The fifth Invisible Children film, Sunday: the story of the displaced, was released in 2007. Okello Sunday was a 15-year-old orphan living in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in northern Uganda when he met an Invisible Children team doing research for the Displace Me event. Sunday stood out to them as an exceptionally bright student, determined to one day become a doctor and serve his community. Despite being sent home for not paying school fees, Sunday continued to show up at school. He knew that he needed to get an education in order to achieve his dreams.
That was six years ago, and we have great news about where Sunday is now. As a student in the Legacy Scholarship Program, Sunday completed his secondary studies in 2012. He applied to Franklin College in Indiana, where one international student each year is given a full-tuition scholarship. This year, that scholarship was awarded to Sunday.
“Things were not smooth running for me,” Sunday said, remembering life in the IDP camp. “I didn’t have enough for school. But now I can say I have moved steps towards my dream. I can see progress.”
Sunday shared the story of what made him decide to become a doctor. He was living in a village with his parents, and one day in a rebel attack his mother was hit with a bullet in the upper arm. Sunday and his father walked four hours with his mother to the nearest medical center.
“Coming to the med center there were so many people – amazing – many people,” Sunday explained. “You can’t do any other thing, so we spent the whole day in line.”
By the third day, they still had not seen a doctor. Eventually they gave up and returned to the village. Sunday’s mother didn’t die from her injury, but the bullet remained in her arm for the rest of her life. That experience convinced Sunday that something needed to change.
“You can have some minor sickness and eventually you die. Something that can be rectified and you feel better again. They couldn’t serve the whole community, yet there were so many people who needed their help. So I decided if I could become one of the persons who could change that, who can work for my people, that would be so much better. That was something that made me want to become a doctor.”
Now Sunday is closer than ever to reaching his dream. And he’s hopeful about the changes in northern Uganda that are making life better for this generation.
“Children used to come and sleep in the [bus] park, in the medical centers to stay safe from abduction. But right now as you move around you see people are free…no fear, no stress nowadays. I see new development coming up. Education is prospering here. I see some promising future.”
We couldn’t be prouder of what Sunday has already achieved and look forward to his future success as he heads to college next week. Sunday, we know that you are going to make your community a better place!
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