|
Event
Under the Umbrella Tree - Documentary Premiere
In Uganda, millions of innocent children have been denied their basic rights to life and human security. It's estimated that 30,000 children were captured and enslaved by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. In a country of 36 million, 1.2 million children are orphaned from AIDS-related diseases. Desperate parents living in extreme poverty abandon their children daily. This is the state of Uganda's children.
One very determined and motivated woman has made it her mission to rescue these children, giving them hope, a stable home, and an education. Her name is Victoria Nalongo Namusisi. She opened her home and her heart to over 100 children. Victoria is their last hope for survival; sacrificing to feed, clothe, shelter, and educate these children. Without her, 95% of them would have faced death. For many of them, she is the only mother they know.
Under the Umbrella Tree is a true story based on the life of Victoria and how she came to open the Bright Kids Uganda home near Entebbe, Uganda.
Shot on location in Uganda, this film documents her remarkable life. It's a journey from her humble beginnings as a poor fisherman's daughter, revealing how, through the power of education, she became a journalist, a political official, scout leader, and the founder and director of Bright Kids Uganda. Her passionate work has been captured on film to show the world that there is hope for these children.
The film depicts that, although Victoria's father was uneducated and a simple fisherman working tirelessly on the waters of Lake Victoria, he profoundly influenced her by emphasizing the importance of education as a means of pulling oneself out of poverty. She has carried this goal and vision, not only for herself, but also for her children.
Victoria reminisces throughout the film about her position as the first female sports journalist and Chief Scout Commissioner in Uganda. While serving as a journalist, she risked her life and travelled to the war-ravaged Northern Uganda to visit refugee camps. She wrote about the deaths and enslavement of children severely impacted by Kony's war. Many of those who survived were now living in the camps. Victoria tells the story of finding Ronald in one of those camps, a little boy severely malnourished and just weeks from death.
Scouting played an important role in Victoria's life, experiencing an epiphany during a Scout conference she attended in Geneva. The realization that thousands of children were unable to become scouts, simply because they were homeless, gave her the idea to take the scouting program to the street children. It was under an umbrella tree on the crowded streets of Kampala that Victoria met with homeless children. She brought food and explained what the scouting program could do for them. Soon, she befriended 13 children, took them off the streets, and into her home. This was the beginning of Bright Kids Uganda.
Victoria continued travelling throughout the country meeting with families, assessing the needs of the children abandoned and impacted by poverty and AIDS. These life-changing experiences transformed Victoria from political leader to a savior of Uganda's vulnerable and fragile children.
Her home soon grew to almost one hundred. Throughout the film, there are compelling stories of several of the Bright Kids children Victoria has saved and, even herself, adopted. Each child has a traumatic story to be told. The story of Medi, a child beaten by his parents who ran away from home at the age of 5 to live on the streets, personifies the struggles of many young children. Connie shares her tragic story, carrying the memory of watching Kony's men bludgeon her parents right before her eyes. And then there is Gloria, a young girl whose short life exposed how many people in Uganda neglect and view children with disabilities as a curse.
Uganda still faces many challenges and implementing change is difficult in this developing country. Victoria has taken on the challenge of helping these children whose lives have been interrupted by years of war, poverty, and disease. She seeks out these disadvantaged children and often at her own expense, gives them food, shelter, clothing, medical care, a family, and most importantly, an education.
Unlike many children's homes in developing countries that rely heavily on donor funds, Victoria has embarked on an ambitious project of developing sustainable projects to provide a steady flow of funds to continue the mission of Bright Kids Uganda. Victoria discusses the ongoing projects including poultry, heifers, pigs, the health clinic, solar lighting, and water tanks that collect rainwater.
The resilience of the Uganda spirit lives, not just through the several children profiled in the film, but continues as we hear from many of the successful former Bright Kids who are now in university, married with children, and successfully employed. The main reason for success, echoed by many, was the opportunity Victoria gave them to have an education and a home. She tirelessly continues to find schools for all of the Bright Kids and encourages them to study hard, leading them to higher educational opportunities.
The children of Bright Kids Uganda were not the only ones who were impacted by Victoria. Interns from American universities as well as volunteers and medical professionals from all over the world have traveled to Uganda to support Victoria's work. Some visitors will stay for a few days or a few months and some will return again. Many come just to experience life at Bright Kids Uganda and interact with the children. Others come to work on projects to support the sustainable model. But most importantly, every visitor seems drawn to the amazing children of BKU and Victoria, the "Mother of Many." As a result, their time spent at Bright Kids Uganda becomes life changing for them as they learn each child's story of survival and experience the miraculous transformations of these children's lives.
Victoria Nalongo Namusisi and the children of Bright Kids Uganda truly embody the resilience of the Uganda spirit.
|
|
|
LocationThe Kelly Strayhorn Theater (View)
5941 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
United States
Categories
Contact
|