Baking bread in Northern Uganda
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Sarah and Kavita have moved on to Pader in Northern Uganda and Sarah sends us this:
November 14, 2006
Pader, Northern Uganda
After two days in Kitgum, I was apprehensive about arriving in Pader. According to Kavita, when she was here in 2004, conditions were dire and the lodging choices were extremely primitive. Imagine our joy and surprise to find that GOAL, an Irish NGO working on water and sanitation here has a guest house. While there is no running water, there are abundant jerry cans filled with water and electricity for three hours a day. But the most amazing thing is that there is a restaurant in town and internet access! In our room even! The 21st century is an amazing thing.
We met up with Alice Acca, the executive director of the Christian Counseling Fellowship when we arrived. Alice, who has met with Michelle Brown, our Uganda specialist, and Jan Weil, RI Board Secretary for the past few times they were in Pader is an amazing force of nature. Only 32, she founded and runs a very impressive NGO dedicated to helping young mothers in Pader. I asked her how she got involved. She told me that when she was 13 she had to flee this area to go to Gulu and ended up having to take care of three young children. She had to wash them, cook for them, feed them, and make sure they went to school as well as trying to go to school herself. She wanted to do something for the girls that she met when she was working as a social worker in the camps in Pader.
One of the most vulnerable groups that she works with are the young child mothers who have been released from the Lord’s Resistance Army. Many of them arrive pregnant with small children and they are very young themselves. It is difficult for them to go to school and many of them face stigmatization and rejection by their families. Another mouth or three to feed puts a strain on families in these overcrowded camps.
Alice’s group has a reintegration center where the young mothers, as well as other returning LRA abductees can stay for a few weeks while they get used to being free. They provide counseling, safety, and a secure environment for the young mothers, as well as counseling their families and the community that they will be reintegrating into. In addition to these services, Alice is also launching vocational training and sells the bead necklaces that the girls make. Kavita and I will be returning with some examples.
But one of the most innovative ideas is the bakery and small restaurant that these girls run. The food there is delicious and the restaurant is clean and neat. The residents of Pader are happy to have a bakery. It’s small steps like these that may help these girls and their children start a new life.
November 14, 2006
Pader, Northern Uganda
After two days in Kitgum, I was apprehensive about arriving in Pader. According to Kavita, when she was here in 2004, conditions were dire and the lodging choices were extremely primitive. Imagine our joy and surprise to find that GOAL, an Irish NGO working on water and sanitation here has a guest house. While there is no running water, there are abundant jerry cans filled with water and electricity for three hours a day. But the most amazing thing is that there is a restaurant in town and internet access! In our room even! The 21st century is an amazing thing.
We met up with Alice Acca, the executive director of the Christian Counseling Fellowship when we arrived. Alice, who has met with Michelle Brown, our Uganda specialist, and Jan Weil, RI Board Secretary for the past few times they were in Pader is an amazing force of nature. Only 32, she founded and runs a very impressive NGO dedicated to helping young mothers in Pader. I asked her how she got involved. She told me that when she was 13 she had to flee this area to go to Gulu and ended up having to take care of three young children. She had to wash them, cook for them, feed them, and make sure they went to school as well as trying to go to school herself. She wanted to do something for the girls that she met when she was working as a social worker in the camps in Pader.
One of the most vulnerable groups that she works with are the young child mothers who have been released from the Lord’s Resistance Army. Many of them arrive pregnant with small children and they are very young themselves. It is difficult for them to go to school and many of them face stigmatization and rejection by their families. Another mouth or three to feed puts a strain on families in these overcrowded camps.
Alice’s group has a reintegration center where the young mothers, as well as other returning LRA abductees can stay for a few weeks while they get used to being free. They provide counseling, safety, and a secure environment for the young mothers, as well as counseling their families and the community that they will be reintegrating into. In addition to these services, Alice is also launching vocational training and sells the bead necklaces that the girls make. Kavita and I will be returning with some examples.
But one of the most innovative ideas is the bakery and small restaurant that these girls run. The food there is delicious and the restaurant is clean and neat. The residents of Pader are happy to have a bakery. It’s small steps like these that may help these girls and their children start a new life.
Labels: Northern Uganda
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