A Refugee Youth's Vision for a Better World For Women and Children

The following blog was written by Abby Pratt, a Student.Go/ Faith to Action intern currently serving with the Center of Hope in Kampala. Abby is focusing her work and training on learning about our initiatives with vulnerable children amongst refugee communities. 

"What do you do to your country?"

This question was presented to me while visiting with refugee youth at the Center this afternoon. Not quite sure of how to answer or what specifically my new friend was inquiring about, I asked him to clarify. He wanted to know what I was doing or planned to do in order to make my home a better place. What a daunting and humbling question from a young boy who has had to leave his home due to war. While I struggled to respond, he quickly replied by saying, "I want to end the abuse of women in my country." Another boy quickly added, "and children."  

At this moment I felt a new and radical sense of solidarity. Not only do CBF field personnel, Student.Go interns, divinity school students, ministers, and UNICEF employees have a vision for homes in which women and children no longer suffer and endure violence as a result of poverty, war, and corruption but teenage boys in Uganda do too. Can you imagine the insight, motivation, and passion of these young people? I asked my friend what he wanted to do as a means of living out his dream. He told me he was still developing a plan. Voices like his have been and still are being silenced due to starvation, disease, lack of education, and lack of nurturing communities. I am thankful that the Center of Hope is a place of refuge for him and will nurture his hope for the future. Change cannot come without his voice. We come from different countries, different religions, and different families but we share a common vision. So in the words of John Wesley, "If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand." 

What I want to do to my country, my world, my home is be part of partnerships in which all people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, and age come together to create communities of love, peace, and justice.