25th September 2009

Hi Everyone,

Here we are at the end of another week, the time really does seem to fly by so quickly here! Its been a funny week weather wise with torrential rain and impressive electrical storms one minute and glorious sunshine the next. Though luckily we've managed to avoid getting too wet. Alice and I are now happily settled into the Bridgeway Guest House in town, our new home for the next couple of months. Its in a very leafy part of town which reminds me slightly of the suburbs in London, only much prettier!



So on to what we've been up to this week. We began with our street clinic on Monday during which Mike met with Musa and as a team we decided we want him to be a part of the project. So the next step was for approval from the UK team and to produce a commitment form for Musa's parents and the local council to sign - so we have everything in writing. This and Musa's profile were sent to the trustees for their approval.

Our next street clinic on Tuesday was spent looking into the situation with Hassan. For those of you who don't know, Hassan had been part of the project but after a misunderstanding at school had run bac to the streets. The week before last Mike met with Hassan and members of CRO staff and it was decided that before going straight back home he should go to the Jinja Network Transit Centre, where street children go for rehabilitation. So this is where we visited with Steven on Tuesday for an evaluation of Hassan's progress. Unfortunately when we arrived we were told by the house mother that we had just missed him as he had wanted to visit Mike and personally give him a letter of apology for any trouble his running back to the street had caused. But we stayed with Joanne, the house mother, to hear about Hassan and the work they do at the Transit Centre. She said that there had been a marked improvement in Hassan since he had been at the centre which was great to hear. It was also interesting to hear about the Transit Centre and the positive work they do. It is the only one of its kind in Jinja and works with mainly boys and girls aged between 8 and 15 years old. We met some of the other children staying there who were lovely and very pleased when they saw the big bag of fruit we brought them. After the visit and speaking to Mike it was decided that he would also visit the centre himself during the week to discuss Hassan's progress further.

Wednesday was a really exciting day for us as we had received the okay from the UK about Musa so we took him back to his parents for them to sign the commitment form not before he'd gone to CRO to have a wash and spruce himself up :). With all the legailites done with we took him for his HIV test and were pleased to hear of his negative status and then went to buy him some new clothes. He seemed very excited that it was all really happening as were we! Steven took him back to Bugembe and Alice and I continued with some work. Alice has been making contacts with TASO and Mildmay and completed staff surveys regarding HIV/AIDS issues. And I have been looking into how to develop a reading culture amongst the children, something which has also been recently highlighted in the local media to be lacking in Uganda.

Yesterday we visited Bugembe to see how Musa was settling in and were happy to see he was very content in his new home. He also impressed us both with his artisitic skills and now see why when we interviewed him he said he wanted to be an artist. We were also over the moon to hear from Mike that Hassan would also be returning home this week and was very keen to get back to school.



All in all it has been a really positive week and we hope next week will be just as good and result in us making progress with our much needed CBO registration. In other news Alice and I have joined a group that will be putting on a pantomime in December to raise monty for a charity based in Jinja (the charity is yet to be decided). The panto is Aladdin and we had our first read through this week, although we're just in the chorus we think its should be fun and are look forward to learning all the songs and dances!

Well thats everything for now, thanks for reading.

Lots of Love,

Esther and Alice xx

19th September 2009

Hello and welcome to our second blog as SALVE International interns!

It started off a bust week with myself, Esther and Stephen conducting some research into the girls who spend their day's on the streets and their nights back in Massese, after a very long walk to Massese we asked many of the local people in the village if they knew where any of these girls may stay, none of the villagers knew of anywhere, but all where very helpful. On our return home we discussed our findings with Mike , after telling him how far we had walked we then realised that we had infact been to the wrong Massese! The village we wanted was actually very near and just behind Moreen's School, after a good laugh we said that we would go back to the right village next week and continue our research....

