The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted June 24, 2009, 8:31 pm by Roger Burks

New beginnings

Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

The violet-swaddled baby in this picture was born just moments before I arrived in the village of Agora, Uganda with a Mercy Corps team in early October 2006. Her birth came only a month after a cease-fire was signed between government forces and a notorious rebel group, tentatively ending the civil war that had battered northern Uganda for a generation and violently driven the Acholi people from villages just like this one.

She was the first baby born to this village since, just weeks earlier, Acholi families had returned here from the displacement camps where they'd taken uncertain refuge for years.

It was a happy day for the people of Agora: the celebration of a new, hopeful life. A return to home and tradition after years of exile and conflict. The baby's mother, 29-year-old Sabina Atamo, was particularly moved that we were there to share in the joy.

She spontaneously marked the occasion in a very unique and lasting way: with the help of our Ugandan staff, she asked the name of a young American woman who'd accompanied us on this field visit, a finance officer from our Portland headquarters. "Mindi," my colleague replied.

And so it was decided. "Then I'll call my daughter Mindi," Sabina said calmly and sincerely, "to remember this day, your visit and the help that Mercy Corps has given us to rebuild our lives here."

Sabina soon fell asleep on the floor of her makeshift hut as two midwives took care of little Mindi. After a bit more time among joyous villagers who were eager to see the new baby, we were on our way to the next village along roads that had recently been too dangerous to travel.

It's been almost three years since that day. I often think about the people I meet on my field visits, but very few as much as little Mindi — born in a time of new peace and hope for her village. I wonder where she is and what she's doing today.