About Hope

Beatrice, one of the students at Pader Girls Academy, has a daughter named Hope. She stares at me suspiciously, and is quite reluctant to answer any questions, or respond to any greeting. Her mother is quite the opposite – open, humorous, caring. When I playfully ask Hope if she is hopeful, Beatrice nudges her, “Tell Sarah – I am! I am hopeful.” In the scope of what I imagine Beatrice has been through, that is a slightly unnoticed testimony in itself.

On our way home from a field visit on Monday, I asked Maxwell (Community Development Officer at IAS Pader) where he had spent most of his time during the war. Following this came an inspiring story, about hope. Maxwell spent most of his time in Gulu, which is one of the biggest towns in Northern Uganda.

He told me about the differences that suddenly existed between him and his friends from primary school, as a result of the war. He had gone ahead with his education, and such persons were sometimes viewed as being boastful, as segregating the community. His old school mates were living completely different lives – some were married, and had families. Others had been abducted by the rebels, and had now returned. At times the parents of some of the abducted children expressed a wish for Maxwell and his brothers to be abducted as well. A sort of “If we are suffering, so should you” mentality existed. “They had lost all hope.”

Maxwell told me about how he initiated a youth group – he registered it with the appropriate offices. What the youth group grew into was an organization that did community work. Simply put. They become agents of change, encouraging each other, encouraging the community.

“In my heart I knew that everything has an end, even the war. The question was whether or not I would live to see that end.”

“It is when a community itself initiates something that the work becomes sustainable.”

“When people think that they will die tomorrow, they will do anything – go join a sugarmummy or suggardaddy, join the army etc. It is because of the lack of hope.”

-Maxwell Oola

I felt an immense sense of hope for Uganda as Maxwell shared part of his story in the vehicle on Monday. The sun was setting, MT was driving into the potholes (quite on purpose, I imagine she enjoys it) – we were all dusty and satisfied with the day, and there I was listening to a man telling a passionate story. I was reminded of the fact that having hope is not just an abstract phenomenon that people talk about, it is a necessary phenomenon that people need. 

Peace