Julian Dennison was "humbled" on meeting South Sudanese people in Uganda. Photo / Per Liljas-World Vision
Julian Dennison travelled to Northern Uganda last month to shine a spotlight on the South Sudanese refugee crisis. He shared his experience exclusively with Canvas.
Travelling into Uganda, it's obvious, immediately, that I have just entered a world completely different to my own. I feel nervous. The place is crawling with security guards and police. There are so many things you would just never see in New Zealand; people piled on to a motorcycle, people piled on to a trailer. They have so little in terms of material wealth.
I also know that over the next few days I'm going to meet some really brave South Sudanese refugees who have faced, and are still facing, extreme and challenging situations. For that I am also nervous. I don't want to stuff it up.
Family is everything to me – I really don't know what I'd do without my mum – and I just can't see myself in a world without family. Which is why I am so inspired by the family I first meet: Edna, and her siblings Scovia and Kennedy. They ran home from school one day after they heard gunshots, but when they couldn't find their parents or younger siblings they made the tough decision to flee to Uganda alone. Now living in a refugee settlement, they're trying to make a new life for themselves – and they're so hopeful. I'm like, how, how? I don't know how they do it.
Edna's laugh is mischievous and filled with so much joy, despite all the hardships she's experienced. Scovia is such a strong young woman – I know she's going to be a future leader. Just seeing the willpower and strength she has to bring up her two younger siblings, with no parents, is inspiring to me.
Meeting them also made me realise that these guys aren't just "refugees"; they're people who have been forced into a life they didn't choose, just because of where they live. My heart aches for them, and their fellow 800,000 South Sudanese, taken in by Uganda.
So many of them are kids - and the kids I met want to do amazing things, things that will change the world. Thomas, who I met in Africa's largest refugee settlement, Bidibidi, wants to be an engineer so he can help make buildings more stable and build bridges so people can cross rivers. Even though he's in this horrific situation, he just wants to help others. That's so humbling.
Thomas and his brother Emmanuel lost each other, and their parents, while fleeing from the war in South Sudan, and it was only by chance they met again in Uganda. Thomas now works near their home so Emmanuel can stay in school – just one of the many adjustments they've had to make as they settle into their new life.
They face struggle every day. To get water, Thomas and Emmanuel must trek 1km, five times a day, to the water station - and they do it with a 20-litre jerry can. There is no running water where they live.
Then there is a man called Gift, who champions (truly!) a dance and drama team at the settlement. I am so impressed by his amazing energy and motivation. It's so awesome. When you're acting you don't need to know each other or even talk, you just communicate with looks and movement – you're totally in the moment together. It really makes me think how much acting, dancing and losing yourself in something can mean to people who are living with difficult experiences in their past. Gift tells me that acting means getting a voice and using it to make an impact on the community around him.
When the South Sudanese refugees first arrive, when they've crossed the border into Uganda, they are taken in at a World Vision-run reception centre. They might be elders, adults, people my age or young kids - it doesn't matter. They've all had to walk for days on end, often with little to no food or water, and having seen so many heartbreaking, and distressing things, just to reach the border.
There are health screenings and vaccinations, and even checks to support the most vulnerable, typically undernourished children and pregnant women. Then everyone is properly registered and given some very basic items, like a tarpaulin, to help them settle into what will be their new reality.
It's here I meet David, the centre's manager. Like so many others I meet on this trip, he oozes heart for others around him and is just so passionate about his work. The commitment and love he gives to every new arrival, providing them all with comfort and security, and really showing them that he wants them to be safe, is so special to see. For many of the South Sudanese refugees, this first step could see them living in settlements for the next 10, or even 20 years.
I also meet Harriet, a newly graduated hairdresser from World Vision's Livelihoods Training programme, who rents a small shop in the settlement – the Peace Salon. It's a single-room mud hut, no bigger than a small bathroom, with a chair and her products. But it's plain to see how much effort she's put in and how much pride she has for her salon. There are hand-written posters on the walls and pictures of styles on the door, and I am even lucky enough to try one out, with Harriet and her friends putting a couple of braids in my hair. She's had to overcome so much, and yet Harriet has hope for her future.
The people at Bidibidi have had to leave behind so much of what they know and love, and so many of the kids I meet just want to help others. I just feel really happy and grateful that I got to meet them – they really made me wonder why I ever complain. I have nothing to complain about. They have so much responsibility from such a young age. So many of them have fled South Sudan without their parents, some with no family at all. Many of them are my age. My heart aches, and I feel pain and a lot of grief for them.
But, I also leave Uganda with a feeling of hope. I have hope that there will be a better life for kids like Edna, Scovia, Thomas and Emmanuel.
I learned so many things from my week in Uganda, but if I had to choose one, it would be this: Life is best when you're helping others, and I'm inspired to do the same.
I'll never forget them.
Siiba bulungi (have a nice day).
Julian Dennison travelled to Uganda with World Vision New Zealand. The Famine is Friday June 7-Sunday June 9.
famine.org.nz