Reports from Team Members and Friends in 2008

Report on Visit to Hoima, Summer '08 by Prosper	The Hoima mission was one of the most successful ones we’ve had in a long time. It was not exactly what we accomplished or harvested but the seeds we sowed and the prospects of future harvests that was most encouraging about it.
We left for Hoima as a three-man team of Ian as the leader, Zach and I on a Sunday afternoon. After driving through two big storms in a 3-hour journey, our hosts collected us at a guesthouse and from then onwards, every thing was surely showing God’s own hand in our entire stay.
We were taken to the Bishop of Hoima Diocese’s house where we spent the 5 days. Apart from the luxury of brushing shoulders with the Bishop himself, we were treated to a very comfortable stay in a fully furnished and self-contained house.	Our work started on the Monday morning when we went to the first parish. We were fortunate to have the company of three youths from Hoima Diocese to help us with the translation. Gordon, Nathan and Carol are university and tertiary going youths. This means that they have a very good command of the English language. Our aim was to work with them side by side, showing them how things are done so that they can do the same as the week goes on and after we leave as well. This we achieved because they handled some of the sessions ably as the week went on.
Our first day was quite a challenging one. This was because we were still adapting to the style of doing things in a completely new environment. However it was not long til we picked up pace. We took the youth through sessions of; Modern Culture vs Traditional Culture, Peer Pressure, Moving from a Follower to a Role Model and others. We handled the same topics in four more parishes through the week	A time of worship before the start of one of the sessions.
We played various relay games including sack races, three legged races and wheelbarrow races	STRENGTHS Enthusiasm of the teachers, youth and youth leaders; our style of teaching was new to the region and worked out to be more effective than the ordinary class setting methods since ours is more interactive. We were welcomed with a lot of excitement in all the places and we were asked to come back in the next school break. The fact that we were doing the same teaching in different places in the week, we kept getting better and at what we were doing and how we were doing it. We got the opportunity to make notes on the character traits of the youths that enabled us make adjustments where needed. Our delivery kept changing from place to place according to the specific group we were dealing with and the observations we made. Support from the Church Of Uganda and local Church leaders; with all the differences between the different religious denominations in Uganda, it was encouraging how the Anglican church welcomed us and took care of us for all the days we were in Hoima. We had both physical and material support extended to us; physical in the form of manpower and material in the form of accommodation and feeding expenses during our stay.
CHALLENGES. Games and sports culture is very low in most of these areas. The youth are so used to the classroom and church settings that they found it very hard to join in the games. Some thought the games were designed for the younger youth only while others just didn’t understand the reason behind the games. The games were educative, competitive and some physical. So there was something for everyone. There was always a message behind them, so those who did not want to participate missed out. Openness and self-esteem issues are a problem, so there was limited discussion. Most of the youth are used to sitting in church and listening to preachers talk to them while they listen so it was very hard to get them out of this mindset and talking in the discussion groups. The interaction and response even in the teaching sessions was low especially in the morning sessions; they usually opened up as the day went on leaving us with little time to get to talk personally.	A competition we used to begin the session on peer pressure, called ‘biggest balloon’.
Some places were more populated with children and adults instead of youth because of miscommunication. It was a challenge balancing and adapting the teaching to suit the big range of age differences. Some parents sent all the children while some churches had the older youth and youth leaders attending the teachings as well. We had prepared for a youth conference with lessons directed specifically to youth, so it was hard to incorporate the children and adults in the teachings so that they would not feel left out. We could not send them home so we just had to improvise and make adjustments to suit everyone.	Distance apart between the different parishes of operation was also quite a challenge. The mobility and accessibility in such places was a challenge since we were operating during a rainy season. Moving from one place to another just as the youth are just picking up interest and getting comfortable with us was an issue. A few of the youths attended more that one day in the next parishes for better understanding and more interaction with us, but most could not. More time to develop relationships would have been helpful.
OPPORTUNITIES. After the week in Hoima, we were asked to do another of the same teachings in different parishes early next year, preferably January. We will therefore get the opportunity to spread the good news in new areas. We will also get the opportunity to initiate and demonstrate our teaching methods to another part of Hoima. We will go most probably as a two-man team this time. This will help us give more chance to the youth leaders that we will be working with to practically try out what we do. We also have a great opportunity as YEA of building a strong partnership with the Hoima Diocese. The Diocese seemed very interested in us extending our work in all the different parishes of Hoima. We can therefore work hand in hand with the local parish and diocese youth leaders to encourage youth discipleship.

