The“Sight and Life in My Life” Essay Competition nd Life e mpetition

8THE “SIGHT AND LIFE IN MY LIFE” ESSAY COMPETITIONThe“Sight and Lifein My Life”Essay CompetitionThe Sight and Life in My Life essay competition was set up withthe goal of finding out how Sight and Life has influenced its readersover the years, as part of the organization’s 25 th anniversary.In the final issue for 2010, therefore, we asked our readers to submitstories to us by mid-March 2011. Entrants were asked to addresstheir personal experiences, provide an assessment of the relevantcommunity’s experience, and give a definition of Sight and Life.We received many fascinating stories, as well as some beautifulphotographs and original artwork, from many countries, from Ghana toSri Lanka, and our Sight and Life team of judges in Basel, Switzerlandwas delighted with every entry. As promised, we are sharing the winningentries with you in this issue. However, we will also share highlightsof other entries with you in the next issue of our magazine.A heartfelt thank you again to everyone who entered the competition,for the time you spent on your wonderful entries and, last but not least,the great work you do in your communities.With warmest wishes.The Sight and Life Team

SIGHT AND LIFE | VOL. 25 (2) | 2011THE “SIGHT AND LIFE IN MY LIFE” ESSAY COMPETITION9Abubakar BulakoSight and Life in MyLifeI am a refugee who lives in Kenya, and have spent manyyears in Kakuma refugee camp. I was forced to leave my landand my country and had to flee to Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda,and Kenya after the outbreak of civil war. I have been separatedfrom my family since 2003, which was the beginningof my long and unending journey as a refugee. I am inKakuma refugee camp. This camp is located in the Turkanadistrict of the northwestern region of Kenya, 120 km fromLodwar district headquarters and 95 km from Lokichoggio oand the Kenya-Sudan border.Life in the semi-arid desert environment of Kakuma israther challenging. The area has always been full of problems:dust storms, high temperatures, poisonous spiders, snakesand scorpions, outbreaks of malaria and cholera andother hardships.“Life in a refugee campis life without hope”The camp is a small city of thatched-roof huts,tents andmud abodes. Living in here is like living in a prison. Life in arefugee camp is life without hope; it’s about living like a blindperson, who only knows where he or she comes from, butdoes not know where he or she is heading. This was my wayof life in Kakuma camp. Living in a camp is not an easy task,nor is life easy withoutemployment or any means to generateincome. I did find itdifficult to survive the day, and mostlyrelied on the limited food supplies distributed twice a monthby the World Food Programme (WFP).However, being in the camp taught me more about life.I decided to volunteer and start helping others; first of all,I worked for the Lutheran World Services (LWF) as a foodclerk at the distribution centers. Secondly, I joined the InternationalRescue Committee (IRC) which deals with healthissuesin the camp – after being trained as a nurse aid andnutritionist. After that, I was retrained by the Jesuit RefugeeServices (JRS) as a counselor, inspired by the situation peopleare living in. Many people commit suicide and this is whatpushed me to become a community counselor …Abubakar BulakoAs my aim is to help people who cannot do things on theirown, I did not stop there. I continued to help the most vulnerable,in a different field. As the camp was also full of differenttypes of violence, I was also trained as an ambassador forwomen in Gender Based Violence. The camp is multiculturaland there usedto be conflicts. In this instance, I also decidedto do “Peace and Reconciliation” in order to become a peacekeeperin the community. All of these projects were to the endof assistingmy people who cannot do things on their own.“In Kakuma refugee camp,the most challenging issue is food”In Kakuma refugee camp, the most challenging issue isfood. It’s what I call the source of everything – if people don’tget food, this can lead to disease and fighting, among manyother things. This is why I decided to join WFP. After beingselected by the community to represent them on the FoodAdvisory Committee (FAC), my work involved attending meetingson the food basket and food pipeline situation, and thedistribution plan through working with WFP.⇢

