ProjectFocus: Beads and Cakes at the Lukodi Centre

The child mothers at the ChildVoice Lukodi Centre and ladies from surrounding communities of Lukodi and Kulubel are demonstrating their skills and revealing their artistic abilities through projects they are undertaking at the Centre.

Cake Baking:
As a final assignment in their bakery class, the students at the Lukodi Centre baked and decorated beautiful cakes. Each cake was then judged for its decoration and overall appearance. There were several cakes of many colors and sizes made with skillfulness and competence. Jennifer was especially excited, because she received first place! All of the girls in the bakery class prepared eye- catching and delicious cakes that were shared with and distributed to local government officials as well as all of the ChildVoice International departments at the Lukodi Centre.

Bead-making:
Women who work at the ChildVoice Centre in Lukodi from nearby communities like Kulubel and Lukodi, along with other war- affected women from Gulu are making beads for necklaces and bracelets. The ladies are able to roll twenty beads an hour, usually making 120 beads a day. They use paper in long strips that is rolled around a needle and then secured with glue. The beads are varnished three times, being checked regularly for drying. After the beads are lacquered and dried for the final time, the ladies use the beads to make the necklaces and bracelets.

The child mothers at the Centre and other vulnerable women in nearby communities are joining together, creating beauty and expressing creativity, despite the violence and brutality that has shaped their lives for so long. The smiles that colorful cakes and lively, multihued necklaces bring to the faces of their makers are predictors of their bright futures ahead. Full of hope. Full of happy moments.