So...Why Are You in Uganda?

This post is long overdue, but I wanted to finalize a few things first.

I am here working at a school for former child soldiers and war orphans called KEFRAMA College in Lira, a town in the Northern Province.  The school has reached capacity, and they are looking to expand into a new location.  That’s where I come in.  For those not who are not political science nerds like me, here’s the back story on Uganda:

In 1987, a lengthy and devastating war began in Uganda. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist militant group led by Joseph Kony, launched a full scale resistance movement against the central Ugandan government.  A self-proclaimed spokesperson of God, Kony felt the government had long been marginalizing the Acholi people – his tribal minority group in Uganda.  To fight his war, Kony captured  60,000-100,000 child soldiers.  His method of conscription:  frequent beatings, burning their villages in front of them, forcing children to murder their families, brainwashing and drugging them into oblivion. Girls were made “wives” to LRA leaders – which meant abducted and brutally raped -- leading to a massive outbreak of HIV/AIDS.

For two decades, war ravaged the country and the people.  Over 2 million were displaced and countless children were orphaned.    To this day, Kony has not been captured and he, along with other LRA leaders, remains wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Remember Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign – yeah it’s that guy.

One of the hardest hit areas was Northern Uganda.  In Lira alone, international displacement camps housed nearly 350,000 people.  Conditions were destitute, with inadequate food and no sanitation facilities.  Disease ran rampant.  Children, traumatized from the war and seeing no hope of a better future, soon resorted to a life of crime and violence.  It was all they knew, and the only way to survive.

My host and the school’s co-founder, Augustine knows all too well the horrors of the LRA.  His family was displaced by LRA rebels for over five years, and he was nearly abducted himself while attending his aunt’s funeral.  He was lucky to escape.  After the war, Augustine began work as an HIV/AIDS educator in the displacement camps, where he met the school’s other co-founder, Mark. 

Opened in 2011, KEFRAMA College strives to provide affordable secondary (high school) education to these former child soldiers and other orphans from the war; children who would otherwise have nowhere to go.   In Uganda, the financial burden for education falls on the families and the cost is often prohibitive for this vulnerable group.  At KEFRAMA, fees are a fraction of the traditional schools (largely because the founders finance the school privately) but even still over 85% of students are on scholarship.  Without this, many would have dropped out or never attended in the first place – limiting their prospects for the future and impeding the pace of redevelopment in this war-ravaged country.

KEFRAMA Collge

One of the lucky classrooms with desks

 KEFRAMA College says its mission is to develop its students into “change makers” who can rebuild the country and improve the quality of life for future generations of Ugandans.  They strongly believe in teaching the children to be self-reliant, and take a holistic approach to education including psycho-social support, primary health care, and exposure to leadership development activities.  The students here speak earnestly and gratefully for the opportunity this school as given them.  KEFRAMA College has given this forgotten generation hope and the means for a better life.

The needs are stunning at this school, and only growing as more and more children seek refuge there.  Students sleep twenty-five or more to an approximately 12x20 room with only ten mattresses between them.  Food is a constant concern, with supplies guaranteed to run dry by the end of every term.  There are no books for the children and even paper for exams is scarce.  There is no electricity.

One of the Dorm Rooms

 By far the worst is the water.  Forget running water, this school does not even have its own well.  Instead, the children must walk ½ mile one way to a hand-pumped well and then return carrying water jugs weighing close to 30 lbs.  I couldn’t do it myself.  Worst of all, the pump is shared with the community of over 800 – resulting in long lines and even taunting and harassment of the children (“poor orphans!”).  Whenever the pump breaks, which it does frequently, the town passes the burden of repairs to the school under the assumption that is their additional use that has broken it.  Already lacking in funding, the school must spend valuable funds on repairs that could otherwise go to scholarships, food and materials.

A short line at the well

 The school is expanding and moving to a new location. To dig a well at the new site would cost 22 million Ugandan shillings – a staggering sum.  For us however, that translates to a mere $8,800.   A development professional at heart, I can’t help but ask that you consider supporting this project.  

Visit our RocketHub page here and see a video of the walk to the well: http://www.rockethub.com/projects/29588-urgent-need-for-well-for-orphans-in-northern-uganda-keframa-college

The children of KEFRAMA College are hopeful and dedicated to their education.  They speak with heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity KEFRAMA College has given them to continue their studies.  They dream of becoming engineers to build better roads or designing solar panels to provide electricity to their communities. 

By supporting KEFRAMA College, you are giving these children a future they otherwise would not have.  Your support of a new well will give this new generation of Ugandans the chance for a better life.  I hope you will consider making a gift today.

http://www.rockethub.com/projects/29588-urgent-need-for-well-for-orphans-in-northern-uganda-keframa-colleg