Chris, a Kampala Baptist Church member, who has been sent as a missionary to Gulu, sent us a copy of his report. You can see it in full by clicking here, but here is a snippet....

April has been full of activities. Much work, little rest time. God blessed us with a team of missioners from Parklands Baptist Church (Nairobi Kenya) and Youthworx East Africa to provide a work force for the mission work here in Acholi land of northern Uganda. Even with much violence covering their native land, resulting from the refuted election results, they still go ahead to demonstrate the ultimate purpose for the existence of the church, (reaching their neighborhood and the utmost lands with Christ’s love for regenerated and discipled souls).

Report on the on-going mission work of YOUTHWORX- East Africa (YEA) among the Kenyan people in Mulanda refugee camp-Tororo District 22 April 2008  by Collin Muwonge	Collin teaching on peace and reconciliation
The YEA team has been working among the Kenyan people (refugees) in Mulanda Transit Refugee camp-Tororo district for over 2 and half months. Collin (YEA team member) has been going in and out of the camp over the last 2 months. A YEA volunteer mission team has visited and worked in the camp for 3 days. We thought that the recent signing of a power sharing agreement in Kenya would encourage the refugees to go back home and settle down; this however is not the case. A lot of them are scared of going back home for fear of being killed and most of them have lost everything they owned in Kenya, including houses. The situation at the moment is that starting mid May, the refugees will be relocated to a real resettlement camp in Masindi district (Western Uganda). God has already started to indicate to us that he wants us to continue working among these poor and needy people. Recently, Ian met with the Anglican Bishop of Masindi Diocese (Reverend Bishop Ntangali) who expressed interest in the refugee camp work as well the general ministry of YEA. We are scheduled to be meeting with him soon to discuss on the way forward but we are already thankful to God about the growing partnership with this Anglican diocese. One of the setbacks with working in Tororo is that the local church is not directly working with the refugee camp. Working with the local church of Masindi will bring immense opportunities for evangelism and discipleship. In the meantime, we will continue to work in Mulanda (Tororo) but phase out our work by the end of May.   Camp Life I thought I should give you a picture of what the refugee camp is like. Hopefully you will have seen photos and pictures on TV. (See previous reports below for more photos.) There are currently about 2100 refugees in the camp. A lot more have come in recently because of the violence that broke out again in parts of Kenya. There is a big number of children and youth (18-35) as well as mothers. The number of older men is minimal The people in this camp are completely needy and everything from food to water to shelter is provided for them by the Red Cross and the UN refugee body. Families mostly sat together in the tents and so it’s common to find a family of husband, wife and 4 children all in the same tent. They feed on mostly posho and beans. There have been reported cases where the refugees will sell the posho and beans they’ve been given to the local Ugandans. I have come to realize that most of these people were leading fairly well-to-do lives before the violence. Water and sanitation is provided by World Vision (our partner organization there).They use makeshift toilets and bathrooms and of course these usually don’t keep very clean, especially with children using them as well. YEA, WorldVision and Save the Children have provided games and music instruments for recreation and a resource centre for literature and books. The camp doesn’t have electricity at night so it’s usually very dark. Most people are usually ready for bed by 9pm but a lot of the young men spend the nights drinking alcohol at the nearby trading centre. There is such a tremendous need for equipping the youth in this camp with lifeskills for good decision making, good reproductive and sexual health skills as well as relationship skills. Because a lot of the people are suffering from trauma stress, there have been reported cases of suicide attempts over the last 1 month. The HIV incidence rate has also gone up as well as the alcohol drinking rates & drug abuse rates of the young men. There are no job opportunities for these people in rural Uganda so most of the people in this camp spend their day just “hanging around” if they’re not in a workshop. There is still a lot of tension among the different ethnic groups in this camp. The majority tribe in the camp is the Kikuyu but there is a range of other tribes like the Kissi, Kalenjin etc There is a prayer overnight for the Christians in the camp every Wednesday night and on Sundays there is church for the different faith groups in the community. A lot of people don’t go to church though. YEA work in the camp Over the last month, we have continued to respond to the need for training of young people in lifeskills i.e. training of young adults in peace & conflict resolution skills, training of teenagers in good decision making, training of peer educators counseling, supporting the development of the youth service and distribution of Bibles. Our strategy is to aid holistic transformation of the youth in this camp.   The Youth Forum We have continued to support the work of the Kenya Youth Forum (the organization that brings all the youth in the camp together). We are particularly happy about the way in which the youth executive is effectively giving leadership, planning and executing their responsibilities. We are organizing a team building retreat for them (1st week of May) and this will be a time for them to relax, pray, plan and strategize, but also thank them for the immense work they’ve done over the last months. Life-skills training in HIV/Aids and Abstinence HIV/Aids remains a major threat in Africa and the rate of spreading it from one person to another is always high in refugee camps among young people. There has been an increasing incidence of HIV spread in the camp over the last month and YEA was tasked with working with the youth in creating HIV/Aids awareness and prevention. Previously, we have conducted 2 life-skills workshops on HIV/Aids, showed 2 educative and informative films on good decision making and HIV/Aids and have interfaced with over 300 young people through these workshops. These trainings have been mainly aimed at creating HIV awareness and prevention in the camp as well as teaching young people on Abstinence. We have started training of HIV peer educators (both teenagers and adults) and have had 3 training workshops over the last 2 weeks. We had 50 peer educators for teenagers and 40 for adults. The goal is to train people who will in-turn be able to train and influence their peers. We will be continuing with these trainings over the course of the coming weeks before the camp is relocated. We have been able to secure some HIV educative books from a youth organization in Kampala that we have handed out to young people in the camp. Life-skills training in peace and conflict resolution: Peace and conflict resolution skills are one of the major needs of the people in this camp result of the political upheavals. We have continued with life-skills training in peace and conflict resolution over the last 1 month with 70 youth. This training mainly focused on equipping the youth with peace skills so they are able to use them among the refugee community but also bring healing to their individual lives. We are now organizing (together with the refugee community) a community outreach where the peace team (the team trained by YEA) and YEA volunteers will be educating and advocating for peace and forgiveness among the Kenyan community in the refugee camp. There is still a lot of need for healing among the refugees. There is a lot of fighting still going between the different tribes and political wars still exist.   Camp Youth Service The camp youth service has picked up now and the numbers in attendance have increased. The youth have asked one of their own to be their youth pastor. The youth service is a time for spiritual renewal and healing where the Word of God is preached, worship/praise songs sang and prayers raised up to heaven. There is a complete freedom of worship on Sundays, a time lots of young people wait for anxiously. The Sunday school for children has received a tremendous boost since the last recruitment and training we did for Sunday school teachers   Distribution of Bibles We have distributed a total of 3OO Bibles to the refugees. There is a visible hunger for GOD among the people and such a great need for Bibles and Bible literature. Mama Grace, a personal friend, is an example of one of those with a hunger for God. She’s a mother of four but wakes up everyday at 5am for morning prayers and does her daily round of evangelism in the camp. She’s received a Bible from us which she treasures with all her heart. The Local Church involvement We would like to encourage the local church to directly get involved in bringing healing to this community and as a result, together with the local churches in the area (Deliverance church, Baptist church and Anglican church), we are organizing an evangelism drive among the community for the 1st week of May. We will be doing evangelism, teaching from Gods word, prayer and a worship/praise rally. There are also a number of Christian young people and adults in the camp and they attend the prayer overnights for the Christians in the camp every Wednesday night. Please be in prayer as the fields are very ripe.   Youth Resource Centre Together with Save the Children and World-Vision, we set up a youth resource centre. The resource centre is a place where youth come to borrow books, educative and informative reading materials, Bibles and Christian books etc YEA has been mainly involved with equipping the resource centre with Bibles and Christian literature as well as with educative/informative materials for the young people to take away and read. About 100 youth visit the resource centre in a week. With the tremendous needs among these people, it sometimes looks like we are not doing enough but we thank God Almighty for enabling us to accomplish what we have accomplished so far and for the various relationships built with people in this camp. As the YEA team, we would like to thank all YOUTHWORX- East Africa partners and supporters for the tremendous encouragement, prayer and financial support being given to enable us fulfill our vision of working among the Kenyan people, especially in their time of need. Thank you and God bless you YEA team
Here is a letter that was written by the Youth Forum at the camp to YEA friends and supporters: KENYA YOUTH FORUM-MULANDA C/o UNHCR-MULANDA TRANSIT CENTRE PHONES +254203539330, +254710564460. E-mail; tamak-au yahoo.com DIRECTORS AND SUPPORTERS YOUTH WORX EAST AFRICA. P.O BOX 26430 KAMPALA, UGANDA.	Dear Sir, RE; APPRECIATION Kindly receive our humble appreciation for supporting us in all spheres of our lives especially during our time of need and grief. The youth forum is an organization of Kenyan refugees at the mulanda refugee transit centre aged between 18 to 35years. We are the hard hit victims of the post –election violence in Kenya. Our organization also incorporates teenagers of all ages 13-15 with total membership of over 300. We are highly indebted by the material and technical support your organization has extended to us notably through seminars and training and donation of educative materials and the youth service. Equally the tireless efforts of your staff, Mr. Collin Muwonge, are highly appreciated. It is our prayer and hope that your organization will continue with these activities especially to the less fortunate members of our community. Yours sincerely. Antony Thio. Youth Forum Chairman

