The following is an excerpt of Murray's story of how The Bearcare Project came to be.

After meeting someone on a flight between Harare and Sydney who was doing some volunteer work in Africa, I decided then and there that life had been good to me so the next part of my journey would be to put something back into life and so I headed for Africa.

I sold my home and put all my treasured items into storage and made plans to fly to a little war torn place called Kitgum, Northern Uganda.  After some initial work there with a volunteer group, I decided to leave as their policies and beliefs where not my own.  I began to help out at a local hospital under some of the poorest conditions I had ever witnessed.  My very world changed around me in a matter of days as children some only months old where dying from every conceivable reason and disease, HIV/Aids, Malaria, Witchcraft abuse and gunshots.  I did say gunshot wounds, I forgot to mention that this area I went to work in had been involved in what I term the forgotten war.  The Lords Resistance Army (LRA) had been fighting the Ugandan Army for 15 long years and of course the worst affected were the children who would be abducted and press ganged into the Rebel Army and ordered to 'kill or be killed'.  The child soldiers of Uganda.

This is where my journey stopped for a while as I decided that the poverty, disease and hunger that the children suffered needed some help from 'my world'.

I made some enquiries and found that there were many orphans living in or around Kitgum who struggled to survive from day to day, their parents and relatives having died from Aids or killing by warring rebels.

I met with some young men and women and from the community acquired some property and the dream was born.  The Bearcare Project an Orphanage for children suffering from the war and disease in the Kitgum district.

That was a few years ago now and I used up all my own money to get the project rolling but now thanks to the generosity of some wonderful people the dream continues.  We now have 39 children and 4 Ugandans who work for me.

I have managed to register the Bearcare Project as a Non Government Organisation in Uganda.  I have also registered Bearcare in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

Kitgum, a million miles from anywhere, a forgotten place where people bear the scars and the heartache of war and disease.  I have witnessed the ambushes and their pain and share their heartache.

If I can help only a few children to get a start in life then truly my journey through life will have been very much fulfilled.

Mahatma Gandhi once said "You have to be the change you want to see in the world".  I have tried to be the change for my Bearcare Kids in Kitgum.

Murray Black Kidd