On Tuesday we went with Stephen and Musa to CRO to find out if there was anymore background information we could find out, we spoke with a lovely social worker, who gave us some invaluable information and also shared with us that Musa was a keen artist and singer! We got a taxi to Mbiko (Musa's home village) and from there a boda boda up to Musa's house, Musa was really excited about going to see his family, and had even made sure that he had a wash at CRO before we left! Once at Musa's house, we were greeted by Musa's elder sister and younger siblings, Musa ran straight to his baby sister and gave her a huge hug. Unfortunately neither of Musa's parents were at the house, Musa's upset was palpable, he is a lovely boy and was so sad not to be able to see his parents, but was definatley putting on a brave face. We took his elder sister's number and said that we would ring her and check that his parents were there before coming back again the next morning.


On Wednesday, Esther,Stephen and Musa went back to Mbiko where they met wit Musa's father, Esther said that the meeting went very well, and that Musa's father was very keen for him to be involved with the SALVE programme, the next step is for Musa to meet with Mike and fingers crossed he will be joining the SALVE home soon.

On Thursday myself and Esther spent most of the day with Mike in town to help develop the Ugandan constitution, we are all keen to get this done as it is needed for the CBO (community based organisation) registration, Mike is so keen that he told us he has been waking in the night and writing down ideas. Our meeting was very informative and we all left feeling that we had met our objectives.

On Friday we spent the day taking Helena to see her Mum and new baby in her village, we also met with Helena's grandmother who quite literally greeted us with open arms, invited us in and gave us some of the tastiest mango's we had ever had. We were also introduced to Mike's goat kid 'Gift' who is being looked after by Helena's grandmother who is adorable!

Throughout the week Esther has been busy developing a more uniform system for the SALVE profiles, and general adminstration in the house. I have started the task of arranging meetings with HIV/AIDS organisations in the area with the hope of developing an HIV/AIDS protocol for SALVE international. Harriet has been busy developing a libary system in the house, and we both wish her a lovely trip to Finland this week, and look forward to having her back on the 2nd October.

We have met with lots of lovely people this week, who we know will help make our stay here even more enjoyable!

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther

xxx

Alice and Esthers first SALVE blog

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the first blog by Alice and Esther, we hope you enjoy reading our regular updates which we’ll be taking it in turn to write.

So after a very bumpy 18 hour journey from London we were relieved to see Mike’s smiling face at the airport. We were really happy and excited to finally be in Uganda and grateful Mike was there to kindly drive us the three hour journey to Jinja.

Once at the SALVE house we were showed around by Mike and met some of the children that were already back from visiting their relatives. They were all a little shy at first but we were sure it wouldn’t take them too long to get used to their new aunties. We spent the rest of the week acclimatizing and exploring our new surroundings. We were also introduced to some of Mike’s family, Harriet, the new home carer and Mary the head mistress of Joy School, all of whom were lovely and welcoming. Back at the SALVE house we quickly learned to brush up on our Uno skills and have enjoyed spending our time playing and reading with the children. One day we even made dolls and balls out of banana leaves under Harriet’s instruction, the children were great at them, much better than us!

When all the children were back home from their holidays they were given their new supplies for school which they were all really grateful for especially Richard who was really excited about starting school and very proud of his new belongings. On Monday morning the hose was buzzing with excitement as they got ready for school and they all looked very smart in their red and blue uniforms.

After taking the children to school we held our first ever SALVE team meeting and met Stephen. We discussed lots of ideas, many of which we hope to develop during our stay here. We also introduced ourselves to the CRO team. Tuesday was our first street clinic where we met the children who SALVE is already helping to help and found out more about their situation. We met with Hassan who encouragingly with every meeting we are we are getting closer to a positive outcome, and after meeting again with Mike later this week things are looking positive. Both Alice and I are keen to find out more about girls living on the street and their circumstances, so after chatting with a small group we have decided to visit Masese, where they stay so we can have a better understanding of their situation.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent at Joy school observing and assisting lessons where we could. We have now agreed to help with English and reading every Thursday in classes P2 to P5, help with PE and make learning aids for all the teachers – which we have already begun putting our artistic skills to the test.

So this has been our first lovely week in Uganda and we’re looking forward to having much more to tell you in the coming weeks. Until then thanks for reading our first blog we hope you enjoyed it.

Love Esther and Alice xxx