Report from Sena on his trip to Mount Elgon:

I was dying to know what God had assembled up there and wanted to find out for myself. Well being my first experience of such a high altitude it was such an amazing time for me mountaineering on Mount Elgon. I had a wonderful time though I had to take on the challenges of coldness (around 9 - 10 degrees) and the unstoppable wind all the time. My skin turned red from the freezing then changed again as I started to descend. Most of the time I would not think of washing my face because the water in the streams was too cold. Sleeping was not much fun as I kept waking from the cold. I had to warm my sleeping bag and jumpers on the fire before using them. I was also up in the clouds most of the time, plus the water behaved differently when I tried to boil it for tea !   At that altitude you see more plants than animals as they stay lower down (the lower slopes of Mount Elgon have quite a diversity of animals including Mountain Elephants . ED )   I was very lucky to have 3 guides on the 1st day then 2 (Mike and Steve) for the rest of the time on the mountain. These guys were so friendly and very helpful to me in everything. Even they made the meals for me.   After the whole trail I have reached 2 peaks, Jackson 4165m and Wagagai 4321m, crossed numerous streams, a natural bridge, seen many waterfalls and lots of valleys with a whole range of unusual plants within the park.   Senabulya Richard. YEA volunteer (and mountaineer !)

	Alex's report on YEA work in Gulu - Northern Uganda   Alex Gift Mumale YEA Volunteer
Background For the last 27 years, northern Uganda has been under war. Constant rebel attacks have continuously forced people to leave their homes and confine themselves in camps (IDP Camps). In response to the pressure of violence, family breakdowns, death, hunger, sexual assault and name it, - several organizations, including the government of Uganda, intergovernmental agencies and Non Governmental Organizations, have worked hard to help minimize the effect of this conflict on the local people. The Situation Today The Government of Uganda, with help from the local and international conflict management agencies, has helped to reduce the rebel attacks and some people have managed to go back to their homes. Settling after 20 years of war is still hard for the people but it’s the only way to reduce the congestion in the camps. However, despite the efforts to send people back to their villages, many people are still under fear and trauma and for that reason they have not developed the courage to go home.   Problems in the IDP Camps   * Disease Infections i.e. STIs and HIV   * Un churched (most of them don’t go to church)   * Sexual abuse   * Child abuse   * Poverty   * Hunger   * Family breakdown   * Poor child upbringing   * Unemployment   * Etc Teenagers in an alcohol abuse workshop   Activities in IDP camps   * Economic   * Small scale shops   * Prostitution   * Subsistence farming   * Hut building   * Brick laying   * Local brew selling Social activities   * School (Primary and Secondary)   * Few people go to Church   * Local brew consumption   * Sports (Young people)   * Attending social meetings The same workshop for 18-35 year olds   (YEA) YOUTHWORX- East Africa’s Work in Gulu In view of the problems in Gulu, we can only do too much because the need is too much. Only heaven knows because every day new problems arise as problem analysis and research go on. YEA’s work is mostly focused on young people and discipleship in particular. In Gulu YEA does not work independently; we work in partnership with other organizations, Churches and individuals. Currently we directly work with New Song Of Grace (NSOGU). NSOGU has introduced us to 4 secondary Schools, 2 Primary schools, Hope Alive children sponsoring project and 3 Churches. Our work briefs in Gulu. 1. Discipleship training 2. Leadership training 3. Problem analysis 4. Foreign mission teams coordination Work at hand between March and May. Date Day Activity In charge 21 Fri A team of 8 YEA volunteers Travel to Gulu for the Youth Easter program Alex 22 Sat Gulu Baptist church youth fun day Alex 23 Sun Visit Keyo IDP camp Church Alex 24 Mon Team travels back to Kampala Alex 25 Tue     26 Weds     27 Thurs     28 Fri INDA team arrives from Kenya  Eugene, Ian and Alex 29 Sat INDA team orientation Christopher & Ian 30 Sun INDA team Visit KBC and go shopping Eugene 31 Mon INDA travel to Gulu Alex 1 April Tue INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 2 Weds INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 3 Thurs INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 4 Fri INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 5 Sat INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 6 Sun INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 7 Mon INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 8 Tue INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 9 Weds INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 10 Thurs INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 11 Fri INDA work in Gulu Eugene and Chris 12 Sat INDA travels back to Kampala Eugene, Alex and Ian 13 Sun  INDA goes to KBC to say farewell and debrief Collin and Ian 14 Mon  INDA goes back to Kenya Eugene Prayer concerns   * Journey mercies for the travelling teams   *  Financial provisions   *  Favour before the people in the IDP camps   *  Health (Red dust and pot holed roads)

