The following photos are from St. Mary’s School’s student service trip during summer 2013. The students partnered with Educate for Change and helped with many hands-on tasks, while creating wonderful memories and building life-long relationships.
**The following blog post was written by Kristine Sullivan, co-founder and current Director of Programs and Development who is on the ground in Gulu, Uganda**
On Thursday our group went to MEND to visit the ladies. MEND is a social enterprise that funds many Invisible Children programs while providing sustainable development through vocational training, education, and counseling in the Gulu region to many women who are victims of the LRA. I visited MEND last year but learned so much more about it on this trip.
It was an amazing afternoon. One that made me feel nostalgic for my Gulu TEX family as we passed our former house (it’s for rent, so if any of you are moving here to join me— we can get it. Hurry up!) One that humbled me — watching the women start a spontaneous dance party because of their overwhelming joy and zest for life. And one that made me realize how small our world is! Ten days ago the new MEND IC employee began her two year contract. She just moved to Gulu— by way of Los Angeles— hailing from Saugerties, NY. We are from the same area and have traveled a near identical path, landing us here in Gulu for the next few years. Again. Small flipping world.
Joining the women as they shrieked joyfully and danced in the middle of the MEND office amidst patterns and sewing machines also allowed me a moment to reflect on our purpose and our path.
Our group had spent the morning at the U-Touch office meeting with Emmanuel and Charles and learning more about their community school and computer training classes. They had so much joy for what they did every day and it was evident that they have been successful, with over 1,000 Gulu residents going through their training programs since the programs inception. Rebuilding infrastructure and business in a post-conflict region is not an easy task, and both U-Touch and MEND are equipping the most vulnerable of the community with the means to achieve success. It’s truly a beautiful and hopeful thing.
I hope and pray that Educate for Change will be able to provide the same opportunities for our students. The news so far is positive, but there is a lot of work to be done. I am slowly learning sign language to try to engage more with our deaf students in the primary school. I am visiting the students at their secondary schools and learning more about the opportunities our P7 students have— whether that be vocational school, boarding school, or day school. My simple dream is that they are all successful and happy. And I am planning on doing anything and everything in my power to allow them the opportunity to make that happen for themselves. I think that’s my purpose and my path. I wake up each morning with it in my heart, after all.
I just have to “dwell in hope” (Acts 2:26) and trust that it will come. In time. The following is a poem that was emailed to me by my amazing friend. THANK YOU for thinking of me and sending this along, Emily.
“I hope you wake with a gasp, a thousand flutters in your heart
Not from the whirlpool of worry. Not from a bad dream.
Not from a deadline or a string of demands, or the great to-do of the still-to-be-done.
Not from the lopsided weight of futility and failure
or some wayward mutiny shaking your bones.
Not from the loss of letting go or the grief of giving in.
Not from the illusions of your metaphorical imprisonment or escape.
Not from grass-is-greener or anywhere-but-here.
I hope, instead, you rise from the tremble of something finding its edges, earthquaking its way into being.
That riotous pulsing of birth, and the cry that comes just after
the lungs taking in their first overwhelmed breaths.
That same lucid sweetness of entry and release.
The song of your life being sung.”
Much love from Gulu.
**The following blog post was written by Kristine Sullivan, co-founder and current Director of Programs and Development who is on the ground in Gulu, Uganda**
No one walks alone.
Yesterday afternoon on the road to Mother Teresa’s was the first time I’ve walked the road by myself since we arrived on Friday. It has been a busy few days after 43 hours of travel. My body has mostly adjusted to the time, but not yet the heat or the perpetual “stick” of DEET, SPF 30, and sweat. It will come.
I’ve gotten to know many of the kids from St. Mary’s in our (first American student visit!) group rather well and it feels like I’ve known them for more than a few days. They are fantastic, loving young men and women and I am so happy they are here and working with the kids and on projects around the school. It’s been amazing to watch them lead large groups of song and dance and be able to connect on a personal level with more children than I ever could! On Tuesday, they began to scrub the walls and paint the lower primary level classrooms amidst young students attempting to help or climbing up the side of the structure to see what was going on inside.
We’ve spent a lot of time walking around seeing Gulu as well and I’ve gone to town a few times on my own. It is in those moments and in this walk on the road when the reality of my move actually began to set in. I was ‘alone.’
However, there’s actually no such thing. Mothers carrying babies, men on bikes, boda-boda’s, children on their way home from school all greeted me as I walked. I’ve made new friends at MTN and Coffee Hut and even had a God moment with Beau from Restore on the steps on Uchumi. I’ve already been able to see Godfrey, David, and randomly ran into Papito at Mass on Sunday. We don’t walk this world alone and this new direction in my life will be no different, just different.
It hasn’t started how I imagined. And I still don’t have a phone at all or internet regularly (for those of you who have been waiting for my call or text— give me time!) But as I sat around the children tonight in prayer and listened to their beautiful voices, I was reminded, as I should not have to be.
He is carrying us all on this road.
Much love from Gulu.
