Gulu

On December 3-7 I traveled up to Gulu with five other members of Children of Hope in order to put on a training for the Mentors up there. Gulu is about 200 miles north of Kampala, and because the roads are so bad, it takes nearly 6 hours to get there! The roads are filled with potholes and speed bumps. In some stretches the potholes are so numerous and deep that you have to slow down to a crawl to get through them. You are constantly driving on all sides of the road in order to avoid as many potholes as possible! Speed bumps are used to control traffic. Often, at the beginning and end of towns there will be a couple of HUGE speed bumps to make sure you don’t fly through. Unfortunately those speed bumps are not well marked, and we have hit a few at full speed—talk about getting jarred a little! One part of the road has almost 200 speed bumps (my roommate Megan counted them), each spaced about 30 feet apart. I’m not sure why there are so many, but it definitely adds to the adventure of driving.

Gulu is a town that has been deeply affected by the rebel group, the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). The LRA has raided villages, kidnapping and killing many as well as stealing all the food. Thousands and thousands of people have fled their homes and been relocated to IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps in pursuit of safety. The IDP camps are crowded places to be. Huts are built nearly on top of one another. Clean water, food, medical care, and other basics are not always available. Thankfully, the situation has greatly improved in the last couple of years, with the LRA involved in peace talks. People are hoping that the fighting might be finally over at last and some are thinking it might be safe to begin moving back to their homes. I am praying that they are correct.

Children of Hope has a site in Koro Abili, one of the IDP camps located about 3 miles outside of town. We have about 170 kids who are sponsored in the project, half of which come from child headed households (families in which the oldest child is taking care of his/her younger siblings because their parents have died). Children of Hope owns a piece of property in Koro and has built a feeding center there. This feeding center serves the kids two meals a day: breakfast and dinner. (The schools give the kids lunch each day.) On the weekends the feeding center and its surrounding field is used for a Saturday program for the kids. Each day, the area is open to the kids to come and hang out, play football (aka soccer), and relax.






Some kids hanging out at the feeding center.




We did a two-day mentor training. Mentors are at the core of Children of Hope.




Here is Catharine, the director of Children of Hope, sharing with the mentors the background, history, and vision of the project.





They spend the most time with the children and have the most influence on them. We want them to be able to do the best job possible to affect the kids for good. We talked about things such as: what Children of Hope is all about, how to have a personal relationship and personal devotions with Christ, mentorship, the Biblical view of children, how to communicate with children, and some basic health/first aid training.





Here are some of the mentors discussing things in a small group.







Practicing how to wrap a sprained ankle.





The mentors drank in all the information and were excited about all they had learned. I enjoyed meeting the mentors and getting to know them a bit. They taught me some Luo, the language that is spoken up there. A couple of days after Christmas I will be heading back up there again, and I’m looking forward to meeting the kids and spending time with them.