I am a male Ugandan born in 1973, who with 3 others started a charity organisation called Charity for Peace Foundation. I have gone through 5 interviews with Ashoka Foundation and hope to become a fellow this year.

The organisation runs a night commuters centre in Gulu town, Youth Education Programme and Early Childhood development Programme in the camps.

My life that brought me in this charity work can the summerised interm of experiences in family, Childhood, at school and at work. Family: I was born in a village called Pabbo in Northern Uganda. the place formerly well known for rice production but now well known for being the largest internally displaced persons camp with population of 68,000 people. I was born to Anna Acomo totally uneducated and Otto Akol Gabriel who stopped in primary five (P.5) with his education. This was a village where only three families send children to school. One was ex-police man while another man was ex-soldier in World War II.

The only peasant farmer was my father who stopped in P.5 and he sends children in shift and the selection procedure to study were;

a) First born will study while he wasn't in position to afford paying second born and again third born will go to school. The trend continues like that and we were seven children. b)Girls were never sent to school. Despite all these procedures of selecting his children to send to school, my father used to bring all his children under a mango tree and will teach all the children basic arithmetic and how to read and write.

This helped my brothers and sisters who did not go to school to live a better life than the people in the neighbouring homes. They are now involved in business and their life skills is totally different from others who did not go to school.

When my father teaches his children, my mother was always in the class with the children under mango tree. When my father died in 1982, she took over every management of home and including paying school fees in her struggle with the children. She was so different from other women in the village we lived.

This inspired me to think that non-formal educational approach is a better way to eradicate poverty in the community.

Childhood;

When I was in senior one ( S.1) in St Joseph's Collage Layibi in Gulu, I was abducted by the lord resistance Army ( LRA) on 27th Dec 1990 and I spent 6 months, 2 weeks and 3 days in captivity.

When in captivity, two things happened to my life that I can't forget;

1. I was supposed to be killed by a commander called Okwera Dulmony as a demonstration to the other abductees that if you escaped, you will be killed. Fortunately the commander who abducted me knew I was a secondary school student and pleaded for my life on the ground that I am educated and will help them to write and read in the bush. He sacrificed 2 people who tried to escape and they were re-abducted and they were cut into peaces as we watched them pleading for their dear life.

b)The person put in charge of abductees hated me because I was educated among them and he was looking at me as a rival growing up. He them put me in real child labour of mingling bread for them every day. When I got fed up with the work, I told him to either kill me or I will never mingle again. He just reported to a commander that since abducted, I don't want to mingle and this commander came ready to cut me into peaces. On reaching where I was, he realised that Joseph Kony had stopped killing for a period of 1 month. He slides my neck with his knife and said " You are lucky that killing has been stopped this 1am, when the ban is opened, you will be the first to die" which scare is still there up to now.

School: When I escaped from captivity, I went back to school but on finishing my advanced level(A-Level), I was exposed to very many problems especially the issue of paying for university education. I decided to open a small bar for local brewed waragi, beer and sodas in Amuru sub-county in Northern Uganda. On my way to town to buy beers riding bicycle because government soldiers were getting salary the next day, we run to Lord Resistance Army (LRA) ambush with 6 others. When stopped by the rebels, I threw away my bicycle and run for my dear life. All the other six people were killed by the rebels.

I had to leave the business of the bar. I then started getting small fish locally known as Mukene or Wanjiri in Luo. A friend took me to Kitovu, an Island in Lake Victoria. When I bought 17 sacs of Mukene and on our way back from Kitovu, the motor boat started sinking and the conductor and others in the boat wanted me thrown in the water as a sacrifice so that they are saved from the wind. The pilot insisted that before I am thrown in the water, my sacs of Mukene be thrown first. When 9 sacs were thrown into the water, the motor boat became lighter and stabilised. This saved my life.

All these problems and life situation I went through at childhood and school difficulties made me focussed my ideas towards helping vulnerable persons in the community.

At Work place;

My first work place was a night mare. I studied Accounting at makerere University in kampala, Uganda. I joined Gulu Independent Hospital which was newly built. I was in charge of Finance and Administration. The hospital is a modern hospital built in a poverty stricken community. Many people would be brought to the hospital in coma the doctors swore to save life while my work was to make sure money is collected before treatment is given.

Over 43million Uganda shillings was in debtors in 3 years because I was too kind that I would allow some people treated before payment so that their life is saved. After they are better, they were detained in the hospital but finally released when you see that they sincerely have nothing for paying their medical bills.

I was then given 2 months suspension and when I came back from suspension, I decided to resign my position from the hospital because I found myself a person who can't work for profit oriented organisation.

The work in the hospital made me realised that the community we work in is too poor that they can't afford their medical bills, feeding, shelter and generally basic things in life. I therefore found myself at the centre of fighting poverty in the community. This inspired me to come out with non-formal educational approach as a way of eradicating poverty, child protection and generally empowering families a a support system for children.