Church rescues children in displaced persons' camp
Apr. 1, 2008
NOTE: Photographs, video and related stories are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
GULU, Uganda (UMNS)--Dorothy Lakol walks a few steps outside her family's hut to her mother's gravesite.
Lakol's mother, Betty Amon, died two years ago of AIDS at Layibi, one of the internally displaced persons' camps established by the Ugandan government during the country's 20-year civil war.
Dorothy's father, Solomon Ochen, her brother, Regarha, 12, and her sister, Phoebe, 6, all have the same deadly disease. Only Dorothy, 10, has escaped the sickness that will soon take the rest of her family away from her.
She is one of 23 children rescued and recruited by the Uganda Conference of the United Methodist Church to become part of the Hope for Africa Children's Choir.
Dorothy has no doubt about why she is here. "I am here by God's grace," she says.
"Dorothy--I am amazed at her," says Tonny Mbowa, choir director. "I am amazed how the Lord has begun working in her."
Before she was selected to be part of the choir, her life was in jeopardy, Mbowa says.
"Just from the few months at the academy she is getting the love of God, and she has hope for the future," he says. "She prays for her family, and she believes the Lord will make a difference."
Ochen says he wants his children to have a better life than he has had. He is happy to have Dorothy in a safe place. Going to school is a luxury not many of the children in Layibi will ever have.
"She has to study so she can work," the father says.
The Rev. Solomon Obit, pastor of Layibi United Methodist Church, sees many children like Dorothy who have no future because they cannot go to school.
Children without parents
"There are 200 people in this area but the camp is very large," he says. "Most are children--vulnerable children--without parents or guardians."
Mbowa says five to 10 people--mostly children--occupy each tiny hut. There is no electricity, no safe water and not a lot to eat. The staple foods are cassava, maize, beans and other vegetables people manage to grow in small gardens.
In addition to Dorothy, Allan Opiira, Winefred Acibo and Diana Lanyero are choir members who also come from the Layibi Camp. It is easy to spot the four--their jeans, brightly colored polo shirts, shoes and shining skin are in sad contrast to the ragged pieces of clothing, bare feet and mud-coated skin of their friends in the displacement camp.
Obit coaxes a shy, teenage girl to come forward.
"She is a victim of the war," he says. Katherine Akello has a disfigured right hand, and burn scars run up her arms. Obit explains that when she was 3 years old, rebels raided the camp. Her parents ran for their lives, leaving her behind. Crying and in a panic at being left behind, she crawled into a fire. She lay in pain until her parents returned the next day.
Scavenging for food
Allan, 10, says his mother and brother were killed in the war. His sister still lives in a displacement camp in Gulu.
He compares his life at the academy to life in the camps. "Here we sleep in beds, there many people don't have mattresses and they sleep in the mud," he says.
Children were sent out early in the day to scavenge for food in the bush.
"You go into the garden; you start from the morning; you don't eat breakfast, and you come back at night. In the garden all the time you don't eat food, and you go to sleep hungry."
Bishop Daniel Wandabula and his wife, Betty, saw how the children suffered in the camps and wanted to do something to give the children a future, says the Rev. David Ntogohnya, superintendent in the Gulu District.
"The world has robbed them of almost every good thing," he says. Being in the choir and the academy has made a dramatic difference in their lives. Once they were very shy because of their background.
"Seeing children happy and smiling is a wonderful thing," he says.
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
********************
United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this group, go to UMCom.org, log in to your account, click on the My Resources link and select the Leave option on the list(s) from which you wish to unsubscribe. If you have problems or questions, please write to websupport@umcom.org.
Powered by United Methodist Communications http://www.UMCom.org