The Association Amici di Gulu (Friends of Gulu) is born in 1997 out of the passion of a group of friends for the history and the fates of the populations of Northern Uganda . As you can read in the charter (in italian) "the Association has the aim to support and promote initiatives of solidarity in Italy and abroad, in particular in favour of developing countries … supporting social works tending to the attainment of these aims and generally to the promotion of man and of the entire society ".

In 1998 the association becomes O.N.L.U.S. (Non Lu crative Organization of Social Utility) and continues its activity of support for projects of development in order to answer the primary needs of the populations of the Diocese of Gulu in Northern Uganda .

His Grace Archbishop John Baptist Odama has appointed Fr. Edo Mörlin Visconti as the Financial Coordinator of his archdiocese, so the Amici Di Gulu Association funnels its help to the Archbishop through Fr Edo. Among other things, in the past few years, Fr Edo's work, supported by the Association, permitted the construction of a boarding school , and several wells in order to avoid debilitating travels on foot to recover the water (often covered by children who are forced to abandon the school). It has been moreover possible to acquire means of transport adequate to the roads which are very rarely asphalted and have plenty of pitholes.

The territory of the Archdiocese of Gulu has an extension of approximately 28.800 sq. km, near the one of Belgium , and it is subdivided into twenty-two large parishes. From 1986 the province of the North has been devastated by the war that sees the bands of guerrillas of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony facing the regular Ugandan army.

In spite of the "Iron Fist" operation which took place right against the LRA bases in Southern Sudan, the LRA troops are still active with continuous raids in northern Uganda villages, burning houses, massacring civilians and kidnapping children, who are then forced to become soldiers armed with kalashnikov and machetes.

The Diocesan priests and the missionaries scattered in the 22 parishes of Gulu Archdiocese, financially supported by Father Edo, try to reach everywhere in order to bring their material and spiritual aid to the local population. In particular the children victims of the war directly (wounded or kidnapped) or indirectly (orphaned) are the neediest. From this point of view the attention to education through the construction and support of colleges and schools is among the first priorities of the association.