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Lorain native doing good in Africa
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Jeremy Goldberg helps Ugandans displaced by deadly civil war
By: DOUGLAS J. GUTH Staff Reporter
The hundreds of Ugandan children walking down the one-lane highway into Gulu are called "night commuters." They come many miles from surrounding villages, often half-dressed or barefoot or with small babies strapped to their backs.
Jeremy Goldberg, 25, saw this strange sight on Sunday night, his first day in Gulu, a city in northern Uganda that is home to the Acholi people. Gulu has become a government-sanctioned haven for Acholi children, ages 3 to 17, looking for a safe place to sleep. A place where they will not be kidnapped by marauding rebels.
The northern region of Uganda is entrenched in a civil war. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has been fighting the Ugandan government for nearly 18 years, often kidnaps young Acholi and children of other tribes to fight against the elected government.
About 600 children are at the well-guarded community center (called Noah's Ark) on Sunday night (Jan 9). Some play soccer on the community center grounds, while others interact through programs that encourage singing and dancing. The kids are fed and later sleep on blankets or thin mattresses that cover the concrete floor.
Goldberg, a Lorain native and AIDS activist on his third mission to the African country, meets a 6-year-old girl named Grace. The girl had to trek three miles to Gulu. She said, through an interpreter, that it isn't safe for her to stay home. LRA rebels had burned down her village at the end of last year.
Grace is one of thousands of Acholi Ugandans displaced by the war, literally "a refugee within her own country's borders," says Goldberg, who has been in Uganda since Dec. 1. Grace, he adds, lives in an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp near Gulu. Similar camps are scattered throughout a region that about 1.6 million Ugandans call home.
On Monday night, Goldberg is sitting on a balcony of Gulu's Hotel Kakanyero, talking to this reporter on his cell phone; he's enjoying a cool evening after a sweltering day with temperatures climbing into the mid-90s. Goldberg is leading a delegation of nine people - six Americans, two Israelis, and an Acholi tribeswoman - as part of a mission to visit and interview IDPs.
It's quiet tonight in Gulu, a pleasant, secure city lined with paved streets and small buildings. Gulu is not as fast-paced as the Ugandan capital of Kampala, says Goldberg. Here, citizens ride bicycles instead of the small motorcycles, called "boda bodas," that can be seen zipping about the streets of the capital.
"You can almost forget that there's a conflict going on," Goldberg remarks.
Before crossing a bridge across the treacherous Nile River into Gulu, Goldberg spent five weeks in Kampala and Namuwongo, a poverty-stricken community at the edge of the city.
His group met Ugandan community and religious officials to advocate for IDPs and to discuss programs for integrating them back into society. The international community does little for IDPs, notes Goldberg, because they do not flee to other countries. "Refugees are supported and covered by international law, but IDPs are not."
The government is led by Yoweri Museveni, who has been president of Uganda for the entirety of the conflict. Over the last 18 years, the Acholi people have lost much of their political influence, as their leaders have clung to tribal and cultural influences.
One such leader was Joseph Kony, ironically now head of the rebel LRA. Kony has been terrorizing his own people for years. "The LRA is motivated to remove the current government," Goldberg explains. "They see the Acholi people living in the IDP camps as supporters of that government."
Goldberg spent part of Monday afternoon in Oyomo, he relates, an IDP camp about five miles from the Gulu municipality. About 12,000 displaced Ugandans live six to a hut in the camp. One of them is Geoffrey Okot, 14, a haunted boy still reeling from his two years in LRA hands.
Geoffrey was abducted at age 12 from his village. The rebels made him carry weapons and heavy bags of beans and rice. He was tortured and forced to watch as opponents of the resistance were brutally murdered in front of him. The rebels kidnap children with hopes of "manipulating their minds," says Goldberg. Their aim is to poison the impressionable young Ugandans against the established government.
Although he escaped rebel clutches, Geoffrey has not recovered from the experience. "You can see the pain in his eyes," Goldberg maintains. This pain is magnified by a society that ostracizes the kidnap victims. "People fear those who have been taken into the 'bush.' They are not trusted."
