This month my team was working in Rackoko, Northern Uganda. Rackoko (pronounced rach-koko with an ‘h’ of unknown origin) is currently a small community about an hour from the nearest semblance of a city. For the years leading up to 2005 however, Rackoko found itself in the midst of a brutal conflict, existing as a displacement camp for those seeking government protection from rebel forces. The community has made great progress since its not so distant refugee camp days, but still struggles to overcome many issues primarily economic and social. The jobs here pay poorly and most income comes from small gardens that grow sweet potatoes, kasave (a root that is like a stringy potato when cooked), and ground nuts (the local term for peanuts). The social issues mainly stem from the war which created high numbers of orphans, many are products of rape, others have been orphaned by HIV, some were child soldiers, forced to kill their relatives. The damages of the war also placed a desire in the hearts of the people to rapidly repopulate the area, this results in even more children being born into this extremely volatile environment, further straining the already maxed-out resource system. Rackoko’s two giant cell phone towers provide the town with perfect cell phone coverage, and even reasonable over the air internet. Unfortunately, the town has power blackouts that strike daily at different times and for extended durations. Running water and municipal sewage systems are non-existent in Rackoko. The poor infrastructure can, at times, be maddening.
With all of the issues facing the community, it is easy to come in as an outsider and become quickly overwhelmed. Several nights early in my time here, I found myself in my bed, awake and thinking. Thinking that for the first time in my life, I was someplace that was truly hopeless. Thinking that I was in a place that in the foreseeable future, could never overcome it’s challenges. The challenges of the community along with the challenges and exhaustion that start to set in after being away from home for 8 months frustrated me. I saw another month, filled with similar duties to the last 7, in a place that needed so much more. We aren’t going to be offering anything meaningful, so why care? Why not spend the month resting? And then I was convicted. I could either take my frustration and use it as an excuse for nihilism, an excuse to sit by and waste what may be my only visit to Uganda, or I could take my frustrations and use them as a fuel to make positive change. I decided I needed to find an outlet for that frustration, I needed something different. I needed and desired a month unlike any previous. So I found a way to make a change, a way to jump start an entity working for a brighter tomorrow in Rackoko.
Enter Kingdom Pearl Ministries, the ministry we were blessed to work with this month. The ministry jumps into the community to tackle some of it’s most challenging problems…with soccer. Soccer is the cornerstone of the program that provides academic, spiritual, and physical guidance to the town’s many children and teenagers. The ministry has a soccer team complete with uniforms and cleats, that travels to tournaments around the area. It opens its doors nightly to the many local students who come to study under its fluorescent lightbulb, an uncommon commodity in the town. Kingdom Pearl provides career guidance and counseling, financial sponsorships for making exceptional academic efforts and progress.
When we arrived, we learned that the ministry was young, three years old. Growth had been slow, but steady. We found a somewhat sprawling ministry with an identity, that had grown beyond it’s understanding. The vision was inline with what was happening, but the visions would never be achieved if there wasn’t some organizational clarity brought about. In an organization like this where a single fulfilled request from a community member for food can quickly lead to more requests from others, growth can be rapid and sometimes messy. As the ministry became known as an entity capable of meeting needs, it’s own needs began to grow. With a group of primary supporters that could be counted on one hand, and a list of vision-related growth items that could at least be counted on two, it became clear that the organization needed to begin soliciting more sponsorships. To do this, it first needed to get an understanding of what it was. The tool that instantly came to mind as something that could satisfy the marketing, identity, and exposure needs of the organization, was a website.
I remember when I first mentioned the idea to our contact Godwin, the chairman of the ministry. His eyes lit up, “A website? You could do that?” the enthusiasm quickly faded as he paused, “But I don’t think we can afford it…” I informed him that we came to work for him and that Peter and I would be happy to spend a portion of the month working on the project for him, we hadn’t done anything like it yet on the race and both had previous experience. He agreed and at that point, none of us realized quite what the project would become.
It started with a survey of what was offered by the ministry. What does a week in the life of Kingdom Pearl look like? What does the ministry offer the community? Then came another idea. Peter thought of the power a short video could have on the site. It could include interviews of community members and a brief background of the town. In the interviews, we would ask how Kingdom Pearl was perceived in the community and begin to understand how the community understood the ministry. The results were powerful.
As we continued along, spending more and more time with Godwin, we began to get a better understanding of his vision, challenges and accomplishments. We were able to discuss with him which areas of the ministry he could quickly improve right away without any additional financial resources. Ways he could make the team more unified, ways he could make study sessions more useful, ways that he could encourage more community support. These small changes were mainly refinements, ideas that came up in conversation as suggestions which were quickly implemented. They cleaned up the lines between the different programs and made each program clear part of a pretty extensive offering. Then we discussed ways to track progress, ways to evaluate growth of each program to determine which were effective, and which could use some creative adjustments. The work was energizing and enjoyable, the significance noticeable. It was awesome.
After much work and rework, I am proud to present kingdompearl.org. It is my prayer that this webpage can be used by the ministry to gain exposure and effectively share with others the awesome work that is happening in Rackoko, Uganda!
Thanks for Reading!
-Jeff