10THE “SIGHT AND LIFE IN MY LIFE” ESSAY COMPETITIONI started to have Sight and Life in my life. That is to say,I hope one day to develop my own non-profit entity to attemptto help solve some of the issues of poverty in Africa,I started seeing ahead, because it was through WFP meetingsthat I met different WFP donors and held discussions and alsoby providing people with the skills to reduce poverty in theirinteractions with them. Everything was about food-related dcountries.issues. The beginning of my new journey also started when I I would like toacknowledge the efforts of the Sight andfirst met the new WFP donor – DSM. We held a meeting with Life teamfor their charity, stimulation, love and support,Madam Milka when she first visited the camp in 2008. Shewhich has given me success in my life. Thank you very muchtold us about a new micronutrient product called MixMe.and may God bless you all.She also told us that she was working hand in hand with Sightand Life, DSM’s humanitarian initiative. That was the first Ihad ever heard about this; later on, we met the DSM team andCorrespondence: Abubakar Bulako, Catholic University ofSight and Life when they visited the camp.Eastern Africa, Department of Social Science, Faculty of Arts andLater, I had the opportunity to meet Dr Klaus Kraemer, the Social Sciences, PO BOX 863-00600, Nairobi, KenyaDirector. This was a special day and something I had neverE-mail: aboubadiobg@yahoo.frexperienced as a refugee, or indeed since I had started volunteeringas an FAC. Working with WFP and Sight and Life onMixMe at Kakuma was a great opportunity. ty. I was able“I entered the competition because, after reading Sight andto take part in every activity and every survey in the camp;LifeMagazine, I felt that I had something to be proud about.I had the chance to transform myself and overcome my own I wanted to share this with people who might have lost hopelimitations. I also developed the skills to help my people andin their lives.”unfortunate Rwandese and Burundians who did not knowabout MixMe, as well as other refugees fromother countries.Abubakar BulakoNairobi, Kenya“Thanks to Sight and Life,I got the chance to see far andto regain hope”Thanks to Sight and Life, I got the chance to see far and toregain hope. It has helped me find myself again, re-think andalso restore my dreams. Sight and Life gave me the chanceto go back to school. As I write, I am in Nairobi, the Kenyancapital – a place that I could not have imagined visiting asa refugee. But I am here now, pursuing my degree in Arts &Social Sciences at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.In my life, Sight and Life is more than everything to me. It hasrebuilt my life and has given it sight. Today, I am a personwho can speak out and to whom people listen, who can shareideas and change other people. I will become a social scientisttomorrow and all of this is thanks to Sight and Life. I am sograteful to you. It is my hope and belief that this companionshipwill remain for many years to come, not only for me butalso for those who are in greater need than me. With yourhelp, I know who I am. I promise to work hard and do more tohelp those who cannot help themselves. Assisting and helpingwill be my personal battle, so that I can help the vulnerablewithout expecting any rewards in return.“I“ I would like to sendmythanks to all the teammembers who selectedme. I don’t know how toca express myfeelingsbecause I am so happyand feel as if I am flyingwithout wings!”

