One of the locations where ILA-Uganda carries out its trauma
counselling and community development programs is in Palabek – a district in
northern Uganda that has a refugee settlement situated in it as well as the
local communities. The refugee population is from South Sudan, who clearly have
a lot of trauma in their life experiences, but the local population will also
have had its fair share of trauma as a result of the conflict with the Lords
Resistance Army that ravaged the area between 1980 and 2006. Therefore, ILA is
involved in delivering its ‘Empower’ trauma counselling programme in both the
host community and the displaced community.
But whenever possible ILA goes further than the Empower
programme and seeks other opportunities to carry out community development
activities. Recently CRED was able to give ILA some funds to enable them to
give vocational bursaries to four young people from the Palabek
communities. And whilst I was in Gulu at
the ILA offices I had the privilege of meeting those young people - here are their stories.
Emily is 24 and is a refugee from South Sudan. Her education
was cut short at primary 5, although I didn’t catch the reason for that – it
could have been the war, but there are also many girls from her country who
aren’t allowed to complete their studies because early marriage and caring for
younger siblings is considered the role of the girl. Emily came to Palabek camp
with her grandmother and her two young children although her grandmother has
since passed on. For many girls of her age, life in the camp has little hope –
you get your food parcels, you have your small home, and beyond that there is
little to do. So alcohol starts to feature, plus unplanned pregnancies with men
who can’t provide any support. Some girls get into relationships with men in
the hopes that the guy can provide an income, and when they find he can’t, the
relationship ends and another one starts. Life feels futile and hopeless.
Emily wanted more than this, and the ILA team had noticed
her positive engagement with their programmes and her willingness to get
involved. So they offered her an opportunity to take up one of the vocational
bursaries, and she jumped at it. The course that she chose was that of
tailoring, and when I met she said how much she was looking forward to being
able to put her new skills into practice, and earn some money to help provide
her children with a better life than they have at the moment. She was so full
of gratitude and thanks for the input from ILA – not just the vocational
bursary, but also all the counselling and guidance that has resulted in her
feeling more empowered, and in a much better state of mental well-being than
she might otherwise have been.
Sam is also a refugee from South Sudan, and also age 24. He
completed his secondary education to senior 4 level at the school in Palabek,
but there was no facility for him to go further and study to senior 6 level
which had been his dream. Like Emily, the opportunities for young people in the
camp are few, and soon Sam found himself to be a father. He and the mother are
now married, and they have a second child. Sam dreams of being able to put his
children through school and to achieve levels of education that he couldn’t
manage. But poverty is everywhere, and it is hard to make ends meet.
Again, ILA saw something special in Sam when they met him –
an inner drive to make something of himself if he could just get that first
helping hand. The bursary that was offered has enabled Sam to go to college and
train to be a hairdresser. He chose this vocation because it is mobile, has
lots of potential, and crosses all the boundaries of age, class, and ethnicity
with regard to clientele. Sam is so excited to start his business. He has
already formed his business plan in his head, identified the ideal spot to set
up his salon, and is raring to go. When I asked which type of hair styling he
prefers, he said ‘plaiting, but maybe also shaving – I don’t mind really, I
love it all!’
Unlike Emily and Sam, Faith is from the host community in
Palabek. Age 26 she dropped out of school after completing her primary
education and now has two children age 6 and 9 years. She shared how the
standard sort of life for teenage girls in her community was to finish school
at primary level with no hope of progressing on to further education, and then
lose themselves in alcohol abuse, discos, unplanned pregnancies with guys who couldn’t
provide any support, before returning home to live with the parents in order to
try and raise the children. She said that some of her peers would get jobs as
home helps to try and earn some money, and others got involved in home brewing,
to service the busy trade in alcohol consumption. Like Emily and Sam, the lack
of hope for anything in the future was palpable.
But now things are looking up for Faith thanks to being
recipient number three of the ILA bursaries. She also chose to do a tailoring
course, and is excited to have a skill that means she can use her hands in a
positive way to give her children a better future. She expressed her
gratefulness to ILA for all the support that they have given her, and also to
God for identifying her to ILA that they chose her in the first place.
Ben was the fourth of the bursary recipients, and like Faith
he comes from the host community. He is 25, and has a child but sadly has no
contact with the child after his wife left him. Ben made it to senior 2 before
poverty got in the way of further education, and after that he started to go
the same way as many of his peers: alcohol, drug abuse, suicidal thoughts. Some
of his peers have ended up in prison after engaging in petty crime, others have
died at the hands of mob-justice. He says none of them had any plans, none
thought about the future – if they woke to a new day they got through it, and
that was how life was.
But thanks to ILA, the Empower programme, and then the
bursary, Ben has turned his life around, and he desperately wants to help
others do the same. He chose to do hair styling, and when I asked him why he
said ‘everyone has hair – everyone needs a hair stylist! It’s a never-ending
role that there will always be a demand for.’ His favourite part of the work is
shaving, but he’s happy to do the full range of hair styling if it brings him
in more clients.
Having met with the four young people, and listened as they
shared their stories, they then showed me with great delight the start-up packs
of equipment that they happened to be given on the day of my visit to mark the
completion of their course.
Faith and Emily both received a treadle sewing machine,
table, stool, bolts of material, threads, machine oil, zips, buttons, a mirror
and two chairs for clients. Ben and Sam both received an electric clipper set,
hair straighteners, shampoo, a portable hair washing sink, chairs, solar panel
and battery so that they can use the electric items, hair extensions and
braids, and other hairstyling paraphernalia that I didn’t quite recognise! They
really are set up with all that they need to get started, and it was lovely to
see the joy on their faces as they looked through all of the equipment that is
now theirs.
It was such an honour to be able to sit with the four and
hear them talk about their lives. To listen as they spoke about the dark and
hopeless places that they had come from, and the turnaround that had come their
way through the bursaries was a beautiful and inspiring time. It was a reminder
of how transforming lives doesn’t need to be huge and impacting for many at a
time, but can be one person at a time – for those whose lives are changed it is
just as valuable an input.
I think Ben summed it up for them all when he said ‘I am so
grateful to God for giving me this opportunity – it has changed my life. I
urgently request for there to be more opportunities if at all possible so that
others who were in the same bad place as me can have a new chance at living’.
If you would like to get involved in changing a life – just
let me know!