Beneficiaries

So my Dad arrived this morning. He was a little shocked by the state of traffic here. It was like Christmas seeing all the stuff he brought for me and assorted others over here. Thanks everyone!!! Settled in well with my coworkers and all that. We went out for dinner at the Belgian restaurant then I put him on the back of a boda to get home which I'm sure he wasn't too pleased about....
Showed him all the photos and he suggested I explain a bit about what I'm doing here and our beneficiaries. So the mine action programs we run help ppl in three ways psychosocial support, economic support and mine risk education to prevent future injuries. Below is a photo of one of the advocacy groups we have trained to spread MRE messages in their communities using music, drumming, dance and drama. They were just rehearsing for us and still drew a crowd!

Now here's Jess and Josephine a landmine survivor from Anaka who was not yet one of our beneficiaries but desparately needed medical attention because she hadn't been to the hospital since her accident in which she lost her leg. Now she is in a lot of pain and also very lonely as she has very limited mobility, so most of the time her only companion is her Bible. Mercie said that we would get her to hospital for treatment and get her some books to read to help pass the time before she can be assessed for a mobility aid.

Besides the sort of psychosocial support, we also run a revolving loan/seed capital program where landmine survivors and war injured persons are given business skills training and a small loan to start a business. Then the money paid back can be used to give someone else a loan. Below is a number of recent loan recipiants as well as myself, Henry from Pader and Margaret (Jess' boss). The woman in the middle is a landmine survivor as is the man on the far left. The woman in pink and the woman on the far right are both war injured people who were mutilated during an LRA attack. All of them have started up their own businesses in the past two months.

Finally, you may remember how I've learned that out west the landmine survivors cannot return home after their accidents because of the terrain. Their mobility aids do not work in the hilly landscape of the West. Below is Imelda who lost her leg in 1997 and has not been able to go home since.

So that should give you a taste of what I'm working on here. Though today Evelyn and I wrote a peacebuilding proposal to expand the youth to youth peacebuilding project. This project will also be where the Gulu Walk money is going to go!!!