A Teacher in Northern Uganda Offers Inspiration and Hope

By Michelle Brown, Senior Advocate
06/19/2006

I have been working on northern Uganda for the past four years, and when I become discouraged about the lack of progress towards peace there, I think of Stella. Stella, pictured here, is absolutely determined in her pursuit of a hopeful future for the people of northern Uganda. Stella teaches 5th grade in one of more than 200 camps in northern Uganda. Her class has 165 students, and she explained how difficult it was to teach such a large class. When I spoke with her, she had not received her meager salary in several months, and was unable to pay for her son to attend secondary school. He had started talking about joining the army. When her daughter was nine, the Lord’s Resistance Army abducted her. She escaped, but is now with the Ugandan army.

She told me, “I am surviving here like everyone else. I see how my people are being destroyed, and for me, education is the only hope for us. Education will bring jobs and will allow us to leave these camps forever.” Stella is a wonderful reminder that one person can make a difference for hundreds of people. As long as people like Stella continue to work for a peaceful future, I feel compelled to do my best to pressure often disinterested policy makers to remember that almost two million Ugandans are living in camps and to do something about it. In my years with Refugees International, I feel privileged to have met many people like Stella, all working under difficult conditions with almost no recognition or voice, to make the world a better place.

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