Disenchanted

Just a quick check-in. Another hectic week in the north. Even after all these months, I find I can still get so fired up about what is going on here. On Friday morning we met briefly with four girls who had escaped the LRA after being abducted. One of them, a young girl, is herself a mother. The girls are all members of a local women's organization that provides training in tailoring. But when you ask the girls about the training they are receiving, it completely doesn't fit their needs. They go through this training for about four months and then are pushed back out into the world without the means to sustain their skills (no sewing machines, no business skills, not to mention the stigma attached to getting clothes made by girls who used to be in the bush). Further, most of these girls don't even have an interest in tailoring - they just engage because it gives them a place to go and a purpose for a few months. What we devised is that these girls are essentially being used as a cover for the bigger women in the organization. The big people can pass off that they are assisting formerly abducted girls without giving voice to the girls they claim to help. I don't know what it was (especially as I am no stranger to these scenarios), but I was just so upset by how these girls were being treated and it triggered a sadness about leaving these girls behind that I am still unable to shake. I am just continually impressed by the challenges facing these children once they return from the bush - as if they haven't already been through enough...