Mantra

"[Children] construct knowledge; they don’t swallow it."

Some things are universal. This recent op-ed in the New York Times captures core principles that compel the work we're doing. Enjoy, share, repeat.

Peace,

Holly

New Arrival

This month, we are thrilled to welcome a new member of the team - Kijana will be interning with the project for the next 4 months, helping on everything from workshop facilitation to impact monitoring and day to day interfacing with local stakeholders. Here are her first impressions of life in Northern Uganda:

Although I had been greatly anticipating my arrival in Gulu for several months, I was constantly reminding myself to stay away from creating a false picture in my mind. It was hard not to be anxious, excited, and nervous, knowing that every minute of my eighteen hour voyage across the North Atlantic would bring me closer and closer to my new African abode. I had so many questions about this foreign land: What will it look like? What will the locals be like? How will I be received? What will my new family be like? What will my work be like?

Our short stay in Kampala showed me a beautiful, busy city- but I was happy to hear that our final destination would be a lot slower, and a lot calmer. In my previous inquiries about Gulu, the typical response was a shrug and a short line about “understanding when you get there.” The truth is: Gulu is an impossible place to describe, but I will try to do it some justice. The city itself is a small grid, with several villages surrounding it. Riding down Acholi Road, you might see local women carrying huge jerry cans of water on their heads, a group of boda-boda motorcycle drivers huddled on each corner, and young children kicking around a football on the side of the road. As you head to Senior Quarters on the other side of town, you begin to see sign after sign for the hundreds of NGO’s which Gulu houses, as well as expatriates and locals alike walking in and out of the popular cafés and restaurants. Although the roads are rocky and uneven, the African dirt is red, rich, and beautiful. The trees are green and the sky is clear blue. While the sun does blaze for hours after midday, the atmosphere is ever welcoming and easygoing. It certainly isn’t an exotic paradise, but it is not a war-torn hell either. There is a strong sense of peace and hope in the dusty air, which makes every interaction that much more fulfilling.


Life here has been an interesting learning experience so far. My host family was immediately welcoming, and we connected almost instantly. They have introduced me to their culture in several ways, including cooking delicious local dishes for me, bringing me to church, and taking me to a traditional Acholi wedding. Working with Insight on the Peace Education Project has also been educative and intriguing. Our week of teacher training workshops were eye opening, and hopefully their success is indicative of what our upcoming work will be like in our two pilot schools. As we head into the first week of the term, I am eager to meet the students we will be working with for the next couple of months, and hopeful that our curriculum will be able to teach them as much as I’m sure they have to teach me.

The Decisive Element

The public education system in Uganda is not known to promote participation and creativity. So we were not surprised when we began our 5-day Teacher Training, that our teachers, who have been through the Ugandan system, were shy when it came to sharing information and expressing their opinions. Compared to the dreamboat that was our Modules and Content Development (MCDC) workshop, the Teacher Training took a significantly larger amount of energy and patience. However, it also turned out to be significantly more rewarding. The growth we saw in each of the teachers’ enthusiasm, participation, and knowledge was truly incredible.

As we took our teachers through new teaching strategies, communication and conflict resolution activities, and the Holocaust case study, it was our job not only to impart content, but also to reinvigorate their sense of purpose and ability to positively influence tomorrow’s citizens and leaders.

In a system so burdened by regulations and results, teachers rarely have a sense of ownership in what and how they teach. It is nearly impossible for a teacher not to lose sight of what led them to teach in the first place- beliefs to which they must return and expand:

I am the decisive element in the classroom.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.

- (Haim Ginott, Teacher and Child)

Teaching is about the experience of each child. We look forward to improving the educational experience of the Ugandan child, as we continue to support and empower our teachers as they embark on classroom implementation.

Kaa Salama,

Miriam

Media Frenzy: Homosexuality in Uganda

The question I was asked most upon return to California after three months of fieldwork in Northern Uganda was not, Is it safe is there? or, What’s the food like? or even, How’s the project going? Instead, it was What is going on with homosexuality in Uganda?!

