For most of the survivors of the horrific attack, they will never step onto the Kyadondo grounds again for as long as they live. For others, the ordeal simply brought them to terms with God’s divine purpose.
Established Ugandan Movie Maker Ediu George Stanley Nsamba ventured into documentary film making, and one day when shooting a documentary for Destiny Friends International, a formal service organization in Uganda established in a bid to restore the once lost dignity in the HIV impacted families, orphans and other vulnerable children, he realized there was need not just to take kids and youth to school, but equip them with practical life skills.
It is here that he lead off an organization called The Ghetto Film Project early 2013. But why the sudden interest in helping Children acquire practical life skills?
The 26-year-old says that his story is of a childhood no child should ever have and a teenage upbringing they should never witness.
When his father and mother divorced, Nsamba, together with his two siblings moved to Naguru-go-down, a huge slum in Kampala, into an unfinished building which flooded when it rained and construction went on as they lived in it.
It is later on that his mother, Mrs Vicky Aryenyo was diagnosed with HIV and admitted at Nsambya hospital in 1998.
“Life became unbearable,” Nsamba says, recounting the circumstances that led him to dropping out of Makerere University.
He had to work as a kid carrying trash, collecting old news papers that he sold to put together money for his little brothers feeding.
“I became a robber at the age of eight but as my friends kept getting killed or beaten to near death, one day at the age of 10, I decided to give up that kind of life. But then, my mother had been admitted at Nsambya hospital for nearly seven months. I was forced back to the streets, where I started abusing drugs that included Heroin, battling the addiction till I was 19.” he says.
He adds,”My turning point was on July 11, 2010. How I survived the bombs at Kyadondo was unbelievable. I survived with my brother Daniel, but my childhood best friend did not make it. Since then, I started taking life differently,”
George has since 2015 received 5 Film Festival Nominations and his work endorsed four times at different Film Festival Selections that include the prestigious International Peace And Film Festival that takes place in Orlando,USA.
Nevertheless, for him, accolades are simply a bonus, his stories are simply meant to change and inspire a life.
“I can’t recall how many times I questioned God’s will, how many times I doubted his existence, how many times I deserted his ways and sought my will only to read the bible that says “at his opportune moment he will manifest” and today I’m full of praise for him,” he says
“I can’t recall how many times I contemplated suicide, the two failed attempts on my own life at the age of 15 and 17; the letters I wrote to my imaginary unborn son because I never hoped to make it to the age of 20 due to the way I lived my life, I knew drugs will kill me one day; the reputation I built as a violent kid all through school because of the unanswered questions in my life that I transferred into anger etc, but then I started realizing I was too selfish to not see how many things God has done for me that I took for granted,”
“Who am I that he chose to give breath today, yet many are paying for oxygen and fighting for their lives! Who am I to have a roof over my head yet many are homeless. Who am I to have a functioning brain yet many are in mental health facilities, I’m not deformed in any way among others,”
“I realized one thing, all we treasure that makes us happy in life is a bonus; money, success, friendship, family to mention but a few. Absence of them doesn’t mean God isn’t at work because as you sleep in the night you don’t protect insects from your nostrils. Many have the success you admire but can’t enjoy the sleep like you do! In all, be thankful to the maker for he is a way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, that is who he is,”
aaron@ugchristiannews.com
