Teenagers Lead the Way to Peace: We Create Smiles

At first meeting Lilian’s wide, dark eyes betray a wariness, perhaps even a (well deserved) suspicion. With three other teenage girls she is sitting on the floor threading beads into brightly coloured sheets that will be transformed into brightly coloured bags and bangles.

The three teenagers are amongst thirty other South Sudanese teenage boys and girls who form the leadership of the World Vision trained Peace Clubs. They represent young people from across the five villages that form one of the refugee settlements in West Nile, Uganda. As the teenagers come together to talk to the visitors about their lives and activities I watch a wonderful (and yet not completely unexpected) metamorphosis occur. I’ve seen this happen before, in other places, and here again, and before my eyes, Lilian is transformed from a shy, suspicious child into a passionate, articulate and energised young woman.

Like many other children, Lilian has made the long and dangerous journey from her home across the border in South Sudan to Uganda, and like too many others she has done it unaccompanied by parents. With her father killed in the conflict and her mother unable to flee – Lilian joined with neighbours to bring her two younger siblings to safety.

When Lilian was approached by World Vision and heard about the Peace Clubs she jumped at the chance to be involved. With seven other teenagers she attended a three-day workshop on Empowering Children as Peace Builders (ECPB) which teaches young people about how to be advocates of peace in their own social and community structures. Following the training each teenager was challenged to go back to their village and recruit and train thirty other teenagers and to form them into Peace Clubs that designed and promoted their own peace initiatives.

And so today across the settlement teenagers meet to play football, to debate, to dance and to present dramas. Lilian tells us that, “We organize football matches between different zones in the camp and before playing starts, we tell the spectators that the aim of the match is to promote peace and no fights are allowed on the pitch”.

These young people tell us that they want to promote peace and build trust between young people of all tribes so that when they go home the same thing doesn’t happen again. "Back home in South Sudan", Lilian says "there are so many [about 64] different tribes – tribalism is the problem. Here in Uganda we don’t want tribalism, we don’t want fighting because of tribe."

She adds that they frequently stage community based plays whose main theme is peace. “We engage the community members during interlude and show them why peace is important to us. But also, we engage in community work as members of the peace clubs and we help the elderly and disabled. For example, when you help a person from a different tribe, it leaves a different impression about your personality and in the end we create smiles on people’s faces.”

From Eagle’s Wings to Tear Gas (A Day in the life of an Aid Worker)

Who ever said life in this business is boring? In my years as a humanitarian worker I have had some strange days, some exciting, frustrating, amazing and sad days, but today I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

The (working) day started with the privilege of speaking at the office devotions. As I have moved around the refugee settlements here in West Nile, Northern Uganda I have spotted a constant presence gliding serenely in the skies above. The eagles use the thermals to glide silently and majestically across the landscape, unhindered by any geographic, ethnic or cultural segregations designed by humanity.

These magnificent creatures of calm, strength and grace reminded me of one of my favourite verses in the Bible: “They that wait on God will renew their strength, they will mount up on wings as eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint, teach us God to wait.” (Isaiah 40:31)
Using the eagle as a metaphor I encouraged the team to make time to wait on God: for strength, for wisdom and for renewal. In a place and at a time where we seek to be agents of transformation and channels of hope for a people who are vulnerable and in desperate need - we need to take time to wait, to be renewed and strengthened so that we are of sustained benefit to those we serve.

The rest of the day of meetings, discussions and report writing was ending with an early dinner at a local restaurant across the road from a sports ground where a local celebrity was holding a concert. Disco lights were flashing, giant screens broadcast the singers and the subwoofers were thumping as we ordered our Indian curries.

Apparently, that was the cue for the peace to depart – all of a sudden concert goers were running as the dull thump of tear gas canisters was heard. First, the response director (Jennifer) Daria and I smelt it then our eyes begun to burn and stream and our skin felt like it was burning as a wave of tear gas hit us in the (outdoor) sheltered restaurant. We were safe from the chaos, but not the gas. I know this will sound bizarre, but despite the discomfort we couldn’t stop laughing even as our eyes burned. This was the ‘safest’ place we had, and were travelling to and yet it was here that we were being tear gassed? Really?

All of us have lived in and visited places considered much more volatile and insecure – but this was a first for all three of us. And just for the record, Indian curries are not enhanced by the smell and taste of tear gas.

The wave of gas carried by the cooling breeze of the evening passed as did the chaos – we finished our meals and retreated to our gas free accommodations. And that was the end of our last day in West Nile, Uganda – a day we will not soon forget.

Fostering Unaccompanied Refugee Children in Uganda

They were at school (in South Sudan) when they heard the gun fire. Quickly the teachers shepherded the kids into a room and kept them close until they thought it safe to let the kids go home. But, when Rose (13) and her two brothers (9 and 7) got home there was no sign of their parents. Not knowing what else to do Rose took her brothers back to their school where their teacher took care of them.

It’s a much longer story, but eventually they found themselves in the West Nile Region of Uganda in a refugee settlement where their teacher took care of them for as long as he could, before he left them to find his family in DR Congo. For a little while, before World Vision’s child protection worker discovered them alone, Rose took care of her brothers as well as she could.

World Vision manages a foster family program here in West Nile and, following vetting, training and counselling, unaccompanied children are placed with other refugee families. And so it was that a young man, Isaac, and his new wife took on the care of three young children. Refugees themselves, Isaac and his wife had only recently been registered and assigned a plot of rocky land.

Today, as we sit together on hand made chairs under the shade of a tree in a clean, immaculately swept plot of land there are four mud brick and straw buildings, one of them a ‘gazebo’, and the original tent that Isaac and his wife were provided. In 12 months, Isaac, who knew nothing about making furniture, let alone building houses has created a little private oasis in this green desert. Back home in South Sudan, he says, ‘I knew nothing about this [building], but when you arrive in this place you have to make a life, you have to live.’

Rose and her brothers attend the school in the settlement and enjoy playing with their friends at the World Vision managed Child Friendly Space (CFS) in the evenings and where Rose is enrolled in the accelerated learning program. As Isaac and his wife expect their first baby any day now, Rose helps out at home with the cooking and the cleaning, while her brothers have helped Isaac build furniture.

While many in Isaac’s position, having witnessed violence and experienced unfair displacement may choose to allow circumstances to overwhelm and paralyse them, Isaac has chosen not only to survive but to thrive in this new reality - for this period. He doesn’t imagine that circumstances will allow him to return home anytime soon, so rather than become a victim he has started his own business, a small grocery shop on the road, which, he says, ‘is doing really well’. The profits from this business have helped him build his home.

But not content to claim space and safety for himself and his wife he chooses to share his life and offer hope to three young children who, despite a number of investigations, have no idea whether their parents are alive or dead.

[World Vision has arranged placements for over 1,000 unaccompanied children in the West Nile Refugees settlements.]