6A
KULTURE
THE UNIVERSITY OF DARY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2006
> Two University of Kansas graduates
what
when
> Moved to Uganda to volunteer at an orphanage
> They left Sept. 4 and will stay there for about a year
why
> To experience another culture and help others in need
Rebekah Heacock, 2006 graduate, spends time with children from the Hope Integrity Orphanage in Uganda. Heacock and Heather Backer, also a 2006 graduate, left earlier this month and will spend about a year teaching English to children and volunteering in the area.
Volunteers help children in African orphanage
BY MATT ERICKSON
Although two graduates accepted jobs and relocated to another continent, they won't actually be making any money. Their new job will actually cost them up to $6,000 each in airfare and living expenses. In return, they will experience the excitement of a new culture and the satisfaction of helping the needy.
. Rebekah Heacock and Heather Baker, 2006 graduates, moved to Kampala, Uganda, to volunteer at the Hope Integrity Orphanage.
Heacock and Baker, along with Baker's boyfriend, Collin Hamel of Lawrence, left Sept. 4 for Uganda. Heacock will live in Uganda for a year, while Baker and Hamel will live there for nine months.
"I'm going because I knew that I
wanted to give my life somehow to people who are impoverished, and I wanted to do it in a very tangible, physical way," Baker said. "I felt like there was a great need, and I was available."
The women, along with 90 children, live at the orphanage in the southeastern capital city of Kampala.
"I wanted to go over and have some actual experience with kids who've been through (the war), and come back and say, "This is what they told me,"" Heacock said.
Baker and Heacock will serve as mentors and teach the children English.
Heacock wants to start a rehabilitative drama program to help children deal with hardships from their pasts by acting them out.
"I want to share everything I have, like my ability to speak English and my college degree, with the children."
she said.
Baker, who earned her degree in music education, will also teach music and Bible classes.
- About one-third to one-half of the children at Hope Integrity come from the war-torn northern region of Uganda, Heacock said. Some were child soldiers in the civil war in northern Uganda.
War has raged in northern Uganda for more than 20 years. During this time, a rebel group known as the Lord's Resistance Army has abducted about 25,000 children to fill its ranks, according to Oxfam International.
Though the LRA agreed to leave the country as part of a cease-fire agreement reached last month, many in Uganda still are scarred by the effects of the conflict.
"These are stories that just get over
looked every day," Heacock said.
Heacock and Baker found out about the conflict after their friend Erin Larive, 2005 graduate, returned from a trip to Africa during the summer of 2005.
During the Fall 2005 semester, Heacock founded the student organization KU for Uganda, which aims to increase awareness about the conflict in northern Uganda and works to achieve peace.
"The atrocities were so great, and the effect on the region was so huge, and ... no one was doing anything about it," she said.
Baker and Hecacock also learned about Hope Integrity from Larive, who put them in contact with the orphanage's director. By last winter, they had both decided to go volunteer in Uganda.
"I just felt ready to embrace another
culture and ready to be taught. I'd really like to experience what it's like outside the U.S." Baker said.
Baker and Heacock raised money for the trip by collecting donations.
Hacecock will also intern for the Global Youth Partnership for Africa, a nonprofit organization that creates connections between young Americans and young Africans.
Baker plans to visit other orphanages around Uganda.
"I just see extreme faith in some of the poorest communities. I anticipate seeing that in Uganda as well," she said.
Kansan correspondent Matt Erickson can be contacted at editor@kansan. com.
Edited by Jacky Carter
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