TeamFocus: Realizing a Vision

Remembering his first trip to Uganda, Neil Mandsager, board member of ChildVoice International, recalls moments of sadness, empathy, possibility and amazement in Lukodi. Join Neil as he shares his experience in 2006: a war- ridden region with little optimism and then his experience in 2008: the ChildVoice Centre full of singing voices, healing and hope.

It was a Sunday afternoon in July of 2006. I was part of a team my brother had assembled to travel to northern Uganda and explore the vision he had for ChildVoice International. We had just participated in a ceremony commemorating a piece of land to be given to ChildVoice by the community of Lukodi. There, we promised to build up a new community to serve the many children of the area that had seen their lives torn apart by the rebel war. In doing so, these elders were putting their trust in ChildVoice for the sake of their children. After hearing from many in this small group, we climbed back into our vehicles to head back to our hotel in Gulu. But first we stopped at a monument down the road from the land that had been pledged to us. This monument represented the lives of over fifty men, women, and children that had been killed just two years earlier when the Lord's Resistance Army raided the village- burning it to the ground. A short distance away stood an abandoned school, now overgrown with weeds, paint peeling, and visible bullet holes in the walls- all reminders of the long-standing war that was literally choking the life out of this region. Children no longer went to school, families struggled to find food to feed everyone, and diseases such as malaria, HIV, and parasitic infections were rampant. That was Lukodi in 2006.

What I saw in June 2008 had little resemblance to the school building I had seen in 2006. The walls were freshly painted in a crimson red with black trim. The grounds were cleared with evidence of gardens behind the school. A set of swings sat in one corner of the school yard which was now enclosed by a fence. But what really grabbed me as I stepped out of the van at the school gate were the voices, voices of song ringing out in greeting to the four of us visiting from a far-away land. I knew about these young women, many former child soldiers, who now stood in two lines, singing and dancing songs of welcome. Only a year ago, I had met several of them at the new medical clinic where they sought help. Then, destitute with little hope, it was a struggle to get them to talk, much less sing. But now, they sang loudly, with smiles as radiant as the sunshine itself. I was humbled, and honored, and happy all at once. This sanctuary of peace and security was now their home. They were living as a community, learning to trust each other, learning to help and lean on each other. The girls were learning to read and write, learning to grow their own food, learning to sew and bake and start businesses. They were learning that people they had never met cared about them. Ultimately, these young mothers were learning how to love, and be loved, again. This was the vision of ChildVoice, alive and living in the lives of these young women and their children. What a blessing to behold.

I spent the majority of the next week at the ChildVoice Center in Lukodi. I admired the staff that held this special place together and provided guidance and love and discipline to the girls. I watched as the staff and girls prepared a meal from scratch- including plucking the feathers out of the chickens! (This meal eventually fed several hundred people at a celebration attended by high-ranking government dignitaries to officially recognize the work of ChildVoice in northern Uganda.) I watched girls working on their sewing assignments during the few hours after the evening meal when the generator was running. I witnessed the girls rising early, before classes started, gathering water for the day at the borehole. I played with their children - often. I delivered a baby, and then two days later, another. I had a baby named after me. I experienced sleeping in a mud hut. I saw children watching from the other side of the fence, and I wondered- when will ChildVoice be able to reach them? What changes will I see the next time I return?