I recently returned from a missionary tripto Uganda, Africa along with my daughtersand 24 other students and adults. Together,we reached beyond our boundaries and discovereda level of awareness that must existin us all. Before this project began, I knewlittle about Uganda which is a country in EastAfrica about the size of the state of Oregon.
There are 27 million people that live inUganda (compared to Oregon’s populationsof 3.7 million). I had blindly ignored the storieson the news about the war with the LRA(Lord’s Resistance Army), which has terrorizedthe people of northern Uganda for the lasttwo decades through killings, torture, and mutilation.The LRA is also known to kidnap childrenas young as six years old, forcing themto become child soldiers. Thousands uponthousands of children have been abductedand have never been seen or heard of again.
I knew nothing of the “Invisible Children”.These are the thousands of young childrenand teenagers who would leave their homesbefore dark and walk many miles in order tosleep together in the “safety” of numbers.Although there is peace now in northernUganda, the LRA still continues its terror 200miles away in the Congo. This is incomprehensible.I had never heard of “IDP” (InternallyDisplaced People) camps, where, 2.4million people were forced to live in overcrowdedand unsanitary mud huts with littlefood or water with no access to healthcare.
The impact of AIDS is an atrocity itself. Dueto the AIDS epidemic, one half of the populationin Uganda is less than 15 years old. With12.4 million orphans in Sub–Saharan Africa,an entire generation of Africans is parentless.
Uganda was the first country in Africa tofeel the full impact of AIDS that emergedin the fishing villages and along the truckingroutes in the southwestern part of thecountry in the late 1970s. By the early 1990s,one–third of all adults in the capital city ofKampala were estimated to be HIV positive.Access to HIV meds is limited, educationabout HIV is still lacking, and polygamy, rapeand incest add to the spread of this disease.
We saw the stories of these people playout in front of us on this journey. We visitedthe IDP camps, the orphanage, the schools,and even a village in the bush to see a “borehole” or water source, which our group ofstudents had raised money to drill. Everywherewe went there were many childrenall alone. We heard the stories of the Acholipeople and we felt the pain of their suffering.
Despite the living hell they have endured,the Ugandan people, especially the children,seem to be filled with an unbelievableamount of courage and innate indescribablebeauty. They, despite all odds, have aspirit of hope. Someone once said: “Whenyou think hope is gone, that is when youneed to look further than your eyes can see.”
This is what the orphans of Uganda taughtme. They have taught me to live fully everysingle day. They are luminescent. They riseup against all odds and they go on. Ugandais only one of many, many places in the worldthat have extraordinary needs. The imagesof children from Africa, Thailand, Haiti, Indiaand many others are cast before our eyeseach day through various media. On manylevels, it is hard to imagine or even hard toenvision how we could possibly make a difference.The first step is to believe that we can.
