November 28th 2009

Hi everyone, We have just finished a great week here in Jinja, and we hope that you will enjoy all of the fab pictures, especially seeing the children at our SALVE party!

On Monday, I went to Jinja Hospital to do some further work in the maternity unit, again this included teaching women about child spacing, parenting skills and meeting with the lovely Midwives on the ward, they really are an amazing group of people who work so hard with very little. I have been priviledged to have the opportunity to work with them and look forward to coming back to visit the unit again when I return to Uganda. Esther was busy at the the SALVE house helping write letters to sponsors and local primary schools back in the UK.

On Tuesday we both went to the house in Bugemebe and spent the morning with the children doing letters and Christmas cards, we all agree that they are fantastic and the sponsors will be very lucky to get such great christmas cards. Tuesday night is also Panto rehearsal night so Esther was very busy there, it is all coming together really well, and the costumes are nearly ready which is great. Tuesday was also spent continuing writing up our research and community profiles to send to the UK team and als to to the new interns, Janet and Laura who are both lovely, and who we know will do some great work here.

Mike was keen for us all to have a team meeting at the house on wednesday, it is really great to have everyone together and especially nice when Robinah and baby Carin sit in on the meeting. We had some really productive discussions about registration, and are all crossing our fingers for registration to happen very soon, as we now seem to be much closer to getting all of the paper work sorted.

Thursday was our SALVE party, at the lovely Kingfisher resort, everyone had a great time and loved the pool, the great lunch and the part games. Baby Carin enjoyed her first ever swim in a pool, and Richard who at first was not confident in the water, was soon very happy floating around in his rubber ring. The children have all done really well in their exam's this year, and it was lovely not only to congratulate everyone for doing so well, but also to be together as a family, and enjoy each others company.

Yesterday was Iddi day, a public holiday in Uganda so town was a little quieter than usual. Esther and I went to meet Mary at Joy school in the morning to discuss the future for Joy Crafts, it was a very informative meeting and we feel that once the UK team have sat with Mary and Victoria when they come over in January we will be able to have a real idea of where Joy crafts is heading and the roles that SALVE and the school will play in helping it to grow and develop. I have also got a large selection of lovely seed necklaces to take back with me, which we aer sure will be snapped up in time for Christmas!

Unfortunately this will be my last blog from Ugana, as I have had to leave a few weeks earlier than planned, I have had a FANTASTIC time, and cannot wait to return to Uganda and in particular Jinja, I have met some awe inspiring and amazing individuals and groups, and am sure that I have made many new friends. Esther will be here until the 20th December, and will be continuing all the great work at the house, and spending time with the kids, which will be great in the lead up to christmas. Nicola and Helen from the UK team, have been so supportive, and I am looking forward to continuing with any help and support that I can give on my retern to london.
Thankyou ever so much for reading, and I know that you will love Esther's next three blogs.

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther. xx

23rd November 2009

Hi Everyone,

It was a slightly shorter working week for us than usual as we decided to try and see some more of Uganda before we leave so booked a safari to Murchison Falls for the weekend. We left Thursday afternoon and got back last night hence the delay in this weeks blog. It really was an amazing weekend and so relaxing! I hadn't expected us to see so many animals and was particularly excited to see a lioness and her cub as well as giraffes, elephants, hippos and lots, lots more. The safari also included a boat trip to the falls which were so powerful and awe inspiring. Our evenings were spent sitting around a fire at the campsite enjoying fabulous food, so we're now nicely refreshed and ready for the week ahead.

(Sunrise over the River Nile)

(A lioness and her cub)

(One of the many giraffes we saw)

(Murchison Falls)

But back to our week at work. On Monday Mike had an important meeting with CRO (Child Restoration Outreach) to discuss the partnering of our two organisations. A number of conditions of the partnership were agreed in principle including that if CRO fails to resettle a child they will be referred to SALVE for help and CRO will partner with SALVE in community education and raising public awareness of street children. the meeting also led to a decision being made about the street clinics. It is felt that by conducting the street clinics we are obstructing CRO's work in Jinja, therefore to avoid any future problems with our partnership the street clinics and workshops will cease until we are a registered CBO (Community Based Organisation). But this is for SALVE's benefit as much as it is for the benefit of the relationship with CRO. Of course we are disappointed by this news but we know it won't be for long and we will still try and maintain the close relationship we have built up with many of the street children since we have been here.