For the past few months, there has been an international press storm brewing over an issue controversial in most every corner of the world: gay rights. This one happened to focus on my current East African country of residence. Here’s why: Uganda has a new bill pending in Congress that would legislate brutal punishment for homosexual citizens. Actually deemed, “The Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” this law would penalize those found “guilty” with life in prison or, in some cases, execution.

Although Africa doesn’t have a glowing record when it comes to gay rights, Uganda is relatively isolated in its extremity on the issue. There are seven countries in the world that prescribe the death penalty for homosexuality, and four others that dole out life imprisonment. Among those eleven, just four are in Africa (the majority are in the Mid-East and Central Asia). Overall, promoting this legislation is a rare step to take, and Uganda is paying for it in international disapproval.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the World AIDS Campaign, several United Nations agencies and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among many others have spoken out against the bill. State sponsored killing based on sexual orientation is a grievous violation of numerous international conventions as well as the sign of a severely repressive government. But the outcry is nearly exclusively foreign. My friends back in California who asked me about the situation were disappointed to learn I knew only what they knew through NPR, The New York Times, and other progressive Western media. People in Uganda just aren't talking about it.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. Fighting the bill locally is an alarming Catch 22: many say that for it to be squashed, disapproval must come from Ugandan citizens. But any citizen who speaks out against the bill is assumed to be gay, and therefore eligible for execution should it pass. This kind of association pattern in a place where lynchings are common means that activism by Ugandans in Uganda is nearly impossible.

One final note: the buzz in the US about this pending law may seem random: Uganda isn’t the only country to punish homosexuality with death. Furthermore, Uganda is newsworthy for a variety of other alarming human rights issues (extreme poverty, famine, child soldiering and HIV/AIDS to name a few) – why pick on their gay rights record?

It isn’t random. Much of the heightened interest is because there's evidence that the bill may have been pushed by a strong US contingent, even some of our own US Congressmen. A group called “The Family,” whose members include US state representatives, have been accused of offering ideas and endorsement that gave rise to the bill. Outrage from American press and individuals could very well stem from feelings of involvement by association. To find out more, read these articles: New York Times, Human Rights Watch, NPR, check out this radio broadcast about The Family's involvement in Uganda, and listen to four Ugandans voice their views.

Peace,

Holly

Rwanda and Its Discontents

With our first major milestone behind us, we set off a couple weeks after the workshop on a puddle jumper to see about our neighbor to the Southwest. Rwanda, a country the size of Maryland best known for a genocide that took place in 1994, knows a bit about post-conflict. We were headed there for ten days to learn some lessons on education in the aftermath of violence.

Our trip centered around a visit with Karen Murphy, the international director of our mentor organization, Facing History and Ourselves. Their latest of many international programs is located in Rwanda and works with teachers to introduce effective education on themes like citizenship, tolerance and democracy. We also visited the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, a center with a progressive approach to education for children orphaned by the genocide. This was my first visit to country, so it was also my chance to see the genocide memorials, beautiful scenery and a decidedly different political and economic climate than Uganda’s.

Upon arrival in Kigali, one could easily feel like she landed in a suburb of New York City, not a landlocked African country surrounded by nations at war and recovering from its own genocide that took place just 15 years ago. Lush flowering trees lean over well-paved roads, traffic obeys an organized order and people bustle about in heels and suits to and from glossy high rise office buildings. Food is indulgent and city streets are safe, though we found this came at a price. Tourists beware – Rwanda is a gorgeous choice for a visit to Africa, but not a cheap one.

Visiting Karen along with the Rwandan teachers and kids involved in the Facing History program was far and away the highlight of the trip. We arrived to the cavernous classroom of a boarding school where everyone was convened for a winter break workshop with Karen, greeted by the smiling faces of total engagement. The theme was United States social movements and governance – the kids were preparing for a trip to the US in March for an exchange program with high school students in the Boston area. Icebreakers, role plays and theatrical interpretations of the Declaration of Independence ensued, and the energy and creativity was contagious.

