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January 21, 2015
UGANDAN
Inside
peace activist Sam Okello Kelo, drums alongside Central Okanagan School District student Tanner Milligan. Okello will visit every elementary school in the district over a month.
KEVIN PARNELL
Care for the caregiver.
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Taking care of a loved one with a longterm illness is not only exhausting, it can sap the strength and wellbeing out of the caregiver. Interior Health has programs to look into. ...............................
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Abstract art Well worth delving into at the Lake Country Art Gallery. ...............................
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Flyers ■ Home Depot ■ Jysk ■ Rona ■ Save On Foods ■ Shoppers Drug Mart ■ Staples
KEVIN PARNELL With a smile that seemed as if it could brighten any room, Ugandan peace activist Sam Okello Kelo kicked off a month long visit to Kelowna elementary schools at Glenmore Elementary this week, joined by a group of Glenmore students who danced, drummed and sang with the inspirational former child soldier. Okello, 44, will tour every elementary school in Kelowna, singing and dancing and telling his inspirational story to the youngest children in School District 23, preaching a message of love, of one world together. “One of the messages I want to share with the children is that we are one world and the world has so many opportunities that we should benefit by sharing the different cultures that exist around the world to better the human race,” said Okello this week. “We need to instill good
Cam Manning
Adversity into positivity values in our children. It’s important that we protect them by instilling the right values in them.” Now in his mid-40s and the executive director of an organization called Hope North Uganda, Okello tours the world talking about his experiences growing up in Uganda, using his own example to prove that no matter what life throws at you, there is something better down the road. At the age of 16, Okello was abducted by Ugandan rebels and turned into a child soldier for a year-and-a-half before he escaped and
used his experience to start working on improving the world. “I am inspired buy the fact that human life is supposed to be better,” he said. “You have hiccups in life. I got abducted, fine. But there is something better for me in life so I want to share that same principle with everybody everywhere I go. that when something is wrong we need to address it and when we address wrong things we address it with the key principle of saying ‘I want something better and something good.’ The message I
take around the world is that victims of challenges and difficult situations should not just sit there but come out and tell people this is what I went through. It can be changed and everyone is a part of it.” At Glenmore Elementary this week, a group of Grade 6 students joined Okello in a traditional Ugandan dance, a routine they learned when they first met Okello last year on a trip to Kelowna and perfected this year with Okello on the drum and the students looking every bit the part, dan-
Darla Cooper
cing along to the beat. The students were beaming after the performance, in front of a small group of teachers and parents, and were even brought out for an encore as those in attendance grabbed their cameras to record the moment. Student Tanner Milligan says it has been an amazing experience to get to know Okello and learn from him. “He’s pretty awesome,” said Milligan. “He’s smiling all the time and we’re always having fun with him. I think we can learn a lot from him
about values and about how much we have and how little people in his country have.” For Okello, the use of dancing and music is key to his message of peace. He brings his audience together in song, getting them to sing along and together. He says the reaction of the children he speaks to around the world is the same whereever he goes. “They get very excited and say ‘where have you been?’” he said with his trademark smile. “ I come with the music and dancing and you see the joy. The same joy I see in the eyes of the children here is the same joy I see in the eyes of the children I work with at home. They always want to experience it. They want to be part of something good and music opens up the children. I see a lot of excitement and a lot of curiosity.” You can learn more about Sam Okello Kelo’s Hope North Uganda organization at hopenorth. org. @KP_media1