For Monica Akello, education is something to shout about.
The 21-year-old native of Uganda, who lost both her parents to the war that started in 1986, cheered with joy after telling a crowd of about 170 in McCarty A that she had graduated high school and will be attending college to become a teacher.
“I had to go through difficulties, and education is the key to everything we do on earth,” Akello said. “It is the key to make our life a better one.”
Akello is traveling with Invisible Children to spread the word about the conflict in Uganda and to raise money for the organization’s Legacy Scholarship Program, which sponsors her education and that of hundreds of other Ugandan students.
Invisible Children is a nonprofit organization that aims to end the conflict in Uganda, which has now spread to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
Akello also wants to raise money for her high school, Awere Secondary School, which receives donations from UF’s chapter of Invisible Children.
The event included a short documentary about Akello and the scholarship program, as well as a longer documentary describing Schools for Schools, an Invisible Children program in which American schools raise funds for schools in Uganda.
Irene Aol, who mentors Akello and 22 other scholarship students, said the violence in Northern Uganda has lessened.
“But as much as this war is over, the silent war still goes on,” Aol said.
Like Akello, Aol believes education can heal after violence.
“It’s a tool ... which they can use to fight injustice in the world and a tool with which they can be the change which anyone will want to have,” Aol said after the presentation.
