User:Fred Obala



This is me, 2006, no expectation of being a university student or graduate. Working then to get young people, including others who like me were kidnapped as boys to live the horror of being boy soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army ... and the young women who then as girls were dragged away to be enslaved as wives or worse by the LRA. I believe and want others to believe, that we can begin to build decent lives, to strengthen our communities. Much has happened for me in a few years - including finishing my degree and traveling to Europe to make the case for us here. My commitment to community remains strong. I am heavily involved still in strengthening ARDI, the Acoke Rural Development Initiative, which we set up when we were all out there in the village and refugee camp. I pay a lot of the school fees for my brothers and sisters and other children. (It is so hard to get foreign funds for such simple necessities, supporters want to go to big Western organisations not directly to those who need and need confidence.) The only way to build communities is to empower us, to help us with start-up resources and help us build skills and teaching facilities so we can plan and shape and take responsibility for our own lives. No more kidnapping to war - Also let us have no more simple dictation and patronising from charities. Trust us: that is what we need, so we can trust ourselves. Africa has had so much charity dumped on it that too many people sit and wait for it to come from the sky. Change your attitudes so we will change ours.