Empower

Yesterday was the final day of Empower, and what an amazing seven days it was.
We really heard some great testimonies at the end of the course on what the girls had all gained from their experience.
The first half of the course looked at the effects of trauma, and teaches exercises to help the body and the mind deal with trauma.
The second half of the program explores forgiveness, and letting go of heavy burdens and bitterness.

We were aware the girls where interested from the first day, considering that they all showed up early. In fact, throughout the whole course, not one girl came late or missed a day. They were all very interested and dedicated.
This is an extra special achievement in Uganda, and we were certainly appreciative for all these young women (Many single mothers) who had arranged caretakers for their children, and who made sure to arrive early each day.

Agnes and Rachel were our leaders for the course, and they really did a fantastic job! I was so impressed at their teaching abilities, counseling skills and the strength and leadership they showed.
We had spent a lot of time preparing for Empower before hand running over the whole program together, discussing and running through counseling techniques, as well as putting some systems and organized meetings in place for us leaders to debrief.
Every morning before the program started was met with prayer and recapping on what was to be taught. After everyday, debrief was held for us leaders.
It is very important to be organized for Empower, and that leaders also are supported. It can be quite a moving program, and strenuous at times for leaders, so it was my job to make sure both Agnes and Rachel where doing good, and to take care of them.

They displayed fantastic leadership though, I really see a lot of potential in both of them for this kind of trauma rehabilitation work among young girls. Of course, they both have their own experiences to draw from, with Agnes being a qualified development worker and Rachel being a qualified social worker.

The program exposes a lot of trauma in the participants, and one of the days includes private one on one story telling with the leaders. This means Agnes and Rachel both had a full day sitting with five girls each, as they told Agnes and Rachel their life stories.
This was the most intense day, as many of these girls have carried a lot of trauma with them.
Many girls where breaking down while sharing their stories. This was actually something that was expected, and well discussed preparation had already taken place among the leaders on how to deal with this kind of response. The girls all had a safety plan in how to deal with trauma attacks that might occur when sharing their stories.
Many times this included Rachel and Agnes helping the girls get back in control of their bodies through deep breathing exercises.
These young women have gone through so much and carry so much trauma. There were stories of childhood abuse, attacks and near death experiences, abuses by men, child hood neglect and abandonment and even murders within their families.
What was interesting was that these girls did not take much to open up. Empower has been used a lot in Rwanda due to the genocide that happened there, and has had some amazing results. But I have heard a lot about people really taking time to start to share their own stories.
This may be a difference in the culture, and although this is certainly not a case down to the every individual, I do find Ugandans seem more willing to open up and share their stories.

The girls were all itching to tell their stories, and they had actually told Rachel and Agnes that this was the first time they had ever got to sit with a counselor and talk about their life. So much had been caged up inside them, and now for the first time in their lives they had a chance to let it all out.
This is why it is so important to learn body and mind exercises in the empower course, before sharing your story. This helps them in being able to share their story in a way that does't reduce them to a wreck that can't speak.
At the end of the day, Agnes and Rachel were very tired and drained, and we debriefed and managed to talk about how they handled it. But they did extremely well! They were both very strong and have good management over their own emotions when hearing these stories and engaging the girls in counseling techniques.

Towards the end of the program the girls learn about forgiveness, and the weight that carrying around bitterness can have on the soul.
At the end of the program is a powerful deceleration of forgiveness, and the stories we heard of forgiveness where beautiful.
Many of the young women said they were forgiving people in their lives that they had held grudges against for years.
Some of the girls had expressed in the counseling sessions, that there were particular family members that they would never forgive.
But here they were two days later, saying that they wanted to take that first step. Many of them expressed that they didn't just want to let go of the bitterness in their hearts, but felt a desire to tell this person they were forgiven.
Not only that, but many girls were beginning to see that they were not always the victim, that they had hurt many people in their lives as well. This has compelled a few of them to ask and seek for forgiveness as well.

The joy on all the girls faces was clear when they sang their final worship songs and ate the final feast to celebrate (Actually Farouk and I kept clear during the final singing, they were going crazy with joy jumping around, that we thought best not to join, in case we got dragged into having to do some silly dances haha)

There is another powerful spiritual aspect to the course as well. Throughout the course, each day is opened with a devotion and worship.
The course is also full of little bible verses and biblical principles of loving your enemy and forgiveness from God. And towards the end of the course a full gospel presentation is given. We had one Muslim girl who was captivated by all of this! She expressed that she had never heard such joy in singing during the worship times, and that in her Islamic community this deep abiding joy in God is often not found.
She also expressed that although she was scared, she wanted to know more about this Jesus, and expressed a desire to come to Him and have her sins, pain and bitterness removed.
We rejoice at this! Though I request prayers for this girl (whose name I will keep confidential) as she has some serious challenges ahead of her, mainly being her father (and main caregiver) is a devout Muslim and wants her to marry a Muslim man, when she has expressed she wants to marry a Christian man.
Many other girls who are Christians also came forward to express that although they believed, they had never fully given their burdens over to God. They were still holding onto a lot of their anger, and that it was time for them to give themselves over fully to Christ, pain, trauma and all.

All in all it was a beautiful seven days! I really see us using Empower in the future! Now that Agnes has had the experience of running a course, she really will be a great person to work with young women. I would also love to work with young men and do the course for them. I was lucky to run some of the program during the seven days (mainly some teaching, and drawing analogy's) but due to always needing a translator, and the sensitive nature of some parts of Empower, most of it was facilitated by Agnes and Rachel.

A blessed seven days of healing! God was very much present and we rejoice in this ministry tool. We have to thank all the people who brought this to us, including Andrew and HopeBuilders for arranging our training, Dennis from Rwanda who trained us, and especially Rob Vanderzaag for his hard work in helping bringing empower over to East Africa. We also thank Ron and Anne and Jinja Christian School, for allowing Rachel to come team up with us for the seven days.

(Oh and I forget to mention Farouk, who babysat the whole seven days so his wife Beatrice, and another girl, could go through the course uninterrupted! A man babysitting is not a common thing here! So well done to him)