24 Sunday - Radio Wa and Teens Magazine

Back to work! At 10, Martin (whom we have nicknamed “dogola,” Lao for “the doorway,” as he has made sure we get where we need to be, have materials we need, brings together our partners, etc., etc.) had his parents meet us at the hotel. They bicycled 20 kilometres from their village just to meet us! They were such gracious people. Martin also invited a friend of his, named Emma. Who is a counselor at St. Katherine’s School for Girls. It was the place where I had my bests intereviews with students in November, so we were thrilled to meet her. She invited us to an assembly at the school on Monday afternoon, so one more appointment to squeeze in!



From there we went to Radio Wa to meet with Emmanuel (also called Emma). He and a group of volunteers are doing wonderful work at schools and with drop outs with presentations about social skills. We showed us the development plan for his work. He also creates a bi-weekly program for the radio which is produced in the native language. He called it a “radio soap,” in which he and his volunteers put on a verbal skit about some social issue, then invite comment from listeners. Emma mentioned that violence, teen sex and pregnancy, HIV, and drugs/alcohol are all problems among youth. About 30-40% of children/young people are not in school for various reasons.

Emma lives on 150,000 Ugandan shillings/month (about $40 US). He is very intelligent. He had only one semester of university before his support dried up. He told us that he decided if he could not attend university, he could return to Lira and give back to his community. Emma’s parents died when he was young, and he was raised by people in the community.

So many pieces are coming together , fitting perfectly into a Unity Project. It’s more than we hoped for. Next week is also jam packed with meetings, another workshop, and presentations. We need more time!!

Fortunately, we did not have afternoon meetings scheduled, so we are now at Sankofa trying to catch everything up before we hit the ground running on Monday. Funny note inside the bathroom door: I’m sure it is meant to be “Push door and lock.” It says, however, “Push door, and luck.” Indeed!!