On Tuesday we had a team meeting to discuss this and other issues and it was agreed that it was best if Stephen explained the situation to the street children we have been working with as simply as possible so they understand that we have not forgotten them in any way and will direct them to CRO for any help they need. We also used the meeting to agree what we will be doing as a team in the coming weeks without the street clinics. We will be focusing our time at the SALVE house spending it with the children who all returned home from school on Friday. We plan to organise games and arts and crafts activities to keep them occupied and help them if they need it with their letters to their sponsors as well as their responses to a class of primary school children from England who have kindly written letters to all of the SALVE children. In addition to this we will be writing our proposal for the community education programme using the research we have been and are still carrying out in the local communities. Plans were also made for our big SALVE day out to the Kingfisher Resort this coming Thursday, which Alice will tell you all about this weekend, we're all very excited about going.

(Richard and Sparky)

We carried on with the community education research on Wednesday by visiting a close friend of Mike's who is a Pastor in Wairaka and who very kindly invited us into his home so we could ask him our research questions. It was extremley an extremley useful meeting and very enlightening, especially as he told us some quite distressing stories about the lengths people have been forced to go to because of poverty in his community. We spent the rest of the day at the SALVE house which was lovely, Rubina and Harriet prepared a delicious lunch and we chatted with Hassan, Moreen, Richard and Ronald. Hassan opened up to us a lot and told us all about his life before coming to SALVE, it was a very moving story and we're so glad that he is now safe and living with us. We also met the new addition to the SALVE family, Sparky the dog, who is very cute and lively and Richard has taken a great liking too, they're practically inseprable. It was a great afternoon and we're looking forward to more like that now that all the children our back home! We finished our week by writing up our research before heading off to Kampala for our trip, so there you have it another week in Uganda, thanks for reading.

(Richard, Karin, Moreen and Harriet)

Lots of love

Esther and Alice x

13th November 2009

Hello everyone!

We cannot believe how fast the time is flying here, and I cant believe that I am here writing another blog so soon! It has been a very busy and productive week, and I hope that you enjoy reading a little about what we have been up to in Jinja.

(Our trip to Kakira with a lovely little girl who was very keen on holding my hand !)

The week has been taken up predominately by community education and street girl research, which has been really interesting and a great way of meeting lots of great community leaders and members. Unfortunately due to the issues relating to registration we have still not been able to continue with the clinic workshop, but we hope to have some news next week after Mike attends a meeting with CRO, and will keep you updated.

This week we visited Kayunga and Mafubira, Stephen was pivotal in organising the meetings and it was really fun to have the whole staff team involved. We now have a great basis for the community education work and have had lots of ideas on what is needed in regards to education from each community. Esther has been doing some great work on the community profiles, and we are sure that it is something the next interns will want to develop when they come out next year! Whilst with each community I have also been gauging opinions on street girls, and in particular 'Child Headed Households', this is a major issue in many of the communities around Jinja, and an area in which we are keen to look into further when we are able.

(Our meeting at Kayunga)

We had another very useful staff meeting this week, and discussed things such as the date of the christmas party (which we are all really looking forward to!) and as a team reviewed the new health and HIV guidelines. These meetings are not only really useful to keep all communication up to date, but are also a lovely way to get all the team together, Esther and I are not able to get to the SALVE home everyday so we always really enjoy finding out how the children at the home are getting on!

Our Tuesday football session was another success, and we always love that the boy's are so keen to come out and talk with us all whilst having a good kick about, and (trying) to teach us some football in the process (we really are not that good!)

(Our SALVE football team)

The SALVE children have now all finished their exams and are getting ready for the end of term, it is going to be great having them all back in the SALVE house, and we know that they are all looking forward to coming back for the holidays! After writing this we will be going to see Moreen who is now back home after finishing her term at St Nicholas, Esther will tell you how the visit went next week, but we love speaking with Moreen and finding out all the new things she is learning at school and the school trips she is going on, she will soon be starting secondary school and really is turning into a lovely young lady!

