Rock of Ages center for Hope

Rock of Ages is runned by Lucy Lamunu , for now at her house on Kireka Hill where I visited . A young lady in her early thirties , Lucy is really so caring and kind. She does not have children of her own , but you would think the children around her are really her very own.they keep cuddling her and calling her mummy all the time.

I met Lucy way back in 2007 first on line at Razoo and made friends there and when we were trying to look for an Accountant for the organization, she was one of the applicants. Then we physically met on the interview day where she was the one who was selected. She never took up the job due to some other obligations. But we never lost contact. She even visited me physically at home.

All this time she was working on her project of a children's center (village).She began with about five children living in her house , she sends them to school using her personal funds and now she has registered and has about eight children whom she is thinking of relocating to a permanent place ,possibly in the North with ample space for building a dormitory , possibly a nursery for the younger ones, and somewhere where she can grow some food for the children so that the food problem is partially solved and bringing in more children possibly 20 which is her target for now. Lucy is really so loving to her children.



Lucy joined the children at a school day

Looking at how she has handled this project with very little assistance apart from those that she gets from founder members, she has done a lot and I am sure she can get further if she resettles in a more spacious area where she can grow their own food.Children lovers like me have a chance of giving a hand here because it's really doing a lot for these children who would have otherwise been maybe street kids. I know many more children can benefit from this if we all join hands for it's expansion.

A Totally Different Initiative

Canon Dwe Girls School

It has taken me a bit of time to think of what to write first of the many organizations that I have been visiting. But I have discovered that I needed to sort out in terms of the innovative ideas that each one of them have.

This time in Gulu still, I met a group of people who are setting up a community girls school, this I felt was really very good for the community. The rate of girls education in the north has really been very low and traditionally anyway Acholi girls were not supposed to go to school, so the war was just a catalyst to this idea. So many have been sent off to rich relatives in towns and the city as maids or baby sitters for that matter and had no chance at all to go to school, because they sometimes take them from even as early as seven years . So when I see people coming up with such ideas, I feel that they really need our support in any way possible.

The idea of this school is to help promote quality girl child education in the north and the surrounding districts , since it will be a boarding school. It's supposed of be one of the top private schools in the district with very well selected teaching staff and serving children from very poor backgrounds who are not able to go to good schools because they cannot afford it and a few able ones who would pay some fee to help sustain the project. I will have to work more closely with these group of people to learn more about the program. I have had a long talk with the director Mr. Opira -Otto and the secretary Mrs. Gladys Oyat who is a headmistress at a government aided school in Kitgum and they really have great plans. They are in the process of purchasing land right now, close to Koro camp for the school premises.

I felt that this kind of project is long overdue and if put into practice will really help the north as a way of resettling them into normal life again since they are trying to go back home now from the camps, and more especially a good beginning for the girls in Acholiland. I would love to see that these people see their dreams come true through our collective efforts.

Note: Canon Dwe was one of the famous Anglican Church leaders from Kitgum. He is remembered for his great contribution towards the Church development.