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After hearing all the stories and seeing a short film about the plight of these children, I was hooked, and I set out to figure out a way to get to this country...Uganda. After basically talking to everyone I knew, I finally heard about an organization that plans trips to different countries. I applied for the Uganda trip, and within a few weeks I had been approved to travel. Success! As my departure date approached, though, I got a call from the organization. They wanted to inform me that no one else had signed up for this particular trip and wondered if I felt comfortable traveling to Uganda by myself? Wow…OK…Well, I knew I really wanted to go. So, with a bit of fear and a crazy adrenaline rush, I said yes. I was going halfway around the world – on my own. From the moment I landed in Uganda I fell in love. Beautiful, smiling faces greeted me everywhere I went – I saw amazing green, lush countryside and thousands of children – so cute, so joyful, but living in this incredible fear for their lives. It was heartbreaking and beautiful all in one, and I was totally overwhelmed. My first time visiting one of the I.D.P (Internally Displaced People) camps, I completely lost it. My guide took me to one of the smaller camps (it “only” had about 10,000 people living in it). Needy children started appearing out of nowhere, and all I could think was “I don’t have enough stuff for everyone.” I quickly learned, though, that in Africa you never have enough. But sometimes your love and your smile are all you need. After returning home from my first trip to Uganda, I spent more than a year trying to figure out what I was going to do about what I had seen and heard. I was back to my “normal” life, but nothing about me felt normal. I hated my job and constantly found myself daydreaming about the kids I had met. Now that I had witnessed the need, I couldn’t ignore it. So after a lot of thought and prayer, I said, “I’m going to start an orphanage.” I returned to Uganda and shared my “vision” with a couple of the locals. I will never forget their response. They said, “Westerners think they can save the world by starting orphanages in Africa. They don’t ever just stop and listen to what we need. Does anyone think about what happens to those children once they grow up?” Whoa. Was not prepared for that. Can anyone say “humble pie?“ Needless to say, that definitely got my attention. I was finally “listening,” and this is what I heard: “We are dying to learn. You can give us money but we will just turn around and buy the fanciest radio we can find, you can give us clothes but in a year it will have holes in it from moths. But give us education and you give us life. You give us a real chance.” That message couldn’t have been louder or clearer. I thought I knew what I was meant to do, but now there was absolutely no question about it. It was to be a school. So I began to look into what having a school involves and I found out some really interesting stuff:
The more I learned, the more I realized that it was exactly what I wanted to do. All kids should have a hot meal at least once a day, access to clean water, and most important of all: a quality education. Three birds with one stone. I have come to know something of the horror of the war in Northern Uganda. I have seen children with missing lips, ears, and limbs, and I have heard about the friends and family they had to kill to survive. Stories and images that are forever imprinted in my brain and sometimes keep me up at night. But the most important story is one of hope. The story I want you to walk away with is a happy one. Despite their circumstances these children have an infectious joy that words cannot describe. I’ve never met happier people in my life. These children deserve to have a fighting chance at life. They deserve Mercy. Jeami Duncan |
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In 2005, I sat down at dinner with one of my roommates and listened as she shared about her recent trip to Africa. I'd had a desire to visit Africa for years, so I was fascinated by all her stories. She finally got around to telling me about the “night commuters:” these kids who were walking into town, at least 5 miles each way, to find somewhere safe to sleep out of fear of being abducted. She went into detail of all the gruesome things these kids had to endure at the hands of a brutal group of rebels: The Lord’s Resistance Army. This rebel army had become notorious for abducting children and then forcing them to fight for their cause (to overthrow the government). I was fascinated but skeptical that this was a reality. After all – how could this really be happening to kids, when I’d never heard about it on TV or the internet?