Report on the on-going mission work of YOUTHWORX- East-Africa (YEA) among the Kenyan people in Mulanda refugee camp-Tororo District. March 08

History As a youth organization, we are called to minister to the young people of Kenya and over the years we have been involved in facilitating and teaching in youth camps in Mombasa, networking with churches in Nairobi like Parklands Baptist Church, which is sending us a mission team of 40 young people (INDA team) this month (March-April). The INDA team is going to be working among the people of Northern Uganda in Gulu district, a place that has been ravaged by war and disasters for 20 years.

INDA OBJECTIVES: I: Involvement in Outreach to the lost and community service N: Nurture to Maturity Spiritually, Socially and Professionally D: Discovery of purpose and God given potential. A: Acquisition of Knowledge in the word and about their world

With the recent political upheavals in Kenya, a result of the disputed Kenyan presidential elections, 300.000 Kenyans have been displaced from their homes into neighbouring countries like Uganda, thus the establishment of Mulanda camp in Tororo district.
We discerned God’s call to work among the Kenyan young people in the refugee camp and moved in swiftly, working in partnership with World Vision (Uganda) and Save the Children (Uganda).

The YEA team has been working among the Kenyan people (refugees) in Mulanda Transit Refugee camp -Tororo district- over the last one and a half months.
Collin (YEA team member) has been going in and out of the camp over the last month and more recently a YEA volunteer mission team (Ray, Carol, Isaac, Robert and Rachael) has visited and worked in the camp for 2 days.

YEA work in the camp
YEA has been mainly focusing on working with the youth (teenagers and older youth) in the camp, being the marginalized group.
In the course of the last month, we have been involved with aiding the formation of a camp youth leadership committee, training of camp youth leaders in leadership skills, training of youth in HIV/Aids as well as conflict resolutions skills, setting up of a Camp Youth Service, training of Sunday school teachers and setting up/running a camp youth resource centre.

Formation of the Camp Youth Leadership team:
There was no youth leadership team in existence for the over 700 youth in the camp, 2 months ago. The general consensus among the camp leaders was that the youth in the camp were idle most of the time and as a result they resorted to drug and alcohol abuse.
Together with partner organizations, we identified an inclusive, gender sensitive, leadership team among the youth in the camp, thus the birth of MULANDA Summit Youth Forum.
This Youth Forum was tasked with giving leadership to the youth, organizing productive activities for the youth as well as representing the interests of the youth in the overall camp leaders meetings.

Leadership training for camp youth leaders
With the formation of the Youth Forum, YEA was tasked with giving leadership training to the youth leaders, some of whom had never had any leadership training before.
We have had 2 leadership training workshops for 25 youth leaders over the last 1 month.

Life-skills training in HIV/Aids and Abstinence
HIV/Aids remains a major threat in Africa and the rate of spreading it from one person to another is always high in refugee camps among young people.
We have had 2 life-skills workshops on HIV/Aids over the last 1 month and have interfaced with over 150 young people through these workshops.
These trainings have been mainly aimed at creating HIV awareness and prevention in the camp as well as teaching young people on Abstinence.
We also showed 2 educative and informative films on good decision making and HIV/Aids. The one for teenagers was a film titled CONSEQUENCES and was attended by over 150 teenagers (13-17 years).
The other one was a movie called OPEN SECRET for the older youth (18-30 years) and was attended by 90 youth.

