My Story Can Restore Hope - Meet John, A Teacher in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement

My Story Can Restore Hope - Meet John, a Teacher in Kyaka II Refugee Settlement

12/4/2023

4 mins read time

John Byamungu Nachale is a refugee teacher who is working with Children on the Edge to pioneer a new approach to early years education for Congolese refugee children in Uganda.

He was attacked and left for dead when he lived in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), and had to flee the country having lost everything.

He tells us the story of his journey, and how working to educate some of the youngest children fleeing his home country has begun to restore his hope.

ESCAPE FROM THE DRC

After escaping his country due to a violent attack, John now lives in Kyaka II refugee settlement in Uganda and is a teacher trainer for our early years education programme. He’s a director of a preschool that was rebuilt by Children on the Edge and helps to train and supervise the teachers (also called ‘caregivers’) involved in our cluster learning programme.

In the DRC, John was a school teacher, teaching in French. He worked with an American NGO and has training in conflict resolution.

He worked in a different area of the DRC to where he came from, and as a result, he told us he faced “hatred” and resentment from local people. One day, he was attacked and left for dead. He still doesn’t know who was responsible, and wasn’t able to identify the perpetrators. He told us:

John now lives safely in Uganda

“One day, they came into my house and shot me. After shooting me, they put the knife that was on the end of the gun here [John points to the scarring from where he was stabbed in his neck]. I was very seriously injured. They took my savings, my computer, everything.”

Thankfully, he had free healthcare with the NGO he worked for, and when he phoned the CEO for help, they immediately sent hospital staff to John, who gave him an emergency blood transfusion at home. “That is how I was saved”, he says.

John couldn’t talk for some time after his injuries. He and his family were living in fear in the DRC, unable to trust anyone, as they didn’t know who was behind his attempted murder. John told his employers he could no longer work for them, they gave him some money so he and his family could make their escape to neighbouring Uganda.

Six months after the attack, John was well enough to leave the country with his wife, four children and two adopted children. Their journey from southern DRC involved a number of car journeys and long ferry trips across vast lakes. When they finally reached Bunagana on the border with Uganda in 2018, the family went to register themselves but had no official documentation.

Nevertheless, John said: “They welcomed us and asked us what had happened.”

The Ugandan authorities came to the border to collect them, and they eventually arrived at Kyaka II refugee settlement, where Children on the Edge began working in 2019. They were given tarpaulins and John constructed the family’s first shelter. He has been continually improving their home ever since.

“From that, we constructed another one, and a year later I built one with a corrugated iron roof.”

'I FEEL PROUD' - REDISCOVERING A LOVE FOR TEACHING

John describes suffering from PTSD from the attack. He has flashbacks and hears shouting voices. But these episodes are reducing slowly. It took several years for him to process the trauma, and when he first arrived in Kyaka II he wasn’t able to trust anyone.

As John settled in, his passion for teaching was reignited. He became the first person in his local area to provide education for some of the youngest refugees, as he was concerned that children’s learning “was blocked”, with little education provided in the refugee camp, especially for the youngest refugee children.

A bright green brick building in Kyaka II refugee settlement - a Children on the Edge learning centre

Learning Centre rebuilt by Children on the Edge in Mukondo

John is the director of the learning centre we support in Mukondo. The building was rebuilt by Children on the Edge and now offers a bright, safe space for the youngest refugee children to receive high quality early years education and support.

“I understand the situation for refugees. Lack of education is a major problem for our future. Education gives light to the future of our children.”

Young children inside the learning centre are playing a gametre

Children aged 3-6 years attend the learning centre but classes are oversubscribed

When we launched our cluster learning programme, offering outdoor early years classes for young children, to help ensure that more children could benefit from education; John mobilised his community and helped them to understand the concept.

Mukondo was the first location where we trialled cluster learning - small outdoor early years classes for the youngest children - in September 2021, so the community has been able to see the difference learning has made to their children. The cluster group classes help to reach more children in the community as the learning centre building can’t accommodate every child.

John is also a ‘Trainer of Teachers’ for Children on the Edge. As an experienced teacher, John works in his community to help train and mentor other caregivers (who lead the cluster group lessons in their communities).

“I am very, very much enjoying being a ‘Trainer of Teachers’ and feel very proud.”

His community has proven to be one of the most receptive areas, and people here really support our sustainable model of community ownership and empowerment. This is partly down to John being a well-known and respected figure in his community.

John and a teacher are sat outside on a coloured mat with a group of young Congolese children taking part in a lesson

John with a cluster learning class and their teacher in his community

John is also a pastor and currently constructing a church building for his congregation. He says he will never go back to DRC, because “I like where there is peace.” He describes how he was “quick to anger” when he lived in DRC. John and his wife have had two more children since they arrived in Kyaka II settlement. Their adopted children’s birth parents were relatives who were killed in conflict.

“My work brings me hope, because I am working with children, which I love. Children on the Edge restored my hope.”

When asked whether we could share his story with our supporters, John says, “Yes, it’s very important. I was lost in hope - my story can restore hope in others”.

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