- and that's where we really see lasting life transformation happen whenever we're able to help people understand and really work on that part and those spheres of who they really are."

Lighthouse Network will also be focusing on providing intensive training to local counselors to use those techniques on victims after their team leaves the country.