These kids were asking tough questions, interacting with each other with support and critical feedback and dealing with their own country’s past by courageously drawing nuanced connections.
We later visited two of the Rwandan teachers in their hometowns – one a Priest who toured us around the convents and cathedrals of Butare and the other a veteren teacher from the town of Gitarama.

Late in the week, we left Kigali for Nyamata to two genocide memorials at sights of attacks that took the lives of 15,000 people in two days. Musty brick churches became relics of atrocity – clothes of those killed were piled on pews once used as peaceful venues of worship.

Jewelry and ballpoint pens hung on threads strung from the ceilings and children’s lesson books from the days of the attacks left half-empty on tables in the Sunday school classrooms. Holes were blasted through the walls by grenades, bloodstains and bullet holes peppered the ceilings, and floral offerings were stacked on alters.

As we walked around the Nyamata memorial, our guide stopped in the middle of his historical narrative and pointed to a corner of the church. “This is where I hid,” he said. This young man had spent the 6 hour attack on his church crouched in this corner and the following 31 days hiding in a swamp nearby. His honesty and introspection painted a picture of loss as well as ethical complication in the aftermath. “I met the man who killed my mother here,” he explained. “I had to forgive him. We are made to forgive.”

Rwanda is a deeply scarred country whose attempt at recovery is, like any other, full of success and failure. We got a glimpse of this tension on our visit, thanks to the brave, informed insight of people dedicated to Rwanda’s future generation. Rwanda has done well to provide aesthetic beauty for it’s citizens and visitors – it’s litter-free and landscape-heavy, flowers and well-manicured lawns everywhere. The bigger challenge here regards intangible democratic freedoms. This transition, like so many of it’s kind, calls for serious attention to the limits, challenges, absences, and possibilities of demanding justice and a more peaceful, inclusive future. For more information, read current Human Rights Watch reports on Rwanda, and watch this video featuring the late Allison des Forges, an exemplar of human rights activism whose impact is greatly missed.

Peace,
Holly

Addendum: Congo

Journal: December 18, 2009

From our hotel room porch in Kibuye, Rwanda, a town on the shores of Lake Kivu, we can see across to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Kibuye and the lake are pictures of peace – rolling hills shrouded in greenery and humming with wildlife. But directly across the lake, a war rages in DRC .

I can point to Goma - we are among the embattled Kivus, one of the most violent environments on Earth. I can see crossfire across the lake - the sky lights up similarly to when African lightening strikes—quietly, with small flashes. But it is more centralized, smaller, and always close to the ground. It lights up pink and peach against the dark sky, and now that I’m listening for it, I can hear the pound of explosion, like distant fireworks. I am a direct spectator of war. Not of the aftermath, not of the tears of testimony or confession, not of the political violence of kidnapping or armed robbery that follows ten or twenty years in the wake of armed conflict, but of war.

Being American, living in Uganda and visiting places like Rwanda, it is easy to feel safe and focus on the after component of war. But those nights in Kibuye were important reminders of what it is we’re trying to prevent. They reminded me that many places are not out of the woods, and there are lessons in coming face to face with that. For more on DRC, and to help at this critical time of violence, visit the Enough Project’s campaign for Eastern Congo.

Workshopping Peace

The past few/couple/I’m not even sure how many weeks have truly been an exhausting whirlwind. Holly and I were preparing to formally present our project to our core local advisory group at what became officially known as our 3-day Modules and Content Development Committee (MCDC) Workshop. Relatively new to the world of workshop facilitation, Holly and I were anxious - would the MCDC find our materials appropriate for the Northern Ugandan context? Would we fall on our faces? Would the committee members participate? Before I tell you all about how awesome the workshop was (and how outstanding Holly and my facilitating skills turned out to be), let me shed a little light on what exactly this MCDC workshop was all about.

Before even setting foot in Uganda, Holly and I partnered with several exceptional organizations in the field of peace education. For the purposes of the MCDC workshop, we utilized materials from two of these organizations, Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO) and Tapori.

