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!

 

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!

 

Bulago Island

I've just spent the weekend at Bulago Island, one of the Sesse Islands on Lake Victoria and stayed here I thought I would do just a short blog post and upload some photos!

 

Lake Victoria is the second largest fresh water lake in the world and the largest body of water in Africa; the same size as Switzerland.  The Sesse Islands consist of 84 separate islands, some large and densely inhabited, others small and deserted. Bulago Island is the nearest island to Kampala  (although it feels a world away from the chaotic city)- around 30km/ about 2 hours in our boat:

 

 

Our boat docked in Munyonyo harbour, Kampala

 

On the boat:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday evening sunset over Lake Victoria from the boat:

 

 



 

 

 

 

Heading to our weekend home

 

We had a really lovely weekend, relaxing, eating lots of fab food, swimming and exploring the island a little:



 

Our pool

View from the pool



 

Freaky spiders web near the pool in the evening!

 

 

 

Super cute Apollo the puppy by the pool!



Dining room



 Exploring the island:

 

 

 

 

There a small little beaches on the island. However, it is not really advisable to swim in the lake, partly due to the risk of bilharzia and of the crocodile that swims in the lake and strikes occasionally!

On top of a hill!

 

 

We saw quite a few spiders' webs on our walk. I walked straight into one of these. It wasn't a very pleasant experience!

 

 

 

 

Pineapple bay

 

Finally a few pics of our Saturday night BBQ & campfire: