After 10 days of trekking around Uganda, our 15 #zeroLRA Uganda trip winners are back. They couldn’t be more thrilled to have seen in person the people and programs they’ve worked so hard to support. And from Facebook and Instagram photos we’ve been stalking, it looks like they made some time for adventuring, too – from jungle safaris to bungee jumping over the Nile.
But we wanted to hear what the experience was like first hand. So we asked trip winner Jaclyn Licht about her experience. She is an incredible and passionate IC supporter, and she can also write a mean blog. We’ll let her take it from here:
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My journey to Uganda brought my Invisible Children activist career full circle; after years of learning about IC’s innovative programs, I finally saw them firsthand. However, fully communicating the beauty, complexities, and thrill of our trip is impossible. We traveled by bus on seemingly endless dirt roads to visit schools, brand-new radio networks, and social enterprises. I practiced my backstroke in the warm water of the Nile, and faced a troop of baboon bandits who stole the food from our bus. I laughed, danced and stargazed with new and old friends, and wept with them at the time of departure.
At the end of each adventurous day, many of us felt the challenge of conveying what we saw to our loved ones and fellow activists. No single narrative can capture the magic of this journey. What I found, however, were several cases that exemplified the determination and effectiveness of IC’s Ugandan programs and the progress in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army.
Students celebrate at the Functional Adult Literacy graduation.
I was fortunate to witness the joy emanating from a group of newly graduated adult scholars who overcame destruction caused by the LRA. The Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) graduation marked students’ completion of a year-long course in literacy. The event was a full-day affair that gathered hundreds of people in a remote village near Gulu. We watched several of the individual classes perform skits and songs highlighting the skills taught by Invisible Children. Upon receiving diplomas (and even some cakes), each group approached the main field while they danced and shrieked. The graduates invited us to join in the dancing, and we danced harder that I ever thought possible.
At the World Vision Rehabilitation Center, an Invisible Children partner that works with recent LRA defectors, the staff detailed the complex means of preparing former abductees for their return home. The staff brought us into an office, where they showed us drawings made by children soon after they escaped the LRA and were admitted to the center. The drawings depicted soldiers marching across hills and through rivers and carrying weapons and goods. Some soldiers, the pictures indicated, were left for dead if they could not keep up with the others. By contrast, we then stepped outside into the courtyard, where we faced buildings decorated with colorful murals of dancing people, animals, and psalms. These murals, the staff explained, were also drawn by program participants after they had progressed in the rehabilitation program. The stark artistic contrast proved that in spite of the horrors caused by abduction, the path to reintegration proves promising.
Why do I tell these stories? I tell them because both the FAL and World Vision graduates exemplify tenacity. As an Invisible Children activist, that is a quality I seek to replicate. While northern Uganda now heals from the LRA’s destruction, the rebel group still gravely impacts hundreds of thousands of civilians in other parts of central Africa. Invisible Children, therefore, tirelessly continues its pursuit of Joseph Kony’s capture and the dismantling of the LRA. The achievement of peace, however, will not cease upon reaching those goals. Rather, Invisible Children and its advocates will continue until each abducted child is returned home and their communities may navigate a path toward reconstruction. Though the pursuit of these objectives will be long and arduous, the FAL and World Vision program graduates are living proof that this goal of renewal is achievable.
I am grateful to Invisible Children for providing me with the opportunity to see its work firsthand. This trip solidified my dedication to personally playing a hand in post-conflict resolution, and I will do whatever I can to make a lasting impact. This organization has instilled in me a sense of informed idealism and an unabashed yearning for adventure. It was an honor to be introduced to an unspeakably beautiful land filled with kind-hearted, welcoming individuals. I can now confidently say I have a family that extends all the way to the Pearl of Africa.
Most importantly, thank you, Invisible Children and your supporters, for proving to the world that there are tenacious individuals around the world who remain steadfast in the pursuit of peace.
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