When someone becomes a refugee, one of the greatest losses can be something less tangible than a home or material belongings – refugees risk losing their cultures, their traditions, the very roots of who they are.
That’s why yesterday, we made sure that a women’s group in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement had beads to create necklaces worn during their traditional dances. And today, we’re focusing on an instrument needed to practice their dances just the right way – drums.
Having traditional drums would mean that a true dance and singing group could form. Rose, the leader of the women’s group, told our team why the drums are so important – “Any dance without drums will not be together. The drums are unifying. When I hear them, it feels right in my heart.”
But first, we had to track them down. Phone calls to different parts of the country were made. Artists were contacted. When Joseph, an ARC teammate from Kampala, found someone who made drums there, he arranged to have them carried by a local bus all the way to the settlement – a 10 hour drive!
When the drums finally arrived, the women’s group met the ARC team to receive them. And then, something wonderful happened – the women broke out into song. The ensuing celebration went on for over two hours, under a hot sun that brought the temperature to over 100 degrees. A true, traditional dance group was born.
In the end, getting these women drums wasn’t very difficult – but the impact they will have on their lives is powerful. They can dance, they can sing, they can be together, holding on to the traditions of their parents and their grandparents. And that, as small as it may seem, is what real change is all about.