Life-skills training in peace and conflict resolution:
Peace and conflict resolution skills are one of the major needs of the people in this camp as a result of the political upheavals. We have had 3 life-skills trainings in peace and conflict resolution over the last 1 month with 70 youth. These trainings mainly focused on equipping the youth with peace skills so they are able to use them among the refugee community but also bring healing to their individual lives.

Camp Youth Service
We had the first Youth Service for Christian young people on the 16-March. It was a time for spiritual revival and healing where the youth in the camp met to pray together, worship God together in song, listen to and study God’s word together. It was a great time of worship and about 30 youth attended.
This youth service is scheduled to continue every Sunday.

Training of Sunday school teachers:
A major need among the Christian churches in the camp was the lack of Sunday school teachers to attend to hundreds of kids coming to Sunday school every Sunday.
In response to this need, Rachael, a child worker with Viva Network and a member of the YEA volunteer mission team, trained 10 Sunday school teachers in “How to run Sunday school clubs” and workshops aimed at equipping the Sunday school teachers with leadership skills.

Youth Resource Centre
Together with Save the Children and World-Vision, we set up a youth resource centre. The resource centre is a place where youth come to borrow books, educative and informative reading materials, Bibles and Christian books etc
YEA has been mainly involved with equipping the resource centre with Bibles and Christian literature as well as with educative/informative materials for the young people to take away and read.
About 100 youth visit the resource centre in a week.

The future
The refugee camp is scheduled to be closed by the 1st week of May. Until then, we would like to continue the work we have started among the youth in the refugee camp, according to our YEA vision.
The general comments form the youth in the camp as well as the youth leadership is that YEA has been a great blessing to each of them.

“There has been a tremendous change among the young people since 2 months ago”
Anthony K, a Kikuyu and leader of the youth forum.

As the YEA team, we would like to thank all YOUTHWORX- East Africa partners and supporters for the tremendous encouragement, prayer and financial support being given to enable us fulfil our vision of working among the Kenyan people, especially in their time of need.
As well as prayer, continuing the work means we need more resources to enable the team travel, feed, have shelter, contribute towards the youth programs in the camp, for example we needed to hire a generator so as to be able to show the video films etc

Thank you and God bless you
YEA team

YEA’s response to the needs of Youth in the Kenyan refugee resettlement camp in Tororo-Mulanda (Eastern Uganda) Sunday 24th Feb 08

The political and tribal conflicts that plagued Kenya as a result of the disputed presidential elections in December 2007, once known as East Africa’s “model economy” caused about 1000 deaths as a result of ethnic tribal cleansing mainly between the Kikuyu and Luo tribes . 300000 people were left homeless and thousands of them fled into the neighbouring countries of Uganda and Tanzania and are now staying in temporary transit centres known as refugee resettlement camps.

Mulanda refugee resettlement camp is situated in Tororo district in Eastern Uganda. Mulanda is about 20kms out of Tororo town on Murram road and the major mode of transport there is Toyota Pick-Up trucks that act as taxis. These get filled with about 30 people.

The refugee resettlement camp has mainly people belonging to the Kikuyu tribe and there are close to 2500 people there. Almost half of these are teenagers and older youth, there are lots of children as well as mothers and some older men.
They live in makeshift tents provided by the UN refugee body. There are NGOs like Save the Children focusing on children, World Vision focusing on health and sanitation needs, Red Cross focusing on food distribution etc but none focusing on the needs of young people.
The people in this camp are completely destitute and everything has to be provided for them from food to cooking utensils to soap etc. Suffice to say, most of the people living in the camp had fairly good lives before and so are completely broken by everything that has happened.
As well as physical needs, the spiritual and psycho social needs are overwhelming.

I met a guy called David. He had just completed university and was actively looking for a job to start working and before he knew it, he was a refugee with a lot of hurting and depression. He told me he has thought about suicide a number of times. David is now in a Ugandan jail after being caught with Marijuana.
This is a story of most of the youth in this camp.

As a result of the growing relationship we have with World-Vision after doing staff training for their staff earlier in the year, the World Vision project in Tororo asked if we (YEA) would be interested in responding to some of the needs of the youth in the camp.
Because of our commitment as YOUTHWORX- East Africa to Kenya as a country in our mission vision, we agreed as a team that I travel down there to do a “situation analysis” and see how YEA would be involved, even if on a minimal basis in “MAKING A DIFFERENCE” for some of the youth there.

