For quite a while, I've been meaning to write a bit more about the work we've been doing at Hands for Hope. In my last blog post I wrote about the forced evictions that happened in the community that we work in (see here). So I thought I would firstly update on what happened after those evictions and then say a bit more about some of the key things we've been working on over the last few months.

 

The fundraising appeal we launched to raise money to support the families affected by the evictions was really successful and, with the money raised we were able to support families affected. For the first few nights after the evictions took placde many families were sleeping outside with all their possessions. We hired some of the local women who had lost their cooking businesses to cook hot meals for those families.

 

 

Mama Cissy cooking some ground nut sauce.

 

We bought a mountain of posho and beans and gave each of the families that had been affected a food donation (posho is a maize based carbohydrate that's popular here).

 

 

Posho and beans in our library waiting to be distributed

 

 

Some of the mothers picking up their food donations. The amount women can carry on their heads here never ceases to amaze me!

 

We then helped the families that had lost their homes to find somewhere new to live. The large majority of the families in the slum rent their one-roomed houses from the original squatters. Seeing what was happening, many landlords of houses outside of the eviction zone increased the rents. It was, therefore, very difficult for families (particularly those that had also lost their businesses) to raise the money for the required three months up front rent payment. We supported the families by contributing towards these costs. This has presented some challenges. Except in very exceptional circumstances, we generally don't give families money for rents as it can encourage dependency, preferring to support families by helping them to set up income-generating activities to sustain themselves. We saw this as an exceptional circumstance though. We also needed to ensure that the families found houses that they could afford to rent in the long term. This has been a challenge for many families as anything over around 60,000 Ugandan Shillings (£15) per month can be difficult to sustain with their current incomes (of around 75p a day and sometimes less). Most rents are now in the region of 100,000 shillings (£25) per month.

 

So one of our current priorities is to support the families to generate a sustainable income. Many families in the community have very small incomes gained from doing work that can be irregular and unreliable (e.g. labouring, washing people's clothes, collecting scrap). Some have small businesses such as cooking and selling food, fruit and vegetable stalls or selling charcoal. Many of these were located in the areas of the eviction. We are currently helping families via small loans to help them re-establish these businesses. 

 

We still have quite a lot to do to support families affected and it's not clear what exactly will happen next in terms of any future evictions, but the situation is much calmer, most families have found new places to stay and nearly all of the children are back at school! (thank you very much to everyone who donated!)

 

We have just finished the second term of the year at Hands for Hope and are currently running the holiday programme (lots of games, swimming, face-painting, singing and dancing). Just before the end of term, we ran our annual HIV/AIDS awareness day in the community. The purpose of this event is to provide information and advice on HIV/AIDS and other related issues, such as family planning and sexual health. Working with different partners, we provide free HIV and TB testing and counselling. Over 500 people were tested this year (people seem very keen to be tested each year).  We also put on a programme of entertainment to draw people to the event.

 

 

With many of the Hands for Hope children we march through the community early in the morning with a marching band to promote the event (I'm sure everyone appreciates the wake-up call!)

 

 

UNDUGU, traditional dancers and drummers opened the event

 

 

Face-painting - ever popular...

 

Breakdance Uganda getting ready to perform

 

 

The crowds enjoying the breakdance workshop

 

MARO, a famous afro-R&B artist here in Uganda was the headline act. MARO (real name, Ronald), is also studying for a degree in international development at Makerere University (the main University in Uganda) and has carried out his internship at Hands for Hope. He's performing a gig next Friday (5th) and is donating 40% of the proceeds to Hands for Hope.

 

 

MARO, with some very talented Hands for Hope staff as backing singers and dancers!

 

MARO/ Ronald also got us connected to Galaxy FM, one of the main radio stations here, who advertised the event at regular intervals every day for two weeks before and did a live interview with Mike, our head social worker, on morning of the event.

 

The event was very much put together by volunteers: 

 

 

Alaina from the UK, Emelia from the US and Stacy from Canada, who helped put the event together, pictured with Mirembe from the afternoon programme.

 

I mentioned above that we work with the carers of the children, mainly mothers, to help them generate a sustainable income. We also run livelihood projects with some of the older young people from our afternoon programme. These children have, generally, never been to school and come to our programme to learn to speak English and how to read and write. The livelihood projects help them to generate an income now and, hopefully, in the future.

 

Our most successful is our candle-making project and the candles, made by the young people, continue to sell well, particularly in the Good Glass shop in Kampala. We are always looking for new markets though!

 

 

Candles on sale at the good glass shop

 

A local beauty salon recently approached us, wanting to support the young people we work with. They are training a small group of young people to do manicures and pedicures. After their training they will set them up with an initial kit of materials and equipment and some part time work.

 

 

Sanyu and Mirembe in training!

 

We've also supported four young people to attend vocational school. They have now completed their six month training and are starting their apprenticeships in motorbike mechanics (very popular here) and catering. We hope to send more young people to vocational school in the future.

 

Another programme that has really developed over the last few months is our programme for children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable in the community; very few receive any kind of education and their health and medical needs are rarely met. Awareness and understanding of disability can be very low; people with disabilities are often feared and seen as shameful. Some of the children we've identified to come on the programme were previously locked away by their families.

 

We've got a small amount of grant funding to grow and run the programme for the first six months. We've recruited a special needs teacher. Evaristo started with us at the beginning of August and is currently developing individual educational plans for the children on the programme. Our aim is to meet the educational needs of as many of the children as we can, whether that be through them attending our nursery, attending a specialist school or taking part in educational groups, which Evaristo will run. We will also be meeting the medical needs of as many of the children as we can.

 

Working with the Ugandan Society for Disabled Children, we've set up a parents' support group. This is meeting regularly (most weeks now) and parents are provided with information and training on disability and how to care for their child.  This has been a huge success. A year ago, when the Hands for Hope social workers were trying to identify children with disabilities living in the slum, they were very difficult to find as often parents were ashamed and scared to come forward. Now, seeing that they are not alone and that support is available, many more parents are coming forward to join group, with around 50 now taking part.

 

The parents have also been trained to make shampoo and liquid soap to then sell in the community. This is to enable them to generate an income, whilst also staying at home and caring for their child if necessary.

 

 



 

Some of the parents' support group with their shampoo and soap

 

 

Some of the parents receiving training on how to care for children with cerebral palsy

Finally, right of the end of term, I was the chief guest at the primary school's sports day! This was a surprisingly fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

 

 

 

Sack race!

The winning team were the green team, who were very excited!

The prize for the winning team was a bull, which they ate at school the following Monday:
 

The prize bull being paraded around the sports ground. Poor thing.

Finally, we have been carrying out assessments of children and families to decide which new children will join our nursery in October. The assessments are done on the basis of vulnerability with very strict criteria and a thorough process. Making the decision of which children are the most vulnerable and so should come on the programme is very difficult. I'll talk more about that in my next hands for hope related blog, but, in the meantime, here is one of my favourite pictures of our current children in baby class!

 

 

The kids love having their picture taken!