My Life in Africa Reports:By Morris Barry Okello

My names are Morris Okello and am 23 years old and still single. Born in the newly created district of Amuru, (formerly Gulu), I left my home district when still very young, at about 7 years old. As the Lord’s resistance war intensified in the late 80s, we had to take refuge across the river Nile in Masindi district, where many other people from Acholiland also found refuge in later years. We were actually the first lot to arrive in this new home for the Acholi people, and though we were secured from the war, we weren’t at all food wise, but later managed to settle and found a little piece of land where some foodstuff could be grown.

We were actually together with the Sudanese refuges who were also resettled in that same district, and this was to be of advantage to me since it gave me a chance of attending school free of charge as this was a resettlement school. I started trekking my way back to my home district in 2001 when I thought I needed better education, though I knew it would not be very easy as I would be required to pay school fees, and as a matter of fact I could not really join the University, though I was admitted at the Gulu University.

At this point also the number of night commuter children grew tremendously that it gave birth to so many night commuter centers , among which was the Charity For Peace Foundation where I became a volunteer and am with them to date. I was mainly moved by the plight of these children and had to go the tough way taking care of them ( sleeping with them and cleaning them in the mornings before they leave for school). This has been total dedication because the organization didn’t have any fund to pay us anything, but we all felt we needed to give assistance to the children and this was all very satisfying , though naturally we needed something to sustain us, it was so difficult to get anything because I was not working anywhere at all and it was becoming harder each other day, remember my parents remained where we originally migrated and I was all by myself.

It was at this point that Life in Africa Foundation brought a new life to the Charity For Peace center, things changed almost overnight. First they introduced the Invisible Children Bracelet campaign which really changed every volunteer’s life in just a few month and now the most amazing one is , they have recruited almost all the volunteers at Charity for Peace, into several activities others having full time jobs and some are working together with the guardians of the children who sleep at the center doing all sorts of crafts production and while having all their products sold at every end of month, am not excluded in any of the above in addition to being an inventory staff with them. This is the greatest achievement of the year that should pass by unheard of and would wish that Life in Africa could expand up to my home district i.e. Amuru which is still very young and needs the kind of development that Life in Africa aims at. Thank you so much Life in Africa for this big role you have played in my life.