The Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA) will host a kickoff event for its Bending the Spears Campaign on March 25, 2006 at 9 PM at the Staccato Bar at 2006 18th Street, NW. This event is a fundraiser for GYPA’s Gomo Tong Project (literally defined in Acholi as Bending the Spears), which seeks to help support the reintegration of former child soldiers in Northern Uganda into their families and communities using sports, arts, music, and vocational training to recreate a sense of community and purpose in their lives. The cost is $10 at the door.

The event at Staccato Bar will feature live music from several local DC bands, Justin Trawick Group, KUKU, Roll Wit It All Stars, and more! It is a chance for community members to learn more about The Gomo Tong Project, join the campaign and to raise support and funds for the project, which will be inaugurated in Uganda in the summer of 2006.

Gomo tong is a traditional reconciliation process within Acholi culture; it involves bending the spear and turning it into a garden hoe to signify the end of violence and a return to working in the garden together, in the same community, side by side.

Jaime Alvis
804-317-4960 or Jaime.alvis@gmail.com