GBCS Pupils

On Sunday 20th December, Christmas is being celebrated in style in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Gospel style! In aid of the Gulu Mission Initiative (a not for profit organisation working alongside the disadvantaged communities in Northern Uganda), a concert featuring the legendary London Community Gospel Choir, plus ACM Gospel Choir (from Last Choir Standing), the Harlequin Brass Ensemble and local school choirs, is sure to be a wonderful Christmas evening. Cross Rhythms will be broadcasting the whole event live and so Jonathan Bellamy spoke with the event organisers and founders of GMI to find out more.

Jonathan: Lets start with you Helen. Because I believe it was a trip you made to Uganda right in the beginning that is the foundation of GMI UK. Tell us what happened.

Helen: Yeh. I went over about two or three years ago. I was very affected obviously by the poverty that was very evident around there. But my trip to Northern Uganda was where it all started. It wasn't really the poverty or the AIDs that affected me most; which obviously was very evident there, but it was actually the stories of young children that were forced to flee and fight in the communities out there: because of the long standing war. I don't know if many people know there was a 22 year old war out there and children were abducted and taken from their families and their communities, and their education - not like our chidren here - but they were taught to fight and to kill and that's where my heart was drawn to and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Jonathan: It's a concept that is very foreign to us here in the UK isn't it; child soldiers. You see it occasionally on movies, but what is the scope of it, the scale of it out in Uganda?

Helen: Well, the area where we're working at the moment, there's actually peace, and it has moved more to Sudan, more to northern areas. So there is peace at the moment. But we're working with children that obviously are still being affected by this. Because they were brainwashed and taught to do horrific things. So what we're trying to do is actually give them back their childhood which is missing terribly; and also the education, the schooling that they so desperately need out there.

Jonathan: Now Elizabeth and Mark, you've been friends with Helen for many years I understand and what was it about what Helen was sharing that provoked you to get involved with this?

Mark: Well from my perspective nothing really - initially. Then last year her husband Steve was going to go out to try and catch what Helen was so passionate about. So I went with him, and there was just something there which was just like - we can do so much with so little, it would be wrong not to get involved.

Elizabeth & some pupils

Jonathan: How about yourself Elizabeth?

Elizabeth: Well I haven't actually been to the North of Uganda yet, I'm actually going this week with Helen. But for me I think - I've always had a desire to help people that are less fortunate than myself, and especially those who fall into the category of being poor. So poverty - and obviously knowing Helen as well as we do, obviously we believe in her and in her vision anyway because she's a friend of ours and just seeing the passion in her and the stories she's been able to tell us has just driven us on really to want to get alongside her and help her.

Jonathan: Helen, Mark mentioned that so much can happen for a little amount of money in comparison to us in the West. What are the projects that you've done so far?

Helen: Well we've been able to provide a community that we're focused on at the moment with four oxsen and a plough. That literally is helping them with their agriculture, so they can actually be sustainable. They can feed themselves. That comes to around about £700/£800 to do that. Then we've also been able to provide a community with a borehole; and again that cost around about £1,000. That has now given fresh clean water to a community of 800 people. The main project we're working on at the moment is building a primary school. One of the connections we have out there with Pastor James and his wife Phoebe; because of the result of the war, his wife Phoebe felt very strongly that they wanted to do something positive for their community; it was so devastated by the war. She wanted to bring something back that would unite the community. So she got them together to build a nursery school. When I met her, her heart just wanted to give more; but lack of funds prevented her from doing that. So we've been able to at GMI say to them, we will progress you and help you and build a primary school so your children can actually move on to primary education, and hopefully learn again in some secondary. So that's one of the major projects that we're looking to do at the moment. Elizabeth and I are going out to see that.

Jonathan: GMI stands for Gulu Mission Initiative as you're focusing in on a specific area of Uganda. Is Gulu a town or is it a region; what is Gulu?

Helen: It is a district actually. But it has lots of districts. They are trying to make it into a town I think in a couple of years time, they're trying to make it into a big town which is exciting; which means things are moving on for them there. We work very much with the local government out there too, because we feel it's very important because they know where the desperate needs are. So working with local government seems the best thing that we can do and focus really where the need is the greatest.

Jonathan: I imagine focusing in on an area as you continue to invest into it, different things take place - schools and boreholes and things like that, that you'll hear of need just outside of Gulu, and other areas I imagine. How are you going to respond to that?