Our new Program Coordinator and Development Director, Kristine Aber Sullivan, will be starting work full-time in Uganda and the US beginning June 23, 2013. Kristine, one of the co-founders of Educate For Change is excited to be working hands on with Sister Hellen Lamunu, Director of Mother Teresa Nursery & Primary School, to further our mission of providing continuous educational opportunities for the most vulnerable children in Northern Uganda. Kristine will be living and working in Gulu.
by Guest Author, Beth Kruziki with TEX & Meomore, LLC
I am a teacher. I am also an artist, teaching art and collaborating with secondary students is utterly satisfying. I own a small design and photography business in Eugene, Oregon called, Meomore. (www.meomore.com) Finally, I am a Mother. I nurture, care, and adore educating my son and students.
In 2012, I was accepted with Invisible Children to venture to Gulu, Uganda to be a participant with the 2012 Teacher Exchange Program and furnishing the beginnings of sustainable education in the war-torn country. I was elated. This was a dream come true – not only for me, but also my Mom who at one point in time had wanted to teach in Africa as well. I was determined to take the Pentax my Mother handed down to me, my own personal, artistic ambitions, and capture my viewpoint of Uganda. Below are my photos, capturing my film/digital creativity, education, community, and a personal dream, while teaching at Keyo Secondary for six weeks.
Keyo Secondary was several kilometers outside Gulu. The boda ride there was beautiful and breath-taking. I always arrived about thirty minutes before school began, checked in the staff room, and planned my day accordingly.
I worked with three secondary teachers and taught those matching subjects – Economics, Art and English. I worked mainly with the S2 and S3 classes. Art was spectacular to teach – project oriented and creative. I enjoyed collaborating with the instructor and students. I also met some students after school for the Girl’s Empowerment Club – they taught me how to make paper beads. Next, I taught basic grammar in English. I had students work in groups and make presentations. The teamwork between teacher and students was fun and enjoyable. Economics was business focused. Those students were advanced, learning at a university level. The courses at Keyo were aimed at students moving onto university; the classes are challenging, but great.
While teaching at Keyo, I met and befriended both male and female students. I played games, talked with them during lunch, and conversed about my life in the U.S. I made close friends with both teachers and students. Keyo is great, and I loved being there. My heart remains there due to close relationships I formed. The students and staff value each other, and consider themselves close to God and one another. Keyo Secondary is like a family.
Written by co-founder Laura Anderson
Change does not happen because we wish it, or pray for it, or donate a room full of computers to a school with no electricity. Change happens because we set an example, we educate, and we work within the cultural norms to make a personal connection with other human beings on the planet in the hope that we can learn from each other.
Educate for Change is taking a small group of students to Uganda this summer to make that connection. Simple human to human contact is how we will truly become the change we want to see in the world.
“Why do I have so much? And why have I always had so much? Why do my family and friends have so much? And do they even know that far, far away from the luxuries of the western world, a little songbird of a girl is fighting for her life? The roles could have so easily been reversed.
I knew God wanted me to care for the poor, I had been doing it as best I could for a long time and it had become almost all I did with my life… It happened so naturally, I was simply caring for those around me out of an overflow of love… I had never thought I was doing anything different or unusual, just simple what He had asked. But… I realized that what I was doing was not simply my choice— it was a requirement. I wanted to give even more! I wanted to do more for the people who needed help and I wanted others to rise up and do the same. I didn’t want to simply care for these people, I wanted to advocate for them. I wanted to raise more awareness for these voiceless, unseen children. I was exploding with a new enthusiasm not just to care for the orphaned and needy children but to encourage and help others do the same.
I knew we couldn’t all just pack up and move to Uganda, but I so desired to make a way for others to help, to care for these children, to do what Jesus requires. I wanted to tell them all about what I had seen and experienced so they too would know.”
Mother Teresa said it best: “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
Upon our return from Gulu, Laura, Josh, and I knew that we wanted to do more. We needed to do more. The summer flew by and we loved a lot of people along the way. The Acholi are so resilient, so peaceful; but they’ve experienced so much pain. Even still, the people of Gulu and its surrounding villages embraced us with more than their arms, but their hearts. Their hearts had been broken and mended thousands of times before, but they gave us the whole thing. We became apart of their family. And family takes care of each other. So we had to act.
We are so excited to bring you a piece of northern Uganda through our organization: Educate for Change. Throughout our time spent in schools through Invisible Children’s Teacher Exchange, we experienced first hand the necessity, but difficulty, of funding education in Uganda. Without
universal secondary education, something we often take for granted in the United States, students are more likely to dropout of school than they are to complete their studies. The most vulnerable children, those who have been orphaned, abandoned, or who are suffering under extreme poverty, are significantly less likely to attend school at all. The kids we played with in the villages and at Mother Teresa’s Primary School and Orphanage are those children. Their amazing intelligence, wit, leadership, and energy will not fund their school fees. Their heart, faith, and resilience will not purchase their uniforms and supplies. So we had to act.
Moments really are much bigger than we realize. Looking back on it now, the moment I stepped foot onto Mother Teresa’s compound and in the minutes it took to follow Stella and Wilfred through the mud to Layibi village, I was changed. I was humbled by what Sister Hellen’s already doing with 250 kids in her care at the center and how one family can support so many beautiful children in the quaint, immaculate village. My unspoken fear of being inadequate does not matter. Being sad simply won’t help at all. I simply have to learn how to love until it hurts. That’s what we’re doing. We hope you will take the time to learn about our cause, read about our beautiful children halfway across the globe, and do what you can to support us. Share our stories, pictures, and videos. Try it with me and just love until it hurts.
Educate for Change 