Dear all,
I thank Patrick Okuni for his candid answers to the Monitor journalist. I could
add more. Patrick, along with Dr. Worodria (3rd) and Eng Joel Ogarubo (8th)
emerged among Uganda’s top-10 radio boys/girls. He actually spoke for the
entire war-time (1979-1990) generation of Westnile students. They share his
life story, which depicts the odyssey of a war-afflicted generation of
Westnilers who defied all odds to succeed in life. Ironically, our schools
performed better during those turbulent times than they are doing now in peace
times (defined, though, as mere absence of wars). I am not, in any way,
advocating for a return to war so that our schools perform better. Contrarily,
I am critically searching for the factors that empowered those war victims to
heal, excel and succeed in life.
A couple of years ago, my empathy for war-afflicted children in northern Uganda
motivated me to make a personal reflection on my own experience of healing and
restoration from a war-ravaged childhood. I then inquired into the question:
“How can the war-afflicted children in northern Uganda be empowered to heal
their wounds of conflict?” I searched for answers with hindsight on WestNile
students of the time, particularly recalling the experiences of my peers in the
various schools of Westnile. I observed that many of us, who timely regained
opportunities to resume schooling, later succeeded in life and somehow healed.
However, many of our peers who unfortunately returned from exile too late to
resume education largely did not.
Many children in westnile used to come to boarding school directly from refugee
camps in Sudan and DRC and return there for holidays. Others studies in those
very camps and still succeeded despite having to contend with a myriad of
problems. Nevertheless, it was these victims of war -- deeply harmed
physically, emotionally, cognitively, spiritually, morally/culturally, and
socially or relationally – who collectively demonstrated to the whole world
that, when adequately empowered disadvantaged and impoverished children can
excel to become productive future citizens. Whereas self-discipline and
personal determination were the primary drivers for their zeal to succeed,
certain factors empowered these children to succeed: spiritual support
religions institutions; schools; strong trusting relationships with members of
the family, and relatives; community support, and favorable social conditions.
Churches donated reconditioned clothes, food, and home during holidays and fees
for those in dire need. Organizations such as the World Food programme
supplemented school feeding with donations of rice, cooking oil, sardines and
mackerel, etc. IDA supplied books, whereas the government gave bursaries to
orphans. Schools had sound administration, with teachers, BOGs and Parents
playing unified roles. Students responsibly utilized the liberal, democratic
yet well-regulated school atmosphere to maximally study and meet their
extra-curricular needs outside. Food was not a problem in schools. Schools
stored adequate food in advance; so weevils helped students to eat the excess
beans. In Ombachi the problem was how to complete the old food-stock, stored
the previous term, before opening the new, fresh stock. Teachers were committed
to teaching, even if they part-timed in neighboring schools. The school was a
fully functional institution because all key stakeholders, including the
government, the private sector, the family and student played a partnership
role. The environment was therefore stable and ideal at schools, despite the
instability back in the villages.
Currently, today many schools are quite dysfunctional; they are relatively
disruptive and unstable. It seems many schools now have inadequate capacity to
stock food in advance but spend time worrying about paying debts and keeping
the schools running. Students are increasingly indisciplines. I understand some
teachers part time riding boda-bodas, or buying tobacco for BAT during the
July-September period to augment their salaries. I am not surprised that a
whole P.7 class in Yumbe district wrongly answered in Mock exams that “an
ambassador is a man who elopes to stay with a woman” [in Yumbe, “a mario” is
called an “ambassador”]. The whole class got it wrong! Not their fault;
teachers did not have adequate time to teach, because they could have been
making other money by other means, as Patrick stated.
I am convinced that when adequately empowered, our disadvantaged children can
cope to match the star performances of other schools in Uganda. We need to
critically identify the factors and actors needed to achieve this, knowing
there is a future price to pay, if our children continue getting poor grades,
going to third world secondary schools and colleges, or dropping out of school.
They can turn out to be future spoilers for our families, society or nation.
Friends, I thought I should share my reflections to possibly enrich our
discussions on improving education standards in westnile.
Mike
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:55:08 -0500
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: [WestNileNet] Okuni has made us proud
Dear all
I have just read the article Monitor carried on our very own Patrick Okuni who
was the best in UCE 1985. It really brought out the Okuni I know. I salute the
WNF for naming him as chairperson of the ad hoc committee for the establishment
of a Public University in West Nile. The italians would say "Okuni has one
tongue in the mouth" meaning he does what he says. I was happy to read the
response of Okuni why he left government work, his answer was “In order to work
successfully in government you have to find ways of making other money either
within the government, which could be called corruption, or outside by doing
other private work. I am not generally good at doing such; corruption is
something I would not even think about and, again, doing other private work
when you have a job you should be fully dedicated to is also not morally
right,” Brothers ad sisters west nilers we need this type of leadership to
shine more and more in our region. He is a practical man and this come out
when he stated that " I love discussion, analysis and practical work".
Mr Okuni says he helps support students programmes like the Makerere Arua
Students Union, West Nile Foundation, and the St. Joseph College, Ombaci Old
Boys’ Association, in addition to other development programmes.
We also appreciate your inputs on this forum which are brief and to the point
as very good homilies which are compared to miniskirts "short enough to arouse
interest but long enough enough to cover the subject'
May God bless patrick, West Nile and the West nilers in he struggle to save
West Nile by West Nile
Ruffino
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service.
https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969
_______________________________________________
WestNileNet mailing list
[email protected]
http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet
% WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including
attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way.
_______________________________________________
