I’ve been thinking lately about the importance of interdependence and relying on others to help you. We are so often tied into the myth that we need to be self-reliant, which totally misses the greatest joy of life — giving and receiving help because we don’t need to be able to do everything for ohurselves. On Thursday, I did a …
Today is International Women’s Day, so naturally my mind immediately begins to focus on the women I met in the Oula and Mungula Refugee Settlement Camps. While sharing with someone about my recent trip to Uganda, I told about my role in the Trauma Healing Training. I give leaders in the community the tools they need to assist them as …
Water. It’s something many people in the developed world take for granted. That what comes out of our faucets won’t kill us. However, having just recovered from what was most likely a water-borne infection, thanks to the wonders of modern antibiotics, I am incredibly aware of just how precious clean water is and just how deadly contaminated water can be. …
One of the key objectives of our visit to the settlements was to meet the people involved in the South Sudan Leadership and Community Development cooperatives and share their stories. These cooperatives are what set SSLCD apart from most aid organizations because they are literally organized by the refugees and for the refugees, as we seek to empower their leadership …
In addition to our work with trauma healing and peace-building training, one of the other reasons we as board members of South Sudan Leadership and Community Development come to visit is to provide support to our on-the-ground organizers and help assess the needs and strengths of the cooperatives. We believe the work being done in refugee settlement camps through SSLCD …
One of the key principles of South Sudan Leadership and Community Development is that we operate within the settlement camps through cooperatives. We have three organizers who work within the camps to focus on leadership training, which is part of our work this week, and on community development. Our focus is to improve the lives of the women, children and …
Our second day in the settlements took us to Olua, which is a bit closer to Adjuman, a little over a half hour away. The two camps are very different. Olua is more concentrated, so it appears to have more buildings, whereas Mungula has more space and appears more sparse. Even in refugee settlements, there is an urban/rural demarcation. Although …
After a mostly sleepless night, thanks to the loud bed-shaking music playing outside our hotel until after 5:30 a.m. — which, I might add, seemed eminently unfair since they must have been the only place in Adjumani with electricity — we spent the morning getting supplies to provide for breaks during our day at the Mungula Settlement. Hospitality is a …
Four flights and a 9½-hour ride on an African bus later, I am happy to report I am safely in Adjumani, Uganda. Denise, my fellow co-chair of South Sudan Leadership and Community Development, and Christine, who also serves on the board, and I met in Detroit. Given a variety of travel concerns in the Midwest due to snow, I am …