Through The Door: Mother Theresa’s Primary School (Mama T's)

Monday 25 June

My partner teacher or religion is Sister Hellen Lamunu. A truly amazing woman who was not only inspired by Mother Theresa, but is following her path of selfless devotion to the most affected by the war, the children. There are around 250 children ages 3-17 about 50 of whom are deaf. The school just goes to Primary 7 (6^th grade) and she has her first set of students taking the national test this year. Even the oldest are just reaching P7 due to missing school when they were younger. While not all the children are orphans by definition, if Sister did not take them in, they would be on the street. You know all those fairy tales about the wicked step mother…well I am pretty sure they originated in Africa.

When a man divorces his wife, or marries another wife, he will effectively give control of his children to the new wife (step-mother)- in most of the cases at Mama T’s the step mother gave the father the ultimatum- either I go or the kids go- so the kids get kicked out. Since it is the women who rule the home front, her word is law.

But let me back up a tell you how she started: she began a vocational school for young (read teenage) mothers who returned from captivity with no way to take care of their children. They went to school to learn tailoring and Sister started a nursery school for their kids. As fewer women need the vocational part, the school expanded to include primary. Then one day, Sister received a call from the police that they had found an baby in a village that had just been raided by the LRA- everyone was dead or gone and an 8 month old baby boy was found in a hut. She placed him with a foster family until she could set up the accommodations to take children full-time. It took 3 years and he is now 11. So from one little boy to 250 since 2006. Many have parents who died of HIV, some just came out of hiding to find their family gone. Many were born in displacement camps, then their parents died in the camp, so they have no idea where their ancestral land is. And then others where just abandoned either because they were deaf or due to the divorce scenario. One little girl was found in a trash can.

They are so starved for personal attention, that each time we go we have 8-10 just holding on…

The biggest concern for Sister now is that even if the 10 or so students taking the exam do well, there is no money to send them to secondary school. She hopes one day to build a secondary school on the land (she has 11 acres)…but in the meantime she does what she can. Kristine and I are talking about setting up a foundation to provide scholarship money for the ones with no relatives. There is no future for these kids with no education. Keep them in your prayers.