Goldberg's goal is to reinstate that trust by integrating the young kidnap victims, both boys and girls, back into society through a series of interactive programs with their peers who have not been kidnapped. Soccer, which is very popular in Africa, can be a medium for that interaction, as can painting, drawing, writing, and singing, he says.
"They just want friends, they don't want to be viewed as abnormal," Goldberg adds. Since parents of the kidnapped are stigmatized as well, reintegration "will take a dedicated community effort."
His delegation will spend another few days in Gulu, their travels protected by a military escort. A Ugandan filmmaker plans to make a documentary of their experience.
Goldberg's 25th birthday was Dec. 15, and he spent Chanukah with the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, but he says he's not lonely or homesick. He's keeps in touch by phone and e-mail with his parents, grandparents and twin sisters.
His interest in activism began at age 8 when he joined Young Judea, a Zionist youth movement. In high school, Goldberg founded the Student Civil Liberties Organization, a group that focused on teen-related issues such as voter registration. He credits his passion for activism and politics to his grandfather, Hyman Goldberg, a bankruptcy attorney and leader in his Jewish community.
Jeremy Goldberg is co-founder and executive director of Project Namuwongo: Zone B, an initiative to develop and provide aid to the impoverished Ugandan village of the same name. Noting that he always had an interest in African culture, Goldberg launched Project Namuwongo in 2003. He pays for his trips out of his own pocket.
The initiative, with the help of several national and international relief organizations, was created to provide funding for schooling, AIDS education, mentoring and entrepreneurial training. Goldberg currently lives in Washington, D.C., and is a Goldmann Fellow at the American Jewish Committee there.
On Jan. 16, Goldberg will take the long flight back home. He feels that he's left an imprint on this verdant land - in Namuwongo, Gulu and elsewhere - one that will sustain his work after he's left the country. He plans to return to Africa in the summer, however, to host a summit between American and Ugandan youths.
In the interim, Goldberg will miss his Ugandan friends and a culture that's more personable and authentic than what he's used to in America.
Too many in the international community, says Goldberg, view Africa as "a lost cause," one ravaged by AIDS and tribal conflict. He sees the opposite. "There is an opportunity for many wonderful things to grow here."
By: DOUGLAS J. GUTH Staff Reporter
The hundreds of Ugandan children walking down the one-lane highway into Gulu are called "night commuters." They come many miles from surrounding villages, often half-dressed or barefoot or with small babies strapped to their backs.
Jeremy Goldberg, 25, saw this strange sight on Sunday night, his first day in Gulu, a city in northern Uganda that is home to the Acholi people. Gulu has become a government-sanctioned haven for Acholi children, ages 3 to 17, looking for a safe place to sleep. A place where they will not be kidnapped by marauding rebels.
The northern region of Uganda is entrenched in a civil war. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has been fighting the Ugandan government for nearly 18 years, often kidnaps young Acholi and children of other tribes to fight against the elected government.
About 600 children are at the well-guarded community center (called Noah's Ark) on Sunday night (Jan 9). Some play soccer on the community center grounds, while others interact through programs that encourage singing and dancing. The kids are fed and later sleep on blankets or thin mattresses that cover the concrete floor.
Goldberg, a Lorain native and AIDS activist on his third mission to the African country, meets a 6-year-old girl named Grace. The girl had to trek three miles to Gulu. She said, through an interpreter, that it isn't safe for her to stay home. LRA rebels had burned down her village at the end of last year.
Grace is one of thousands of Acholi Ugandans displaced by the war, literally "a refugee within her own country's borders," says Goldberg, who has been in Uganda since Dec. 1. Grace, he adds, lives in an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp near Gulu. Similar camps are scattered throughout a region that about 1.6 million Ugandans call home.
On Monday night, Goldberg is sitting on a balcony of Gulu's Hotel Kakanyero, talking to this reporter on his cell phone; he's enjoying a cool evening after a sweltering day with temperatures climbing into the mid-90s. Goldberg is leading a delegation of nine people - six Americans, two Israelis, and an Acholi tribeswoman - as part of a mission to visit and interview IDPs.
