Student to visit Uganda in summer

College students have been known to change a lot of things, but Pitt senior Megan Young takes… College students have been known to change a lot of things, but Pitt senior Megan Young takes it to another level. After viewing a documentary, she decided that she will spend her summer trying to affect change in an entire population of children.

Young, 22, will be traveling to the African country of Uganda to spend two months documenting the artwork and experiences of former child soldiers who have been impacted by years of war in Uganda.

The artwork will be documented in a book by Peter Otika Okema, coordinator of Pittsburgh’s Africa Project.

Young was initially stirred at a screening of “Invisible Children,” a documentary about the child soldiers.

“I’m ready to be inspired, and completely and utterly moved by these kids,” she said. “I can already imagine how extraordinary they are.”

She had planned to travel to Kenya this summer, but she contacted Okema after viewing the documentary and together they planned her involvement in his project.

“These children are abducted between the ages of 5 and 15, and the only thing that they know is how to kill [and] how to fight,” Young said.

She added that children have even been forced to go into their villages and kill their own parents.

If these child soldiers escape, they are forced to hide because the rebel army will come looking for them. So at night the children leave their homes to walk miles into town where government officials guard buildings in which hundreds of children sleep.

Counseling centers have been set up for children who have been orphaned by AIDS and the war itself, but the intense nature of their trauma often halts their ability to express what they have been through.

Young explained that art is used as a means of expression and the children usually draw pictures of murder, disaster and fire. These pieces are going to be the main focus of Okema’s book.

Aside from the artwork, Young will also be recording video clips of the children and collecting essays for a contest held by the Africa Project. Winning children will receive money for school supplies.

Okema, a native of Uganda and recent Pitt graduate, said that he is satisfied with the number of people who have become involved in efforts to connect people from Pittsburgh to people from Africa. He said that Young’s involvement in this project may be beneficial for her on a personal level as well.

“I always told her go ahead and take the challenge. I would like her to go there and experience a different world, a different environment and situation,” Okema said. “I think she’s going to be symbolic of what a student might be able to do.”

Young’s evident compassion was amplified during her experience with Semester at Sea in 2004. She explained that the experience as a whole has changed her lifestyle.

“I don’t think that it was the immediate impact … but once I got back from Semester at Sea, the whole experience definitely changed my life. It’s the aftermath and how you act when you get back,” Young said.

Her interest in Africa was sparked by the trip, and she added an Africana studies certificate to her political science and history majors and administration of justice minor.

“It just opened my eyes … seeing how people live in the rest of the world, how incredibly, incredibly fortunate we are,” she said. “It just does something to you if you let it.”

Her mother, Kristin Young, noticed the positive change in her daughter and said that her gut feeling is that the timing is right for this trip.

She has confidence that her daughter is doing something that will impact her for the rest of her life.

“If she was a meeker personality or not as assertive, I might have more concerns,” Kristin Young said. “I feel like she can take care of herself as much as any of us can.”

A self-described independent adventurer, Megan Young feels confident that by going on this trip she is heeding a calling that cannot be ignored.

“When you’re an individual, you can’t do a lot, you can’t encourage political representatives to do something to change the overall situation. But going and working with a group of children is going to change their lives forever,” she said.

And Young will not be alone, as she will be building connections by working closely with the children and putting faces to the problem in Uganda. Her own father, William Young, can attest that his daughter is ambitious in pursuing her dreams.

“She’s always loved to go on adventures. Ever since she started to walk, she just loved to explore,” he said, “If she wants something bad enough, she’ll try her best to pull it off.”

And that’s exactly what Young plans to do.

She embarks on her journey May 8, as a graduate, excited to turn the page that will open the newest chapter in her life. When she returns, she plans to continue working in her field but admits that her plans are far from final.

“I’d love to do stuff in other parts of the world as well, but like I said, I left my heart in Africa,” Young said. “I have a strong desire to do as much as I can there.”