Where it Began
During a Summer trip to Uganda, a Seattle mom met a young girl who ultimately gave rise to a movement. Mary was 11 years old, dressed only in a man’s extra-large T-shirt, with gaping holes exposing her tiny, malnourished frame. Walking along the road she carried a baby on her back, who was by all appearances, a young sibling. However, through the tears of the local translator, the truth was told regarding Mary’s story. She was one of many girls in the community who had suffered from familial trafficking. Trafficking...for food. The baby, her own child, conceived by a man who brought a bag of rice to her mother’s home. Hunger is seemingly a greater hell than victimization. Now cast out of her mother’s home as there was another mouth to feed. The dismal reality for this child, homeless, without access to food, uneducated, and hopeless to escape repeating the same cycle, was gruesome. One could not simply “unsee" this crisis affecting Mary. Horrifyingly, she was not alone in her suffering. There were scores of children like her in just this one village in Uganda: Jjungo. In that moment of heart-pounding conviction a choice had to be made. A Divine direction came in the for of these words: “Do not look away.”