Uganda: Surviving Tragedy and Gaining Strength

Why is it that while many of us are discouraged and some devastated by life’s losses, a rare few not only survive but thrive in their wake –transcending tragedy, growing not despite but through it. We’ve all known such people — a cancer survivor, someone who’s lost loved ones, maybe someone who experienced war, incarceration or abuse and somehow came out of it finding life all the sweeter for being so fragile and fleeting. Such individuals don’t simply endure; they transform. And through this transformation, they gain a new appreciation for life. In this program, part of our LoveLife series, we meet three remarkable individuals and communities – a female minister in Zambia who lost nearly every member of her family to AIDS, then broke the taboo of silence by revealing to her congregation that she too was HIV positive; a fourteen-year-old student abducted with scores of classmates in Northern Uganda and held captive in Sudan for eight years before freeing herself when powerful people had tried and failed; and a mother in Colombia who lost nine members of her immediate family to the army, paramilitary forces, and guerrillas before dedicating her life to helping other grief-stricken mothers find purpose and meaning again. Each of these women has found a way not just to survive but to turn her misfortune into renewed strength and a gift to the larger world. In an age of widespread skepticism about human possibilities, it’s heartening to hear from those who, despite losses often far greater than our own, have found ways to embrace life and convey that inner joy to others.

Duration: 55:00 minutes

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