And of course I found a lot of need there.
None of the NGOs in the camp is focusing mainly on teenagers and youth thus the youth who make up half of the camp population are neglected.
They spend the day doing nothing, are involved in alcohol and drug abuse; they have no youth leadership structure for mobilization and coordination in the camp, are depressed and lots of them are at almost suicidal point etc
These give a picture of the state of the youth in this camp

YEA Response
After assessing the situation in the camp, as YEA, we will work alongside World Vision in the areas of;
   -supporting the formation of a youth leadership structure in the camp as well as leadership training to these leaders so they are able to effectively lead, coordinate and mobilize the young people in the camp and actively engage them in productive activities. This process has already started and this week I will be carrying out a leadership training workshop for these leaders.
   -giving psycho social support and basic counselling services to young people. This will be done by the YEA Mission team that we will be sending over to work alongside World Vision for 3 days.
We are organizing training in basic counselling for our team members this week so they are equipped with the necessary skills.
   -supporting the starting of a Youth Service that will run on Sundays targeting mainly youth in the camp for spiritual feeding and healing.
   -carrying out life skills training in Peace and Conflict resolution with young people as well as educative training on alcohol and drug abuse.
   -supporting the formation of Sunday school for the churches in the camps so they are able to spiritually engage the children in the camp
   -training youth workers from the nearby local Ugandan churches in youth ministry skills so they are able to actively engage the youth in the camp.
   -set up a “YOUTH TENT” in the camp that is a one stop place for young people as well as the coordination place for the leadership. We will equip it with important information on HIV, drug abuse, Christianity, peace and forgiveness etc

Immediate plan
I will be travelling back to Tororo tomorrow to do leadership training for the leaders as well as set up the Youth tent and meet the camp leaders.

The YEA Mission team, comprising of 5 young adult volunteers will be travelling on Friday this week and spending 3 days there.
Catherine Lex is also expressing interest in joining this team and specifically helping with the children’s ministry.

The camp will hopefully be closing down by the end of March

There is a lot of need and we are limited in what we can do, but we will do our best in making Jesus the centre.
God has placed YEA in a strategic place in this camp and he will help us fulfil his purposes.

Collin Muwonge- YEA
 

Steve Jenkins, a leader at Bognor Baptist Church working as Pastor at de Pilgrim in Oostende and also a trustee of YEA, visited Kampala in January:   Joining the Nations It was a real privilege for Steve to be invited to minister in Uganda between 11th - 21st Jan 08.  He worked with the Kampala Baptist church (KBC) youth team to teach in their annual camp on the theme of discipling.  He also made many new friendships, while deepening others and preached in the 3 KBC services. Also speaking at the Power of Worship event on Sunday evening before returning to Europe.   Receiving traditional clothes from Pastor Andrew and trying them on during the service at KBC!! Check out Steve's 'openlife' site for lots more photos of his trip. As well as seeing the Lord touching hearts through His word and a number saved by God's grace during the week, there was a special sense of joining the nations.  KBC as a local church and Youthworx East Africa as a resource to equip the churches, together have a growing vision to minister across international boundaries to see the church encouraged and built up.  We were joined by a wonderful team from Burundi and individuals from Rwanda.  Friends from Kenya, USA & UK were also present that gave the Power of Worship ministry a taste of heaven as they sang in 8 languages representing the international connections the Lord as given us.  I believe this was just a taste of more good things to come as we plan together to bring God's people together in 2009 . . .  pray about your part in it!  VOW singing at the Power of Worship event. Can you spot David and Catherine? There were about 500 people there to start with, but more arrived so that seats were fitted in the aisles, then others stood around the edges - around 700 in all. Ian Wardle leads a song in French!

Well, we left KBC at around 11 am all excited and fired up, in a hurry to get there {the campsite} which was some good distance behind Entebbe airport. We enjoyed the food, the group discussion, main talks and games. The attitude of the staff serving was good, and that made it even better! I think this is where the camp started.

We got assigned to our respective dormitories. A camp here doesn’t really mean tents and all. Our first session was reading to us the camp rules, which the Pastors and everyone kept calling “guidelines” {I wonder why!}

The rules, sorry, guidelines were” revealed “to us in the most dramatic and subtle of ways, but I was pretty sure that we didn’t really need these, but after that, it was the time we were all waiting for, bed time!. But the campsite was so large that by the time one actually got to the boy’s dorms, one would either be sleep walking or would have lost all the sleep they ever had! We actually got to sleep in the same dorm as Pastor Steve Jenkins, who’d been offered a better place but declined. I think I need to find out why. He experienced why mosquitoes are small things that are actually famous; well none got to him {or rather I think none got to him, coz he had a net} but I’m very sure he heard the music that they play all night long! For the first time in ages I prayed for a sunrise {funny how long it takes when you actually need it!} well…, finally, it did arise, and a new day at camp was born, welcome to Tuesday!

