Dave's project
Dave Cooke, founder of Operation Christmas Child, the charity which delivers presents in shoeboxes to children around the world, is now director of Teams 4U which gives corporate teams the chance to volunteer their time to help other people at home and overseas. In Uganda, aid includes building schools, building a dedicated shelter for former female child soldiers, and a second chance programme for children caught up in the fighting.
Here, Dave opens his diary to share his experiences and thoughts.
Saturday
Left Wrexham early morning, checked in only to hear [colleague] Stu had missed his connection in Dublin. Arrived in Uganda via Nairobi with Kenyan airways which were pretty tight connections, the visa cost $30 and it was straightforward to obtain at passport control. Patrick picked me up and took me to the Bougainville hotel as it was now 1am and 2hours in front of the UK. Heard that Stu will arrive in the early hours of Monday morning.
Sunday
After having breakfast with Bruno, the director and his assistant of the hotel, Patrick and I left for Masaka just below the equator a 2 hour journey. On the equator your body weight is reduced by 3 per cent. It's just a pity that I had to move on! Arrived in Kamutuuza, near Masaka, just in time for dinner, where the Just Care team were about to feed 1,100 people made up of school children and folks from around the little village. I have not seen so much food consumed in such a short space of time, but they all seem to be enjoying themselves, it amounted to 75kg of rice, half a cow, 30 chickens and fresh fruit in abundance. They would look on this as a Christmas meal and celebration.
Monday
Left early for Kigali to pick up Stu then travelled on to Lira to meet up with Matt and his team, SPI, arriving at 2pm after 7 hours of travelling. At lunch we had a choice of goat or chicken which had been running around the yard for the last 5 years and was as tough as old boots.
We then went up to the Rachele Centre which is housing 80 kids (ex child soldiers) to meet the management and make arrangements for filming with Els De Temmerman. She wrote the amazing book about the Aboke Girls and now heads up the work full time and is doing amazing work with her team. We then drove up to an IDP camp called Apala about 30km from Lira from where a lot of the kids have been abducted. It is almost like hell on earth and is home to 34,000, 15 per cent have HIV and 50 per cent are under the age of 12.
We had a great time with the kids and got a good deal of filming done. It was good to meet old friends from my last visit in the camp and give them all an England baseball cap. We really feel that kids work could be helpful here. I will aim to get a proposal together for the 2nd chance programme. Spent the night in a new hotel, and again it was goat for dinner then collapsed into bed anticipating an appointment tomorrow with the child soldiers. They will be acting out their abductions and we feel very privileged to be invited.
Tuesday
Breakfast this morning consisted of fresh pineapples, avocado and melon not to mention eggs. We arrived on time and were introduced to the children as they took part in a planning meeting i.e. who would play the Lord's Resistance Army Well, if I said it was like Cowboys and Indians, this was mild, as I watched how they treated the people they had captured. A young man about 17 who had been abducted at the age of 11 and had gone on to become a commander was clubbing a government soldier with the butt of a mock gun. Then, he stopped, satisfied with his job and wiped the butt on the grass. I could not help wondering how many times he had done this for real. The mayhem continued for about 1 hour then back to the classroom for debriefing. One of the main topics was forgiveness. I then interviewed 2 children as part of a programme for the BBC and ITV.
Here are some of the very upsetting stories they shared:
James, age 11
James was 9 years old and from a family of 7. His eldest brother, Ogwell, had been working for the government army. It was a cool summer's evening and as it gets dark around 7pm the boys had gone to bed early. They had just settled down when a torch was thrust into his face and he was taken out and beaten with his 2 brothers by the LRA. The eldest boy pleaded for his younger brothers so the rebel soldiers forced James and his younger brother to bite Ogwell to death. As he was not dying quick enough, they got him to club him over the head till he died. James was then given an AK47 which is a fairly heavy gun for a 9 year old to carry and they walked till daybreak.
He became a servant for a commander and was sent out to steal food from farms. He tried to escape on many occasions and as a result took many beatings. On one trip he was sent out to pick cassava which is a plant that grows quickly. On his way back with his load he was feeling hungry so he broke a piece off the size of his finger. The commander saw this and took a sharp machete to his ear, when he started to scream the commander said if 'you do not shut up, I will kill you'. James said he was covered in blood for days; eventually he did escape while government troops attacked his unit. I asked James one last question which really blew me away: 'What would you like to say to the kids in England.' He said, without any hesitation, 'please pray for me'.
Agnes age 16
Agnes story was very much the same as to how she was abducted and she was desperate to tell her story. She spoke very good English. She had been abducted at the tender age of 11 and became a sex slave for one of the commanders. She was beaten on many occasions after trying to escape, but eventually got free and walked into the Rachele Centre this June 2006 after living in the bush. Agnes was used as a human shield, forced to stand up and march in front of the soldiers when going into battle. She has seen and been part of things that no adult should see let alone children.
Wednesday
Long journey back to Kigali feeling very tired and ready for home. Just one more meeting with Jeff and Sara, the SPI country directors, who have been very supportive in our kids' projects.
Thursday
Long flight home with a feeling of satisfaction having achieved what we set out to do. We will be going back with children's programmes to support these kids and hopefully give them a second chance in life.
Teams 4U website: www.teams4u.com
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