Esther and I were both really happy yesterday when we were finally able to have a meeting at Joy School to discuss the bead project. Victoria and 3 mothers turned up to discuss how to move the project further, we were also joined by many of the girls at Joy including Dinah and Teddy who gave Esther and I a crash course in making paper beads! Momentum is now at a high, and we now hope to be able to bring back lots of lovely necklaces, bracelets and earings to the UK when we return.

(Harriet and I looking very serious making beads !)

(Esther, Harriet andAlice's final beads)

(The lovely women at Joy beads!)

Next week, I hope to complete my research on Street girls and Child Headed Households and to spend another day at the maternity department. Esther is only a few more community profiles away from finishing the community education research which is really exciting as it means we can start to collate the findings and start developing programmes tailormade for the communities in which they are intended. Then I imagine we will have to start researching information for the next set of interns who will be joining the SALVE team in January, and who we know will have a fantastic time!

Thanks for reading.

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther xx

6th November 2009

What a productive week we’ve had here and a great way for us to start the new month (I still can’t believe it’s actually November). Our week began with a meeting with Mike to discuss our current projects and the progress we are making. Mike is in the process of working on the terms of SALVE’s partnership with CRO (Child Restoration Outreach), something which is integral to our working relationship and one we are keen on maintaining and developing. But as a result we have decided to put our weekly workshop on hold until the terms of the partnership have been agreed to ensure our work does not conflict in anyway. The street clinics were still held and we had a very energetic game of football on Tuesday. Unfortunately Stephen is off sick with malaria and we are hoping he will make a speedy recovery as we are sure all the boys missed him this week.

As a result of our meeting with Mike on Monday we arranged three meetings with Local Councilmen of three different communities for our community education and street girl research. We met with the LC of Wanyange (which is on the boarder of Bugembe, where the SALVE house is), the LC of Kikira and the LC of Wairasa. WE are concentrating our research on communities within the Jinja District as this is where we will be able to operate once we are a registered Community Based Organisation (CBO). However, we decided to visit Wairasa , which is actually in the Mayuge District as Mike sees it as a fertile ground for community education which currently does not receive any outside help from either NGOs or CBOs and is the home of two of the SALVE children, Moreen and Helena.

(Mike and Alice with the Wairasa LC)

We are finding this process extremely enlightening as we are learning about the biggest issues facing the communities and the types of community education they would like to receive. Although often they are similar it is interesting to see the varying needs amongst the communities and what they see as priorities. One issue that been highlighted to us is the number of communities is the excessive consumption of alcohol amongst the adults. The local brew, made from the by product of sugar production is made in the villages and readily available. In Wairasa we were shown the process and just to highlight how potent it is Mike joked that if we tried some we’d never make our flights home in December! Visiting the communities and meeting the LCs is also enabling us to have a better understanding of street girls and child headed households and the reasons behind their existence in the communities.

(The local brew being made)

On Thursday Alice visited Jinja hospital to research into what family planning and child spacing options were available to mothers in Jinja. She also spent some time of the maternity unity and it was really interesting for her to see the contrast with maternity units she has worked in back in the UK. The team she spent the day with was really great and I’m sure she will be visiting them again during her stay here. I spent the day working on the community education research and the street clinic guidelines. I also visited Joy School to see how the bead project, but unfortunately once again I was unable to meet the women working on the project as due to the torrential rain none of them we able to make the meeting. However, I will be returning next week to see how things are progressing and hopefully meet everyone involved! Friday brought our final LC meeting of the week and was another great source of information for our research; we’re hoping next week will be just as fruitful!

(Victoia cutting strips of paper to make the beads)

In other news Moreen has now completed her P7 exams and is back at the SALVE home, she was so pleased to be home and we’re really looking forward to spending some time with her next week and hearing all about how her exams and this term have been. Well that’s everything for this week, thanks for reading!

Lots of Love Esther and Alice xxx