Tuesday:
Steve did a short biography of himself and how he actually managed to make it to Uganda. It just showed us how truly God can work in miraculous ways! The whole point of the camp was Discipleship in view of God’s word. (Colossians 1: 28 – 29)

I hope I don’t have to repeat myself that the food was good, Tuesday night we had singing and fun, and yes, even those of us with hardly any singing ability had the option of laughing at those who were a bit brave than we were. Well after sung and fun, we went back to feed the mosquitoes

Wednesday:
This was the last day of the camp, a time that no one{I sure of that} wished would come, but definitely knew that it would come ,eventually, and it did!

On this day, we learnt about the fact that you have to act out everything that you disciple, and it’s very true that people are affected very much by what they see being done than by just hearing it, true, faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God, but also faith without action is dead! Just like the a parent’s actions affect the child a lot, so do our actions to the people we actually disciple, that was an interesting lesson to learn {kind of wondered how come I’d never thought of that before...don’t you?}

And on that we had a panel of “experienced” people, who we asked very tough questions and thank God for paper and pen, coz It’d be kind of difficult to asked some of those questions directly, some of the panel members were our own Pastor Andrew, and Pastor Francis, the youth pastor here at KBC, plus Steve, that was a very educating and interesting time as well and we really didn’t want it to end, but we had camp fire next, and no one wanted to waste time for the camp fire, absolutely no one!

It was also on this day that one of the campers, who really had not come with us but had just come to pick her results from the school we were Camping in{we were in a school, hence the dorms} gave her life to Christ and begun a new walk, a new life, and her story is really one that shows how God deals with us at His own time.
She had just been seated somewhere in the school having come from a very far off place and had to spend the night in the school premises, she was invited to spend some time with us during sing and fun, which we had every night, she enjoyed the session and decided to come the next day for the other sessions, and by the end of Thursday, she had given her Life to Christ, it’s sad she had to leave immediately ,coz I’m sure she would have enjoyed the camp fire ……..I think,

Well the highlight of the camp came on this day, and that was the campfire. Although we were few this time{ about 86 people} normally, we are about 120, but it was still fun, but it was also a time to reflect and look at your life and the way you have been living it, and most of the youth rededicated their lives to serve God in different sorts of ministries, and a lady {Mim} shared with us how a campfire changed her life for the better, and that it could do the same for us too,……, yeah ,and the next day was coming back home.
That was camp for you the reader of this, but a lot more for those whose lives got transformed there, for those of us who will never forget KBC Camp, 2008

Report compiled by Eugene Kavuma. YEA Volunteer There are more photos on Steve's 'openlife' site	small group work

Group from Burundi at Sunday morning service at KBC after the Power of Worship event the night before. More photos on Steve Jenkins 'openlife' site

The power of worship convention 2008 (Report by Alex) What is power of worship convention? The power if worship convention is an annual worship event. Born at KBC, the vision of this event is: To mobilize worship leaders ,gospel musicians and Christians from all denominations that confesses and acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus; to sing Him songs of praise and worship with a sense of skill and reverence for God’s word ( Ps 33:1 -3)

Report compiled by,
Alex Gift Mumale
On behalf of VOW and YEA.

2 Timothy 2:2 (My life purpose)

Youth Leaders training in Hoima Diocese (Report by Alex)

Dates: 22nd and 23rd January 2008
Venue: Kigaya Church of Uganda Hoima District
Time: 9am – 5pm
Region: Kigaya Village

Topics Covered:
1. Servant leadership and Discipleship (Ian)
2. Accountability ( Alex)
3. Peace making (Collin)

Challenges faced by the community youth
1. Most of them have no Bibles!!!
2. Most youth leaders are not born again!!!!!!!????****!!!
3. Land conflicts have caused divisionism among the youth
4. Discipleship is very minimal

Prayer concern:
Please pray that the Lord will help the young people in Hoima to overcome the challenges mentioned above and also pray for them to receive the Lord. Continue to pray for the YEA crew as we plan our follow up work in that region. We do not believe in “hit and run”.

Report compiled by
Alex Gift Mumale
2 Timothy 2:2 (My life purpose)
YEA volunteer