Our morning started at Rachele Secondary School, a school that began as a rehabilitation Centre during the war. The principal brought together a couple teachers and staff to meet as he described the history of Rachele and we talked about ways in which the Unity Project might be of assistance. It went very well!
From there we went to AVCOH, an NGO that works on gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS training and support, and water issues. Most of the staff are volunteer (if not all). What big hearts they have - all the time they put in when they must be in need of making money for themselves. Some of the stories, circumstances, and statistics they gave us regarding the sex trade, unwanted children, HIV testing, and water issues made me cry. Most of these terrible conditions are linked to the abject poverty many people in the area live with. Education is needed, but there must also be conditions that permit parents to value education and their children (especially the girls)and for them to afford fees along with the basics of housing, food, and sanitation.
Next we went to Te-Cwao, where the women greeted us with ululations and song. What a welcome! There we talked with Ester and the director about this CBO's history and purpose. Similar to COHU, it is to support local people with their hanidwork as well as returned children. Their work is beautiful, but there is little market in Lira. We hope to help the organization with selling their work online and/or in the US. We watched the women and a couple men as they rolled and strung paper beads, woven baskets, and wove purses out of banana leaves. Nearby is an IDP camp, mostly emptied now, but with a few families still there. Abject poverty comes to mind.
Our last meeting was at St. Katherine's Secondary School for Girls. We met with Emma, a teacher and counselor, who told us that of the school's 1000 girls, near 200 were former abducted girls. She said that psycho-social issues, parents, early pregancy, and HIV/AIDS were among the challenges faced by the school. We attended an assembly of all the girls after and spoke briefly to them. They presented a skit about being a good friend and HIV/AIDS prevention as well as a news report. We invited Emma to attend our workshop tomorrow.
We are learning so much it is hard to process it all. Thank goodness for storage devices like digital recorders, cameras, and videos.
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