We're fast approaching the end of the second term at Uganda Hands for Hope. I had planned this week to write a blog post detailing what we've been up to this term, including lots of positive things like securing more funding for our children with disabilities programme, new livelihood programmes, fantastic support from volunteers and visitors, carrying out assessments for new children to come on to the programme, events we've delivered, young people starting apprenticeships after completing their vocational courses and my experience as chief guest at the primary school's annual sports day....

 

I will write a post about these things, however I wanted to quickly write a blog detailing some fairly devastating and sad events that have happened over the last few days.

 



The Namuwongo informal settlement (or "slum") that we work in is made up of hundreds of houses and businesses (small stalls selling mainly food). The large majority of the families we support rent their one roomed houses from landlords, some who built their houses many years ago, some legally and some illegally. The settlement has been in existence for at least 40 years and, in fact, some of the families we work with have lived there for that long.

 

For many years there have been rumours that the city council here (KCCA) would demolish the slum, however these rumours were never realised and the slum continued to grow. However, KCCA recently published a notice in a local paper stating that they would begin evicting people who live 30 metres either side of the railway line, giving families very little time to vacate and no compensation. This is in order to develop the railway line (currently one cargo train goes down the line per week). This would mean the demolition of around 50% of the slum affecting thousands of people.

 

Since this notice was published local elected leaders here have been lobbying for a longer time period for residents to rehouse and for compensation (though compensation for the landlords obviously won't help most of the families that we support). Last week our head social worker and I met with various agencies, including the Rift Valley Railway who own most of the land and with local leaders. We also held a full parents' meeting to try and give parents as much information as we could (the picture of what was actually going to happen was very confused).

The general consensus at the end of last week was that the evictions would probably happen starting this week but over a staggered time period. Nobody expected what actually happened. At midnight on Sunday police came into the community telling people they were about to evicted. By 3am bulldozers had started the demolition. People were left sitting outside with their belongings and with no idea where to go. Most of our families can not afford the three months upfront rent needed for a new house (and, unsurprisingly, landlords around the area have this week hiked their rents up...) nor money to travel back to  families in their villages. Monday was also a public holiday here (for Eid) meaning community organisations in the area (including Hands for Hope) were closed as were schools. This meant that people were taken even more by surprise, that children weren't in school and so witnessed the demolition of their homes and that it was more difficult for community organisations to respond.

 

I spent some time in community today and was totally stunned by what I saw; chaos, anger, fear and distress. The demolition continues and those who know their houses will be destroyed are knocking their houses down themselves in a desperate attempt to salvage some of the building materials.  These are some of the scenes:

 

 

We have today launched an appeal to raise funds for those families most badly affected (see here -  http://eepurl.com/ZVZwD). We have had a good response to this so far. We are still trying to assess the situation for many of our families and our social work team is doing an incredible job. Many families are sleeping in the slum with their belongings and no shelter. Our first priority with the fund will be to support the rehousing of these people and others who are homeless. We will also use it to help people set up businesses and so rebuild their lives sustainably (many mothers have lost their businesses as many were situated along the railway line).

 

The people this eviction is directly affecting are some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the country. The scenes in their community at the moment and the upset and distress evident in the children in our classrooms is heartbreaking.

I've been mainly Kampala based for last month or so, doing lots of work (I'll update about that separately), suffering from a few bouts of food poisoning (no photos of those particular experiences you'll be pleased to hear!) and generally enjoying the sunny weather and social life. I've also been on a couple of day trips.

Last weekend, I spent a day exploring a few sights in Entebbe. Known mainly for the airport, Entebbe sits on the shores of Lake Victoria, used to be the capital of Uganda and has a golf course that seems to be bigger than the city centre! It's about an hour's drive from Kampala and is much quieter and calmer. 

The main reason my friend and I decided to go was to explore the botanical gardens. Laid out in 1898, the gardens sit on the shores of Lake Victoria, and contain trees, shrubs and flowers from around Africa, South America and Europe.

My favourite flower was this one from South America. I'm afraid I can't remember its name, though I think it included the word goose! -

Outside

Inside

We learnt how different plants and flowers are used for medicinal purposes for example aloe vera to cure malaria (I tried some of this in the office today, It is not a pleasant taste!) and of course, are also used for eating such as cocoa, star fruits and jack fruits. Also for beauty products. These berries are called "lipstick ladies" and are used by many women in villages to create bright red lipstick -

There's also a small, indigenous rainforest. It is widely claimed locally that the first Tarzan film was shot on location here -

This is apparently where Johnny Weissmuller swung from in the Tarzan film. We were encouraged to have a go,. I declined!

There were lots of birds, including yellow throated leafloves, Jackson's golden-backed weaver, a red-chested sunbird and a pair of giant eagle owls. The zoom on my camera wasn't quite powerful enough to catch these. Nor the colobus monkeys that sat high up in the trees, refusing to come down and just staring us out! (see here). Here are a few more things my camera did catch though -





A baby pineapple

A golden bark!

After lunch on the Entebbe "beach" -

we headed to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre. Commonly known as Entebbe Zoo, it is actually an animal refuge for animals that have been rescued from poachers and traffickers or that are unable to look after themselves because they're ill or have been orphaned.  

Charles, the baby elephant wondered around the centre. He was bought to the centre just a week after being born as both his parents had died and he couldn't fend for himself:

There were many other animals there, including black rhinos, some very poorly looking lions, shoebills, leopards and zebras.

The centre seems to be a popular tourist destination for Ugandans ( I think because it provides an opportunity for many people to see the animals that are generally abundant in their country, but which sadly they are often unable to see in the wild because the price of safaris is too prohibitive). Being the only muzungus ("white people") at the zoo, two people asked to take a photo of us, which was slightly disconcerting......!

I did, however, see a Crested Crane for the first time -

The crested crane, though sadly endangered, is, as the name suggests, Uganda's national symbol and crest. The national football team is called the Ugandan Cranes (and they may not have made it to the world cup, but they did beat Mauritania 2:0 in Kampala last Saturday!).

A few weeks previously I went to visit Ssezibwa Falls. Half way between Kampala and Jinja, the falls are steeped in folklore. Many hundreds of years ago, the legend goes, a woman called Naskangu of the fox clan, gave birth not to twin children as expected but to a twin river, split into two distinctive streams by an island immediately below the waterfall. It is still believed by many today that the sprits of the unborn children (Ssezibwa and Mobeya) still inhabit the river and it was once customary for any Muganda passing the river's source (20km away) to throw grass or stones into it for good luck. Still today a thanksgiving sacrifice of backcloth, beer and a cockerel is made at the river's source every year, communal sacrificial ceremonies are still held at the waterfall and the waterfall is said to have spiritual significance.

We didn't witness any sacrifices, but we did have a nice walk around the falls and a lovely picnic:

As a bit of a contrast, we got back to Kampala just in time to see the sunset over the industrial zone! -
 

 

Back in Kampala, I have also completed my beginners' Luganda course. A mix of last minute cramming and some very lenient marking meant that I passed the end of course exam! Since my last post about the course, I learnt a few more things worth sharing. There are 22 different words for banana! There are two different words for "wife"; "omukazi", which literally translates as "to be an expert in things of the home" and "omukyala" which translates as "woman who used to visit the homes of married men"! There is, of course, only one word for husband; "Mwami", the literal translation of which is "king" or "chief"......

We have a few more weeks left until the end of term and then I'm looking forward to heading out of Kampala and Uganda for a short time and exploring Mozambique on a little holiday!