It's quiet tonight in Gulu, a pleasant, secure city lined with paved streets and small buildings. Gulu is not as fast-paced as the Ugandan capital of Kampala, says Goldberg. Here, citizens ride bicycles instead of the small motorcycles, called "boda bodas," that can be seen zipping about the streets of the capital.
"You can almost forget that there's a conflict going on," Goldberg remarks.
Before crossing a bridge across the treacherous Nile River into Gulu, Goldberg spent five weeks in Kampala and Namuwongo, a poverty-stricken community at the edge of the city.
His group met Ugandan community and religious officials to advocate for IDPs and to discuss programs for integrating them back into society. The international community does little for IDPs, notes Goldberg, because they do not flee to other countries. "Refugees are supported and covered by international law, but IDPs are not."
The government is led by Yoweri Museveni, who has been president of Uganda for the entirety of the conflict. Over the last 18 years, the Acholi people have lost much of their political influence, as their leaders have clung to tribal and cultural influences.
One such leader was Joseph Kony, ironically now head of the rebel LRA. Kony has been terrorizing his own people for years. "The LRA is motivated to remove the current government," Goldberg explains. "They see the Acholi people living in the IDP camps as supporters of that government."
Goldberg spent part of Monday afternoon in Oyomo, he relates, an IDP camp about five miles from the Gulu municipality. About 12,000 displaced Ugandans live six to a hut in the camp. One of them is Geoffrey Okot, 14, a haunted boy still reeling from his two years in LRA hands.
Geoffrey was abducted at age 12 from his village. The rebels made him carry weapons and heavy bags of beans and rice. He was tortured and forced to watch as opponents of the resistance were brutally murdered in front of him. The rebels kidnap children with hopes of "manipulating their minds," says Goldberg. Their aim is to poison the impressionable young Ugandans against the established government.
Although he escaped rebel clutches, Geoffrey has not recovered from the experience. "You can see the pain in his eyes," Goldberg maintains. This pain is magnified by a society that ostracizes the kidnap victims. "People fear those who have been taken into the 'bush.' They are not trusted."
Goldberg's goal is to reinstate that trust by integrating the young kidnap victims, both boys and girls, back into society through a series of interactive programs with their peers who have not been kidnapped. Soccer, which is very popular in Africa, can be a medium for that interaction, as can painting, drawing, writing, and singing, he says.
"They just want friends, they don't want to be viewed as abnormal," Goldberg adds. Since parents of the kidnapped are stigmatized as well, reintegration "will take a dedicated community effort."
His delegation will spend another few days in Gulu, their travels protected by a military escort. A Ugandan filmmaker plans to make a documentary of their experience.
Goldberg's 25th birthday was Dec. 15, and he spent Chanukah with the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda, but he says he's not lonely or homesick. He's keeps in touch by phone and e-mail with his parents, grandparents and twin sisters.
His interest in activism began at age 8 when he joined Young Judea, a Zionist youth movement. In high school, Goldberg founded the Student Civil Liberties Organization, a group that focused on teen-related issues such as voter registration. He credits his passion for activism and politics to his grandfather, Hyman Goldberg, a bankruptcy attorney and leader in his Jewish community.
Jeremy Goldberg is co-founder and executive director of Project Namuwongo: Zone B, an initiative to develop and provide aid to the impoverished Ugandan village of the same name. Noting that he always had an interest in African culture, Goldberg launched Project Namuwongo in 2003. He pays for his trips out of his own pocket.
The initiative, with the help of several national and international relief organizations, was created to provide funding for schooling, AIDS education, mentoring and entrepreneurial training. Goldberg currently lives in Washington, D.C., and is a Goldmann Fellow at the American Jewish Committee there.
On Jan. 16, Goldberg will take the long flight back home. He feels that he's left an imprint on this verdant land - in Namuwongo, Gulu and elsewhere - one that will sustain his work after he's left the country. He plans to return to Africa in the summer, however, to host a summit between American and Ugandan youths.
In the interim, Goldberg will miss his Ugandan friends and a culture that's more personable and authentic than what he's used to in America.
Too many in the international community, says Goldberg, view Africa as "a lost cause," one ravaged by AIDS and tribal conflict. He sees the opposite. "There is an opportunity for many wonderful things to grow here."
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