ChildFocus: Albright

Tangerine light stretches the children's shadows across the grass. Mothers are abuzz carrying water and preparing food in the quickly fading minutes of daylight. The children gather on the porch of the ChildVoice Centre in Lukodi. One little girl, full of energy and spunk, corrals the others onto the steps. She stands facing them. "Al-le-luia!" she begins. The small choir shouts in response, "Amen!" After trumpeting this call to sing twice more, the bright, young choir director in a pink pleated denim skirt, no shirt, leads them in song after song.

Albright is the middle child of three. Her eldest sister, Lowna, is a loyal helper to their mother Sharon - and therefore Albright's "boss." And Albright's little brother, Jefferson, is always happy to follow her around and forcefully borrow her current object of play. She shows all the curiosity, light-heartedness, and love of any secure and happy child. Even her name, being so descriptive of her personality, causes one to question if her name was somehow prescriptive of her current disposition. She is a vessel of light!

Albright's day begins with a breakfast of posho, beans, and tea, washing her hands and face, and donning her aqua blue uniform shirt before she rushes to her early child development classroom. She raises her hands, stands to answer questions, and smiles and giggles all morning long. It is hard to imagine that anything could steal the joy from her heart.

The morning passes by with songs, number games, and new English words. Albright zips across the grass to change out of her uniform at the end of the day. And, again, she is darting and bouncing her way around the Lukodi Centre in her pink pleated denim skirt with no shirt. Albright never wants to wear her shirt.

She doesn't know the first hand horrors of the twenty years of war that the Acholi people have experienced. She, in grace, has been spared from abduction, conscription, and violation. Even so, Albright is all too- well acquainted with the devastating and lingering results of brutal rebel warfare. Broken families, violence, death, poverty, societal breakdown, mental instability, and spiritual distress all contribute to the environment in which she is growing up, playing, and learning. These environmental pressures manifested in Albright's life this past spring. She believed that snakes were living in her shirt and that the devil was in her room. Even months later, she would rather not wear her shirt. Albright's fear is just a keyhole view into the effects of war that surround her life. The first hand pain of others is bleeding to those around them - even to the new generation of Acholi.

While the distresses and consequences of war are still very real in the lives of child soldiers and their dependents- a stable community of love, safety, and provision is giving opportunity for healing and redemption. The hope and light seen in Albright is just one example of the restoration in the war- torn communities of northern Uganda.

Where there were no farms there are now crops. Where there was no school there are now children playing at recess. Where there was a stunted community there is now growing a new generation. Albright, and many other children, are experiencing a safe, caring, and provided for childhood with ChildVoice International. Albright giggles as you toss her in the air. She yells as she chases Jeffrey around the mango tree. She cries out the names of the other children. Albright answers questions in class. Albright has a voice.

This story should be common place - even boring. The joy, hope, security, and freedom of a four year old should be nothing that stands out. But, in the recovering land of northern Uganda, far too few children have been safe and secure. Albright's story is not common at all.