Sermon on Uganda JustJourney Available as Congregational Resource

Rev. John Gibbons, chair of the UUSC Board of Trustees and a participant on the Uganda JustJourney, has written a moving sermon that offers an insightful account of the trip. "White Men Stuck in the Mud!" follows the journey from Kampala to Pader and back, delving into the African concepts of sankofa (taking what is good of the past into the present to make forward progress) and ubuntu (interdependence).

With UUSC, Gibbons has generously made the sermon available as a congregational resource for anyone interested in addressing and bringing to light the struggles of Ugandans — from facing anti-LGBTQ discrimination and violence to returning home after years of war in northern Uganda. We hope that you can use this as another tool to join us — UUSC, the UUA, our partners in Uganda, and all the Ugandans who face these issues each day — in solidarity as we strive to make human rights a reality for everyone.

Read and download the sermon on UUSC's website today!

This Is What Experiential Learning Looks Like

Nichole Cirillo, UUSC’s campaign manager, reflects below on the ingredients of a successful experiential learning trip: the partners, effective planning, and — most of all — engaged participants.

A month ago today I set out for theJust Journey to Uganda. As the trip’s leader, I was unsure of many things then — whether everyone would arrive on time (they didn’t), whether the transportation across bumpy roads would be smooth (it wasn’t), and, mainly, whether I could provide the kind of experience that would bring the issue of our partner’s work in northern Uganda to life. To animate it in a way that would make people truly understand what was at stake and how complex the process to restore justice to those affected really was.

On the way back from the airport that first night with a load of weary just-arrived participants in the van, I asked the young woman sitting next to me why she decided to come on the trip. She was effusive: the description sounded amazing, she’d never been to Africa, someone in her congregation had read about UUSC’s work. “Lots of reasons,” she said, a little bleary-eyed but happy. “But really, it was just a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I couldn’t pass up!”

Her words made me nervous, and all the way back to the hotel I worried about the sacrifice it had taken for her to get here — the cost, the time away from work, the toll of the international flights. Had I done enough, I wondered, to ensure that this woman would go home saying that this indeed had been a once-in-a-lifetime trip?

The thing is, at UUSC we can only do so much. We have fantastic partners, and our work with Caritas in Uganda is no exception. They are people who have put their lives on the line so that those ripped from their communities during the brutality of the civil war with the Lord’s Resistance Army can go home again. They are an inspiration to all those who work on behalf of justice. Staff at UUSC work hard to construct pedagogy for these trips and to lay out what we hope participants will take home with them.

But ultimately, that learning is up to the traveler. And once the plans are made, the speakers lined up, and the transportation seen to, we put our faith in those who opt to come along that they will let themselves grasp the true meaning of being there.

“The longest journey you will ever make in life is from your mind to your heart,” Chief Joseph once said. That night on the bus, I couldn’t have foreseen it, but everyone aboard would indeed be making the trip of a lifetime.

For more information on UUSC JustJourneys, please contact me, Nichole Cirillo, at ncirillo@uusc.org.

Jennifer's Story: Surviving the War in Northern Uganda

Today our group is still in the Pader district, after spending two days out in the country where Achioli people have returned to their villages from the internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. UUSC’s partner organization, Caritas, has worked to help people return by having social workers work with returning families to help them find resources to enable resettlement. Today one of them, Jennifer, shared her story with us:

Jennifer’s first experience with the war in northern Uganda came in 1996 when her village was attacked by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). She spent two days hiding in the bush with her young children until they were gone. A secretary by training, Jennifer left her job at the primary school when people were being displaced to camps, but she was able to get a job helping with food and supply distribution in the IDP camp for Sudanese refugees. In 2000, that camp was attacked by the LRA; she sought to make her way into the bush, but she was in trapped in the office and surrounded that night.

In the morning she watched as LRA members sorted and butchered her coworkers, some of whose body parts were boiled in a kettle. Before she was forced to eat this, however, the government army entered the camp and gave chase to the LRA soldiers. Jennifer, taking her four-year-old with her, decided to make her way on foot to her home village, which took almost three days. She arrived to learn that the LRA was hunting her, and that they had already killed two of her uncles who had denied knowing her. Her father advised her to flee, and gathered a little bit of money from relatives so she could make the trip to the town of Lira. She found lodging there, but had no more money and two children to feed. The women from whom she was renting her room helped her start selling small things in a market stall so she could support herself. After awhile, she was able to find a job as a secondary school secretary in another town. However, the town where this school was located was not in Achioli territory; she was in the Langey area, and the Ugandan Army attacked there, so again Jennifer left her job.

She then learned of some American scholars doing a study in the IDP camps on the effects of war on youth, and she was able to work with them as a field researcher. As this study was concluding, she came to the attention of Martha Thompson, UUSC’s Program Manager for Rights in Humanitarian Crisis, who had come to do an assessment with UUSC’s Program Director Atema Eclai for the UUSC to begin work in northern Uganda. UUSC decided to partner with Caritas in Pader district in northern Uganda, helping people return to their villages. When UUSC launched their program through Caritas, Martha remembered her discussions with Jennifer and negotiated with Caritas to join the team working with the displaced. Jennifer began to work on the UUSC Caritas project in 2008.

It’s easy to see why Martha was impressed by this amazing woman and wished to bring her onto the team. She has shown courage, commitment, and amazing resilience in the face of adversity. The need to support and care for her children, one of whom has been traumatized badly by his war experiences, has been a driving force for Jennifer. She supports not only her own two children, but seven of her sisters’ children as well, because her two sisters were killed — one by the Ugandan Army, one by the LRA – during the years of fighting. When Jennifer engages with her clients, they learn that she is truly standing with them, having experienced many of the same horrors and hardship they have during the long time of war.