Dora and I walked to the end of a now familiar road into what was formerly an IDP camp but is now comprised of huts being rented by Gulu citizens. The morning fog was still settling behind the thatch-roofed huts as we walked into the village, shook off our shoes and ducked to enter through the dusted white lace sheet serving as a door into the small hut where the meeting was being held. Just over twenty women crowded into the enclosure and the meeting began. There were small children popping their faces in the curtain door. A baby was being passed around the group, each woman coddling and nurturing as if it were her own.
This meeting was for Uplift Women’s group held through my internship with THRIVEGulu. This particular group comprised of impoverished women, many widowed, single mothers. Some of the women are former LRA abductees who returned with children, resulting in difficult reintegration into the community.
These women have come together to provide mutual support to one another and receive extended support through THRIVE staff. The group is granted a seed fund by THRIVE in order to start a group savings account from which the members can both contribute and make withdrawals for emergencies, family healthcare and other business investment needs. The hope is that most of these women will be able to sustain independence following the duration of this three-year group.
I was welcomed into this group with dozens of ‘apwoyo’s, handshakes and smiles from faces beautifully weathered by hardship and stories untold. I was incredibly moved when these women, who are so desperately in need, offered to make me food clothing and throw a goodbye soiree for me upon my departure from Gulu. I am continuously and overwhelmingly impressed with the generous, kind and resilient spirit of the people that I have met in Gulu. I feel honored to be able to share time and space with these women, share their story, give what I can, and ultimately take away lessons and memories for which words cannot do justice.
The THRIVE staff welcomed me warmly and treated me like family – teaching me daily Acholi customs and language and inviting me to homes for social visits. It is with profound gratitude that I re-examine and re-cap my time, albeit brief, with this promising organization. THRIVE Gulu is providing services that are imperative to the needs of northern Ugandan communities following the traumatic events of the civil war. It is my hope that this organization will be able to grow and expand its services as it wishes in order to promote fully sustainable change via empowerment throughout northern Uganda.
I hope that I was able to teach as much as I learned, that I listened exponentially more than I spoke, that I shared support and friendship as much as I gained it and that I will hold the unbreakable bonds that have been created/lessons learned here within me as I move along to the next adventure. Thank you all, apwoyo matek.
By Austyn Grooms
