Being in Gulu – a dream come true

I first heard about the town of Gulu many years ago, ie in the 1990s, through the work of Christian Aid, of which I have been a lifetime supporter.

At the time, there was an appalling war in the north, with terrible atrocities being carried out by Jospeh Kony and the Lords Resistance Army, in particular agains the Acholi tribe for which Gulu district is their tribal homeland.

No one was safe, but particularly vulnerable were teenagers who lived in rural areas, as they were seen as a ‘soft target’ for the LRA to abduct and use as child soldiers or war brides. As a result, for these teenagers to have any hope of surviving, they had to go to the towns each night to seek places of safe refuge.

Christian Aid was involved in their usual 'high-quality but shunning the glory' way in supporting a local grass-roots partner who ran shelters for these teenagers or ‘night commuters’ as they became known. Life-saving shelters that allowed teenagers to live to see another day, and I remember reading about this project and praying a 3-fold prayer: that one day the horrors would be over, that peace would return to the area and that I would be able to go to Gulu myself.

The first two parts to the prayer have been increasingly answered for a while now, and today the final part was answered, as I am writing this in Gulu!

I am here with Robin, a good friend and qualified counselor from back home who is spending the next 3 days delivering counseling training workshops for a local NGO. This organization, I Live Again Uganda, is Acholi-based, was set up by a Gulu couple Benson and Ruth Ocen, and focuses on providing trauma counseling for Acholi people still living through the traumas experienced back in the days of the LRA. The demand for counseling , all these years on, is still incredibly high, and I’m delighted that we can input to the work of ILA by helping to build their capacity in this way.

I’ve known about ILA for a few years now, as they also have a base in Acholi Quarters in Kampala, where they also do trauma counseling, as well as providing support for families wanting to relocate back to the north. So I’ve known them as another link to Gulu, but until now the ability to get here has evaded me.

But looking back it is very evident how God has had it all sorted for ages – not that I should be surprised by that, let’s face it, God’s timing is always perfect isn’t it. Chatting with Benson and Ruth today- who lived through the war, can remember the night commuters, and were thrilled to hear of my prayer all those years back - this is clearly the right time for ILA regarding increasing their capacity for counseling. Just in the past few weeks they have done some outreach work into villages and people are coming forward like never before for counseling, both victims and perpetrators – the time is right for having increased numbers of people able to respond to that need.

So, I’m delighted to be here, I’m looking forward to the next few days, and I’m excited to see what God has in store as the bigger picture to all of this, as I have a feeling that this isn’t a one-off visit, but that this will be leading to a deeper involvement for me and or Robin and or the organisations we each represent.