War was ravaging Uganda and Pamela was just another one of its victims. Before her fourteenth birthday she found herself, no longer with parents or relatives, in the Rhino Camp Refugee Resettlement Center. Seeking some safety she volunteered at Mass where she heard the JRS sponsors girls in the secondary schools of Adjumani. Pamela knew that an education was her only route to safety and success.

With one thousand Uganda shillings (about fifty cents) Pamela left Rhino and started walking, alone. It was the hot, dry season but by the end of her first day she came to the village of Lebongi. She had her dinner at Lebongi: a bag of peanuts that cost her one hundred shillings. The villagers allowed her to drink some water from the village borehole. She slept that night on a dirt floor in a roofless church.

The next day, for eighty shillings, she secured a motorboat ride across the Nile. By evening she reached the village of Maaju, an area filled with hostile troops. For her evening meal (her one and only each day) Pamela spent her last one hundred shillings for a few bananas. She again slept on a church floor.

On the third day, Pamela arrived at Adjumani. This day she walked without food or water. As she sat under the shade of a mango tree, she realized she owned nothing but a small book in a plastic bag and the clothes she was wearing. Possessions weren't important, an education was. Pamela had successfully completed primary school but to attend secondary school entailed fees. In urban schools, yearly fees can be millions of shillings. Even in refugee settlements, each term costs about twenty thousand shillings. In addition, refugees must find money for food, mosquito nets, soap, a change of clothes, shoes, a portable mattress, writing paper, pens, and a kerosene lamp.

Pamela found and camped out in front of the JRS offices in Adjumani. She was soon noticed by Gary Smith, who was amazed by her journey. She impressed Gary and the staff as a young woman who had not come to them simply for charity. Pamela was willing to work for what she wanted but first she needed help finding the resources to weave together a plan to replace fear and isolation with a sense of security and community.

Pamela received help presenting her story, writing letters and
making speeches and eventually was admitted to a local JRS-administered facility. She paid her fees through grants and assistance from the community. While most students have a fairly carefree path, Pamela's story represents the determination to climb the mountain and cross over rather than terminate the journey because of anticipated and real hardships.