SIGHT AND LIFE | VOL. 25 (2) | 2011THE “SIGHT AND LIFE IN MY LIFE” ESSAY COMPETITION11Prince AbugriSight and Life in My Life:A Life-Changing gEncounterI first learned about Sight and Life in August 2009, when Ijoined Presbyterian Primary Health Care (PPHC) – Bolgatanga,Ghana after school. I completed my University for Develop-elopmentStudies (UDS) in Ghana and now have a bachelor ofscience in Community Nutrition.One day, I was at the office and came across an old magazinewith the inscription Sight and Life, and began to lookthrough it. It was a 2008 edition and I was so happy aboutthe wealth of information it contained. I fell in love with themagazine; it led me to its website, where I learned more aboutthe organization and its work on improving the health of themasses. There, I came across a “call for proposals”, askingorganizations to submit proposals for the funding ofnutrition programs in their communities.I told my immediate boss, who was a senior nutritionist,tionist,about the proposal and he said we should give it a try. Afterreading through the procedures and requirements, we sentour application to Sight and Life for consideration. Althoughwe were not selected for the maximum mum $15,000 grant, wewere asked if we would like to receive materials on nutritionand other equipment on a periodic basis. Our answer wasa resounding yes; since then, we have received hard and softcopies of relevant information on that equips us for betterhealth h delivery in the nutrition ion department.“We receive e relevantinformation to equip us forbetter health deliveryin the nutrition department”Prince AbugriUntil recently, PPHC did not have a comprehensivenutrition module for children and adolescents, especiallythose in school. This was because we did not have muchinformation to deal with on improving their nutritionalstatus. tus. I am, however, grateful to Sight and Life because I wasput in charge of developing a module for school children onnutrition,which I was able to do with the help of the booksandother materials we received from you. I also developeda small book called Youth Nutrition, to enable me undertakea programknown as “School Health”, which educates youngpeoplein our catchment areas – the northern and upper eastregions of Ghana. It teaches better ways to improve theirnutrition and health status, and educates them on how theycan help their illiterate parents and siblings at home.This program has received the necessary support fromthe school authorities and from the students themselves.They have sent appreciative messages to me, thanking me forhelping them learn how to improve their nutritional status,and their general health status. I have also been given thegreen light from the office to continue with the program in2011 at various schools, thanks to the wealth of informationI have received.⇢

12 THE “SIGHT AND LIFE IN MY LIFE” ESSAY COMPETITIONPersonally, I have improved my level of knowledge in the “Thank youfor selecting me to be the joint winner of thisfield of nutrition and I have had a lot of project topics from prestigious award. ard. I feel sohonored to have won an awardone of the CDs you gave me. This will help me as I prepare tofrom such agreat organization. This is a wonderful momentpursue my master’s degree in September. It has enabled me for me, because it is the first time I have won an award fromto present a research proposal to the University of Ghana for an international ional organization such as Sight and Life.consideration for a master’s program in public health. I presenteda project proposal on how to improve the nutritionalI did not know what prize I was going to win. I joined the com-“I didnot enter for the sake of winning an award, becausestatus of pregnant women and lactating mothers in ruralpetition to let the world know that there is a group of peopleareas. I have had most of my references and other informationout there in an organization that is changing the lives of manyfrom the materials I receive from you, and will hopefully be in around the world, and that it is good to be associated withschool in September.them in order to help improve the health standards of peopleI am also very grateful to you because, during our proposalsubmission, we came across a document on how towrite proposals. The title was Tips for Proposal Writing whichwas prepared by Muzi Na, a graduate student from JohnsHopkins School of Public Health. We printed it outand havesince been using it as a guide to write proposals osals to variousorganizations, churches and other partners to fund ournutritionaland other health programs. I am happy to inform youthat these materials are more important to us than money.Weare receiving favorable responses from our partners, as wellas a lot of help from our partners from Switzerland (theparish of Horn) and others from the Netherlands. Your materialshave also helped me in my work during reporting, afterconducting various programs or projects such as schoolhealth, and other reports for PPHC.Thank you for all the relevant information I receivefrom you. The Bible says, “For lack of knowledge my peopleperish.” Thank God that I have knowledge relating to my fieldof work. Continue with the good work you are doing, for youimpact many more lives than you can imagine. Thank you.in vulnerable communities. This group is Sight and Life.”Prince AbugriBolgatanga, Ghana““I also wanted to let thestaff of Sight and Lifeknow that they are doinggreat work and thatI appreciate preci everythingu they are doing”Correspondence: Abugri Prince, Presbyterian PrimaryHealth Care (PPHC), PO BOX 42, Bolgatanga, GhanaE-mail: princekebo@yahoo.com