FHAO is an internationally recognized organization that promotes civic responsibility, tolerance, and social action among youth through innovative curricula and teaching modules. The content and activities covered in our MCDC workshop were most heavily based on FHAO, and fell into the following units: 1) Identity and Individualism; 2) Communities and Conflict Resolution; 3) Case Study: The Holocaust; and 4) Promoting Peace: Be the Change.

We used Tapori’s collection of issue-based children’s stories to illustrate some of the complex concepts introduced by FHAO. For example, a story about Jacinto from Guatemala depicts a young boy living in poverty, who suffers from hunger and must regularly skip school in order to help his half-blind uncle tend to their crops, provides a context for our primary school students to understand the overly legalized jargon of “Human Rights.”

While all of our materials went over well, our MCDC members were particularly enthusiastic about the Holocaust case study- something truly groundbreaking in the Ugandan education system. They eagerly explored the causes, realities and consequences of hatred, as they made connections to their own atrocity-ridden past. We designed the program to give Ugandans a case study to which they could connect their own experience with mass atrocity. We were hesitant to present formal lessons on recent Ugandan history, but it quickly became clear that open discussion about the war carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army will be an essential element of our program.

Kaa salama,

Miriam

Unsung Heroes

The road to Paicho IDP camp leads out of Gulu to the Northeast through rural farmland and neighboring camps, a dynamic pair of symbols: the first of hope for a future that allows people to return to their peaceful pastoral lifestyles, and the second, living legacies of the war.

Paicho, the site of one of our two pilot schools, has become somewhat of a hybrid between the two. During the armed conflict, mud huts stood crammed together, tens of thousands of people living 9 or 10 to a room. Food was delivered once or twice monthly to long crowded lines of families waiting to receive bags of rice. Camps were set up for people who lived in remote areas to provide protection from rebel attacks and abductions. But often the camps increased the efficiency of rebel activity, condensing large populations into one relatively small, miserable space with a disturbingly disproportionate guard-to-civilian ratio.

Many Paicho residents have lived in the camp their whole lives. Women have raised children there, young adults have spent their formative years there, and communities have organized into support groups and nonprofit organizations. Many people have left to return to their original villages in order to reclaim their land and resume farming and relinquish the crutch of the UN. Others, though, have made Paicho their home, building more permanent structures, investing in the school and participating in local leadership structures. One such resident is Richard Onen, a man who's commitment to peace and development is only matched by his humble kindness and true optimism for his community. Along with his childhood friend, Victor Ochen, Richard founded the Ugandan branch of the African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET). It is a small organization whose accomplishments put mega international organizations with ten times the resources to shame. With a staff of 11 and a small office based in the town of Lira, they aid vulnerable populations in over a dozen sub-regions of Northern Uganda.

This year alone, they are pursuing eight projects, including reconstructive surgery for youth who were mutilated by LRA rebels, micro-finance projects for young widows struggling to support their families and the resettlement of 4,000 internally displaced persons returning to their homes after 20 years of war. As they carry out their work, AYINET is audited by veteran institutions like United Nations and USAID, and consistently found to be working at over 80% efficiency, blowing their bigger richer counterparts out of the water. What explains the discrepancy? These are two individuals whose hearts and souls are tied up in their work. Their experiences during the war manifest in aggressive commitment to ensuring that mass atrocity does not reoccur in their communities. Their intimate knowledge of Northern Uganda - politics, tradition, religion, money, water, land - mean that they are better equipped than the most well-funded, PhD-ridden international aid staff out there.

Victor and Richard are a dynamic team who work harder than anyone I've known - I often ask Victor when he sleeps, to which he replies, "It's good to be exhausted. If I'm sleeping, I can't be moving around to all the ones that need support." On top of their insane work ethic, their charisma and humor makes spending time with them a total joy. They pay attention to the human side of suffering, and avoid the jaded attitude of development workers who have little personal long-term investment in Northern Uganda's future.

Politicians, celebrities and international humanitarian advocates puzzle endlessly over the best ways to carry out development work, dumping funding into large-scale cut-and-paste programs. Many of them are missing the local component. We would go a long way in supporting transitional democracies simply by spending the time to find the individuals who make magic happen in their communities. These are the people we need to support.

Peace,
Holly