Blog - August 2010 Entries

Nancy Olsten, a language arts teacher from West Auburn High School, and strong advocate for Pilgrim, initiated a letter exchange program between her classes at the high school and BoH. Her initial idea was to expose her students to situations in Africa, sensitizing them to their counterparts in other countries and life situations. The students had been studying Global Issues, led by Tom Parsons, the Social studies teacher at the school, reading A Long Way Gone and discussed colonialism and other issues raised by the book. They had also studied the history of the Lord's Resistance Army and learned the background of many of the students to whom they would write.

For the initial mailing to Beacon of Hope, Nancy's seniors made a video introducing themselves and their school; this had footage of each of Nancy's students, and some of their classes and a tour of the school. The first packet of letters was sent over in October, carried by Calvin Echodu. Several of the language arts teachers at BoH engaged their classes in the exchange, and that first packet of letters was answered by about 30 Ugandan students. Two entire rounds of letters have taken place, with students responding personally to one or more students.

Nancy took some of the art work from the Ugandan letters to post on bulletin boards in the halls in Auburn; this provoked questions and interest among other teachers. Now there is interest in a fund raising effort at the school, and possibly involvement with the Auburn Rotary.

Calvin visited Nancy's class in May to speak to them about his experiences growing up in the conflict in NE Uganda. The Auburn class had a second packet of letters ready for him, as well as a special drum they had constructed a drum as a gift for the BoH students. Fashioned out of a section of large diameter PVC pipe, it was covered with a stretched leather, then signed by all the class.

Nancy hopes to continue this project next year with her classes, and is hoping that teacher s at BoH will also continue the project.

Classrooms Connect Across Continents

Calvin Echodu visited Nancy Olsten's class at West Auburn High School to share story and about Pilgrim, and received a handmade drum and letters to carry to Uganda to Beacon of Hope students who had corresponded with these US students.

Related Links: Beacon Of Hope Secondary School

In mid-June, Pilgrim partnered with the Trauma Studies Center in New York (part of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy) to bring the trauma counseling and training to Soroti. Rosemary Masters, Betsy McConnell, Paula Gellis, Barbara Rachlin, Rachel Goldsmith, and Judith Friedman all traveled from New York to share their knowledge. For several of them this was their second or third visit to Uganda to train counselors and those who work with traumatized individuals. The fifty conference attendees included social workers, teachers, pastors, prison guards, and people from various other professions. Several Pilgrim counselors attended and several Americans associated with International Teams. I am working on a business project in Kampala, and was able to attend as a special guest of Pilgrim, as I am interested in trauma counseling.

The topic this year was Restoration and Renewal, focusing on background and techniques in counseling trauma victims. The region of Teso has experienced traumatizing circumstances for the past decades. The LRA abducted many children and killed many people. The Karamajong, a pastoralist neighboring people group, have raided their cattle for many years, impoverishing the farmers. And in the last few years the people of Teso have seen floods and famine. The need for trauma counselors is great.

The six facilitators presented the material using different teaching methods. The first day of sessions was devoted to how trauma affects the brain and what symptoms to recognize. The next day dealt with teaching certain skills to stabilize a trauma victim. The last day focused on how to care for oneself as the counselor to prevent burnout. Each day the facilitators presented an act featuring a counselor and a client who they had counseled so that the attendees could learn principles of counseling thru critiquing. The counselor would give a short background story of the client leaving out specific information to protect the identity. Then they would play that client as someone else played the counselor. I don’t know which I learned more from; the American counselors presenting the material, or the Ugandans who lived this work for many years. The stories they recounted of different clients astounded me -the things child soldiers went thru, child rape, or even just normal life to these people. Each day's teaching sessions began with singing cultural songs in Ateso and Swahili and some dancing, and great worship times.

By the end everyone learned and found the material helpful, especially the way in which it was presented. The counselors from the Trauma Studies Center presented at a level available to everyone while covering an impressively large topic. Each day breaks included morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea so that everyone could socialize and learn from each other outside the class as it were. The last day everyone stayed for a feast and one last time to mingle and eat excellent Ugandan food together.

Gallery Trauma Treatment Conference

Photos from Trauma Treatment Conference June 2010

Related Links: Trauma Treatment Program, Beacon Medical Centre