The town of Pallisa, Uganda, has a population of 20,000, scattered across the surrounding 10 km area.  The main industry there is schooling.  In fact, the town swells to around 40,000 when school is in.  Kids come from all around to go to one of the 20 or so secondary schools in the area, where they board in a hut rented to them by the local villagers.  Imagine a 12 or 13 year old coming by him or herself, to live in a mud and grass hut with 1 or 2 others, fending entirely for themselves while going to school. Of course, the flipside is that this environment provides a great place for Young Life to make an impact, as volunteer leaders with a deep passion for Christ and for kids, reach out, befriend, and become family to many of these students.

Young Life's key Staff person there, Simon Okiria, began reaching out to lost kids in his village, in February of 2005.  He has trained a team of 15 volunteer leaders and they'd begun going out to do contact work.  Almost immediately, their weekly Club quickly grew to between 200-300 kids.  What is really amazing, is that although he'd been to a couple of training events with YL Africa, Simon had actually only seen one YL club in his life.  He has certainly taken the 'mustard seed' or the 'one talent' he received in training, and multiplied them for the Kingdom.

Pallisa is a rural area with extremely limited public transportation.  So when they go out to do contact work, some of the volunteer leaders will walk barefoot as far as up to 20 miles to love on kids.  Just recently, Simon and one of his leaders, James Amuriat, organized and started a Football Club to occupy the youth in the area during long evenings. The reality is that their Club is in fact the only recreational activity existing in the village, so you can imagine just how attractive and popular it's becoming with the local youth.

Pictured above, students in class at the boarding school in Pallisa.

VIEW the Young Life Uganda photo album.