In 5 Hours we will lace up our shoes to walk 30 miles--again!!

Dear friends, tomorrow we walk again in Dallas, TX and I do feel that this journey has become a catalyst for change.  We are miles away from Uganda and my home village, Bamunanika where all this started, and yet, there is a collective voice of folks here who are standing up and saying "enough" to child sacrifice.  I know that my life has evolved somewhat since I decided to retrace the steps I took in 1989 leading me away from  Bamunanika to Kiwoko.  In 2009, I was in Breckenridge for spring break and was telling three close friends about walking 52 kilometers as a teenager.  Causally, one of them suggested I walk again and I spent the whole night tossing and turning and wondering—what would it be like to walk again?  And if I did, for what purpose should I walk?  On July 11th, 2009, with a group of not less than 30 people, we kicked off Rose's Journey from Baminanika, my home village, to Kiwoko.  As it did in 1989, it took us all day to walk.  But this was a different walk.  I walked because a profound truth remains: while I have been rescued from the clutches of witchcraft, there are others!  As we have done so in the last two years, for those children who suffer cruel injustices in Uganda and around the world, we walk tomorrow in Dallas:

Since the start of this campaign in 2009, we have seen progress at different levels: (1) Media coverage by local and international groups has increased. (2) More families have reported missing children even though follow-up on these cases is still lacking. (3) The government as established a Child Sacrifice Task Force (response unit) in Uganda. (4) There has been increasing involvement of National and International NGOs such as the Kyampisi Child Care Ministries in Uganda (http://www.kyampisi.org/KCM/), The Jubilee Campaign in the UK (http://www.jubileecampaign.co.uk/uganda-campaign) and the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) (http://www.anppcanug.org/organization/).  Through Rose's Journey and Hope ward, Narrow Road helps to add voice to these organizations and I hope that through this collective effort we can continue to negotiate the cultural and legislative barriers surrounding child sacrifice as well as bolster the awareness campaign with every opportunity we have.

I wrote in 2009 that Child Sacrifice was and still is one of the less championed injustices against children in Uganda. We so easily mistake it to be a normative part of the people's culture. I have been guilty of this, of passing something off as, well, part of the culture as though that makes it alright. It should make us uncomfortable to pass off something heinous as killing a child as a cultural norm! By blanketing it under normative practices that define a certain group of people, we are all looking for a way out.

I still believe that for every Ugandan, this is a responsibility we cannot delegate to the government.  This work needs to be done at every level—individual, communities, national and international

• Ø  Individuals can spread the word, report crimes, carry out awareness campaigns, and collaborate with educators to teach communities and children about child sacrifice.
• Ø  Local Council representatives in the community as well as the local police stations should be supportive of individuals who report these crimes and follow through with investigations
• Ø  Churches and school can allow for dialogs surrounding witchcraft and related rituals
• Ø  Public health practitioners can engage in health education that addresses cultural norms that are injurious to health.  Nurses can use existing infrastructure for reaching communities through health education: encourage parents to circumcise children and or have ears pierced as a deterrent to being kidnapped for ritual sacrifice.  Mutilated children often need immediate Acute and Long term care—Practitioners should be familiar with available support organisations and make appropriate referrals
• Ø  Local and international media groups can do so much at spreading the word and putting out alerts for children who have been kidnapped
• Ø  Community group activists and established local organisations such as Kyampisi Child Care Ministries are often looking for volunteers—be one!
• Ø  As responsible citizens we need to write to our members of parliament until they start listening
• Ø  Sign a petition such as the one on the Jubilee campaign website.
• Ø  Add your voice to the hundreds of other voices speaking out against child sacrifice
• Ø  Lobby for institutional policies that address witchcraft in work places
• Ø  Lawyers need to engage in this process to establish clear legislation against these crimes

It is a collaborative effort and I continue to hope that our collective voices will be heard from village to village; from city to city; and from nation to nation.  So tomorrow, friends and supporters here in Dallas will join us in this pilgrimage.  We will also remember a child for every mile we walk.  Their stories are imprinted on our hearts and move us into action.   Thank you for following me on this journey, for telling others about it, and for donating generously to the causes we champion!  

http://www.narrowroadintl.org/Narrow_Road__Roses_Journey.html