An Acholi meeting that made my heart sing!

Yesterday I had a meeting that really made my heart sing! It was a meeting with Harriet, my main link into the Acholi Community via my Ugandan hero John Njendahayo, and as she and I sat and chatted about progress that has been made, and plans that are being formed, I could only rejoice at all that is happening for these people who I have grown to love so much.

I first took a team into the Acholi Quarters in 2010, but then it was just for an afternoon to run some games for the children. It went well, and I continued to include these afternoon visits on the itinerary for future teams. Other non-CRED teams also did these little visits, but as time went by, it was clear that there was a need for more input, and in July 2014 we ran the first CRED trip that was purely to Acholi, delivering an educational activity week to some of the children who were unable to access formal education due to poverty. Since then we have had 4 subsequent teams delivering programmes into the Acholi Quarters in this new format

Just before the first 2014 trip, Natalie had spent some time there on her gap year, running classes for the children and also doing some adult literacy with a group of the ladies. This in itself was another wonderful part of the foundations on which the current set up has been built.

One of the things that the CRED trips has done is to instill a hunger for learning amongst the children, and also their parents, that either wasn’t there before, or seemed to be so far beyond their reach that they weren’t acknowledging it in any way. But having the opportunity to learn for little bits of time when the CRED teams arrived, has resulted in the children wanting to know more, and in their parents seeing some new potential futures for their children.

Off the back of a team visit in October last year, I was able to find some small funding to help cover the costs of Miriam, a local lady, to restart the adult literacy group that Natalie had started, and this has now been running for about 1 year.

20 ladies attend, some of whom never really had the chance to go to school when younger, others who went for a while but then had to leave when they were forced to flee from their homelands in the wake of the atrocities of the Lords Resistance Army reign of terror.

These ladies are now able to read and write with much more confidence, and that increase in confidence shows through in many ways. They have become equipped, and also feel empowered to make their own decisions about things, their improved grasp of English means that they get more involved in conversations with people from outside their community, their increased competency in numeracy means that they feel better able to negotiate on financial matters rather than just submissively accepting whatever anyone else tells them. And when they are out, they can read the signs of where to go, and thus be less vulnerable to potential abuse from having to ask for directions.

One of the side benefits of the success of the ladies group is that the men in the community have seen how empowering it is to be able to read and write, and so they have started asking for their own group. Most if not all of the men in the community were also significantly affected by the LRA war; some of them were forced to work as child soldiers, others fled into the bush to escape, many watched family members being brutally tortured or murdered. And so schooling for them also has been nigh-on non-existent, and it is wonderful to see that they are now wanting to make up for lost time and try and improve their opportunities for finding work.

And so part of the conversation with Harriet yesterday was a discussion on how the men’s group might become a reality. Fifteen men have been asking and so they will form the nucleus of the group, and Miriam is happy to take on teaching them as well. Initially they will meet separately to the ladies, as they are that much further behind, but the hope is that somewhere down the line Miriam will be able to  ‘stream’ the participants so that men and women are learning together –not just numeracy and literacy, but also community cohesion.

Continuing on the literacy groups theme, the other project that the ladies would like to see starting is provision for the children who don’t go to school to have some sort of ongoing access to reading and writing. The children love it when the CRED Teams come, and many have started to learn basic numeracy and literacy skills through the input of the team. But then the team goes, and the children are left without follow up.

For many months this has been on my heart, and there has always been that hope that something can be set up to fill the gap, but I knew it needed to come from within the community, and not being imposed from outside. Finally we are getting to that point, and I was delighted to chat with Harriet about the plans they have made so far, and the financial burden that they feel they can shoulder, despite living in, or on the edge of, poverty themselves.

A teacher has been found, rooms have been identified, the ladies in the group will set up a rota to make porridge for the children (which the parents  / carers of the children will fund), and the Local Chief has given his full backing. All that needs to be found to make this dream a reality is the teacher’s salary and room rental, and then a whole lot more children can start to learn their way to better opportunities.

When the CRED Teams have been out in Acholi Quarters, we have always worked with the same co-operative of ladies, of which Harriet is the coordinator. Initially there were 12 ladies, and one of the things they did was to make the bead products that the teams love to buy. With more teams, and more demand for the beads, the cooperative has grown and now has 20 ladies in it (some overlap with the literacy 20, but not all the same).

Yesterday Harriet was telling me that the group has decided to formalize themselves, and have a committee, a bank account and an office (which the ladies are covering the cost of, and which will double as the base for the adult literacy classes). This is such good news as it is another piece of evidence showing the increased self-belief and confidence that the ladies have had.

It was such an encouraging meeting, to hear of so many plans that are almost at the point of getting started. The community and the ladies group are sacrificially giving of themselves both financially and with their time; and it is inspiring as always to see how highly they regard the simple pleasures that we take for granted of being able to read and write

All that is needed now is about £100 per month – a sum that covers teacher’s salary, room rental, teacher’s equipment, and also some money to go to Harriet to pay for the rental of her little two room home. Harriet spends so much time solving the problems of others, that she can often end up with little time to actually earn any money herself, and so I would love to see her secure in the knowledge that she will always have a roof over her and her young family’s heads.

I have undertaken to help find that £100 per month, whether through fundraising events, or one-off gifts from others, or through finding people who would like to give on a regular basis, in no matter how small a way.

If you would like to join that band of givers in any way please let me know.

But I realise many of you are already committed to other equally good causes, and to that end I just ask that you join in prayers of thanksgiving for all that has been achieved so far, and in prayers of wisdom for this wonderful community as they venture forwards.

And I guess from a CRED perspective, whatever the future direction of the organization, if this is the sort of legacy that we leave in our wake, then praise the Lord for that, and may we find ways to continue to be a blessing.