They are the Champions!

I really have no idea how to start this post as two versions have come out all a bit too cynical and negative. So, let's start with, there are loads of really great organisations in Uganda, doing really good work...

Unfortunately, it's often the 'westerners' who are the 'heroes', the ones who people say of on Facebook, 'what you are doing is AMAZING, you're such an inspiration to us all!' (too cynical?). I get pretty fed up of this, mind you I might add that I don't get that written on my wall. Hang on, no-one finds me inspirational? In the words of Hillary Clinton, 'sigh'.

Is that his name or does he think he caught a real man?
If you are intrigued by this image, check out 'Humanitarians of Tinder' for a giggle.

Now, to withhold a rant for me is hard at the best of times, but I'm doing what I can. Of course, people do stay in Uganda (often for a bit) and do some really good stuff that really impacts lives, but let's face it, self-sacrifice and overall 'going the extra mile', generally belongs to Ugandans. The ones who take kids into their families, who pay relatives school fees and naturally come together in a crisis. By far the most giving and sacrificial people I have met, are Ugandan. Now, I'm not going to go the other way and romanticise Ugandans either, they're just normal people like us and do some pretty crap things too. But that's really my point, we're all pretty 'normal' and some people are a bit special in that, but still rather normal deep down.

It's the hero-worship and raising up of people doing good stuff that is getting my goat. And we all know that one must choose one's heroes wisely, to my shame I posted a positive image and comment about Jimmy Saville when he died - flippin heck. I'd say that in the three and half years since being here that I've heard disappointing things about at least five pretty big, western, names and organisations. Now, this isn't a hatchet-job, I'm saying that these folk tend to be held up, but not necessarily held to account. And it makes me question why they were held up in the first place. We are their enablers.

Now I look at this, I actually used to look a bit like Robin.

So, what's the solution? A while ago I read a great article about not being the hero, but being the Robin and not the Batman (darned if I can find it now). I like that way of expressing the idea. Is the westerner the AMAZING Batman in the forefront, or the Robin doing cool stuff mainly in the background. Now, this is a bit naughty of me, but I'm managing not to be too cynical so please allow me this. I have a little test to see if I think someone is a Batman or a Robin type. And I have fallen foul of this test myself, so I think there is a bit of pub-politics level accuracy to it at least. When you see a picture of a westerner with a Ugandan, who has their arm around whom? Is that too close to the bone? If the western arm lovingly and paternally cradles the African's shoulders, my hunch is that they are the 'parent' in this relationship, essentially 'the hero'. That's not my bag, cup of tea or thing.

Doing it right. Good arm placement.

Right, anyway, where do we go from here? I think being aware of this dynamic is key and we all need to help each other with this. And I was going to talk about our work with Revelation Life and raising up Champions in and from the slums, but that all seems a bit like, 'we're the only ones who've got this sorted', and of course, that's not true.

But I would encourage you to support people and organisations that tell you who they are, but who don't seem to revel a little too much in the gorgeous glow of the limelight and admit to things not going as planned once in a while. It feels good in the light, but part of the responsibility of having some light on us is to direct it to those who often get ignored. These are the very people that we are all trying to help in the best way possible. And as the recent hoo-hah about the missions organisation that managed to offend a big group of Ugandans with their 'We're bringing Missions Back video' (Justin Timberlake cover, clever eh?), getting this stuff wrong can really piss local people off. 

Highlighting 'normal', yet extraordinary local people has to be better than doing a bad impression of Batman for the folks back home.

If you think I may be onto something then I ought to now point some light to TMS Ruge and his scathing, but truthful posts about the 'White Saviour Complex' which helped to form some of my thinking on this.

And if you're really into this, on a roll, and want a good laugh, check out Barbie Savior (it's ok, SFW), if you haven't already.

Highlights, highlighted (highlit?)

Well, after a years' blog-drought, here's little flow in the form of a few highlights from the last year! 

Setting up our first Community ‘Dream’ Centre
This has been a great project to create a place for Community Groups to meet and people to plan and pray together in Kinawataka Slum. The centre is made from an old shipping container, wood and recycled materials and hosts health training, group meetings, discipleship groups and children’s work all week round. As the community uses the building more and more, we’re confident that things will now change at a faster pace in the slum and that people will be able to work towards their dream of a good life.

Training Community Health Champions
We want to make sure that local people are the change makers in their communities, and so Revelation Life has been training health workers from the slums to do home visits, assessments and alert us of malnourished children. We call these people ‘Health Champions’. This has been a huge confidence boost for mums who now have a role in seeing their neighbours saved from malnutrition and diseases such as typhoid, pneumonia and malaria.


Seeing changes at the Family Centre
Ten vulnerable families from the slums have been through our programme at the Family Centre this year. Their time on the site has seen them: acquiring new farming skills; learning how to relate better to family members; opening up during discipleship sessions and understanding how to keep their families healthy. It has been a real joy to see families come together, make plans for the future and begin to heal before they leave the slum.

















Setting up a building course 
With all of the challenges of poor housing in the slums, building skills can be a great way for people to make money and improve living conditions. We started a pilot project with ten community members for seven months, taking them through the basics of building. We’ll then move on to alternative building techniques that use local, low-cost materials such as old tyres, plastic bottles, oil drums, mud and old pallets.


Family life 
The girls continue to thrive at school and are very much seeing Uganda as their home. They love having friends from all over the world and get stuck into all sorts of school activities. Sue still enjoys her role at the international school three days a week; balancing that with feeding in to Revelation Life discussions and a great women’s Bible study group. John has also really benefited this year from being part of a men’s group that meets each Thursday morning.  As you can tell, we have moved into some exciting areas in the last 12 months, and there are great plans for the year ahead. We feel that God has good things planned for the slums that will see them no longer places of despair and disease, but places of health and hope.

Still interested? Take a look at a video about Revelation Life's work in Uganda - it explains a lot about what we do.

So, hopefully not so long until the next post ;)