Winding down

So as the temperature's rising here in Uganda, our time is coming to an end. We said goodbye to some of the older children last week as they headed off, with bags packed and smiling faces to Teen Missions, the holiday activity camp where they will be spending Christmas. Teddy and Dinah have gone home to visit their families so we have four boys, Junior, Isma, Asuman and Junior left in the S.A.L.V.E. so we've been spending a lot of time with them, and let them loose with the arts and crafts box which as you can see has been a lot of fun! It's so hot here at the moment, so tomorrow we're going to take the boys swimming...




We've also interacted with some of the children who are still on the street. Another organisation in Jinja is taking many of them up to Bujagali, a lovely village on the Nile, for Christmas day so they are excited about this.

The women in Mafubira are making good progress in the bead project and another shipment of beautiful jewelry should be ready to send soon. As they are becoming more confident, their creativity seems to be flourishing.

We're all looking forward to the Christmas celebrations. Mike's wife Robinah is going to give birth any day now, so we're really looking forward to welcoming a new face into the family. Exciting times.

We'll be back next week with our final post from sunny Uganda.

Bye for now,

Imogen and Emma x

Dear Santa/ S.A.L.V.E. Supporters

Dear Santa/ S.A.L.V.E. Supporters,

So we've been making a list (and checking it twice)
Because this year everyone at S.A.L.V.E. has definately been nice!



We've worked hard all year and times flown by as you know.
Soon the UK trustees will be escaping the snow ...

In January we go back to Uganda and our bags are a little light,
Do you or your friends have the items we need to make S.A.L.V.E.s future bright?

S.A.L.V.E.s Wishlist (please get in touch and let us know if you/ anyone you know might be kind enough to donate us any of the following items)

- 1 laptop (to allow us to do our salve administrative work in Uganda)

- 1 digital camera (to allow us to take good quality pictures in Uganda so everyone here can see how the children are getting on all year round)

- 3 USB memory sticks (to allow us to move around and back up our files)

- 1 voice recorder (to tape our interviews with the children on the streets for our records)

- Summer clothes for teenagers (boys and girls)

- Educational aids for older children

Thank you for reading our list and checking it twice
Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have a donation that you think would be nice!

info@salveinternational.org

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas is a comin'...

Christmas is on its way here in Uganda and yet blissful little sign of this can be found. There is no Christmas advertising, only a sprinkling of miserable looking plastic Christmas trees, a smattering of carols on the radio and the temperature remains in the 30's. Time then, for the SALVE Christmas party!

With all the children home for the holidays before going off to see family or to the Teen Missions camp, the annual celebration was held yesterday at the home. Mike spent time talking with all the children and reviewing the year. Special mention was made of both Teddy and Tiff who did especially well at school this year and also of Junior who has triumphed in his P1 exams and will be moving up to P2 in February. Meanwhile, Robinah and Assy were busy cooking up a storm. Not traditional fare of mince pies and sausage rolls but instead spiced rice, beef stew, roast potatoes, cabbage and chapati were served up in huge portions.

This was followed by some more traditional party games- a bit of musical bumps (which 1 year old Caren found hilarious but hard to understand) and musical statues. By far the greatest hit though, was a game involving silly clothes, dice and cutting up chocolate with a knife and fork. Even the big children got involved in this one and were shrieking with laughter at each other trying to throw on a spotted jacket, T shirt, cloves and a hat and then eat Cadbury's Dairy Milk with a knife and fork. I think its safe to say that a good time was had by all. Tomorrow, the house will become a little quieter again as the older children go off to Teen Missions and Dinah and Teddy go to visit their families.

In other news, the bead project is progressing well and the ladies are learning new types of beads and styles of necklace to produce a greater variety of jewelry. Things are in the pipeline for the online shop too which is great.

Imogen and I have only 3 weeks left in Uganda now which is incredible. As always, time has passed too quickly. We're looking forward to the weekend as some of Uganda's biggest music stars are coming to town for a street party. Hurrah!

Hope preparations for Christmas are going well for all at home.

Love,

Emma and Imogen

A month til Christmas?!

This week we began our film project, interviewing the new children in the home, as well as some of the children who are still on the streets, which has been a lot of fun. Ashiraff, who has been known to the team for some time and is one of the older boys on the street, has shown an interest and expressed a desire to help us with this, but the first day of filming on the street showed us that this might be a trial and error endeavour. We managed to get some good shots but the boys are a little-overexcited about it so it might take some perseverance before they are used to having a camera around. We’re going to continue taking the camera with us on the street clinics and hope to have some tangible and informative shots, ready to be edited in January when we are at home. Translating the interviews with the boys at home is going to take days!

The school term has now finished for Junior so he is enjoying some time at home with the new boys who are settling in well. I was at Nakanyonyi School in Bugmebe this morning and each year group are taking end of term exams so there was a very studious and serious atmosphere. Teachers and students alike are looking forward to the Christmas holidays. Here the build up to Christmas is nothing like that in the UK – I don’t think we’ve seen or heard a single piece of advertising and with the hot weather it’s difficult to imagine that it’s only a month away…The impending elections in April seem to be taking up much more time and energy, as the streets of Jinja are filled with rallies and matatus filled with people singing and shouting for their chosen candidate.

The bead making project is also going well and we were all really pleased to hear that the beads went down well at the Ceilidh fundraiser last week. Emma and I returned to crazy Kampala on Wednesday to purchase new materials, and during the week coming the women will be taught how to make new styles and shapes of beads, for necklaces of different lengths, bracelets and earrings, so we hope these might do as well in the future.

The boys at home also have a new bedroom as Stephen utilized his D.I.Y. skills and bashed a hole between the garage and the kitchen, converting the garage into a bedroom! All very exciting!

So yet another good week in Uganda :)

Imogen and Emma xx

Fact finding in Kampala

Two big pieces of news this week. The first is that we have two new additions to the S.A.L.V.E home. Asuman has been known to the S.A.L.V.E. staff for some time and was taken into the project this week. He's 11 years old and has been on the street for about a year. He's a very smiley, confident boy and drew us a great picture of an elephant this morning. Its great to see him settling into the home environment after having met him so many times on the street and Isma really appreciates the company. Waswa was also brough in this week and aboev you can see the three new recruits (from left to right Asuman, Waswa and Isma) along with our rather sad old football. Time to invest in a new one I feel! Assy and Stephen will be spending alot of time with them in the coming weeks to teach them some basic life skills- keeping themselves and their things clean, how to resolve arguments, how to help around the house. They may sound basic but its these sorts of small issues which can end up causing large problems. Imogen and I will also be spending time with the boys but on a less formal level as their command of English is pretty limited. We'll probably do lots of painting and football... theres lessons to be learned from these things I'm sure!

The second bit of news is that Imogen and I went off to Kampala this week to visit the Kireka women's group's bead project. We hoped we could learn some useful lessons from a project run along the same lines as our own bead project but established for a little longer. The group has been together for about a year and consists entirely of women from the north of Uganda displaced by the war and living as refugees on the outskirts of Kampala. Before coming togehter as a group the women were break rocks in a quarry on the edge of the city which we also visted. Not a nice place to be on a hot day. Through their own initiative in forming the group and the capital of the Diaspora project (who oversee the group and sell the products online and abroad) they have made a huge improvement to their lives. We were so impressed with the quality of the jewelry and came away with some good ideas for new designs. We were also able to have a good chat with the project manager who gave us some useful (if not the most exciting!) advice about how to manage the accounts and market the products. It really is wonderful to see how womens groups can turn things around for themselves and work so effectively together. They seem to be springing up all over Uganda and starting all sorts of projects from beads to gardening collectives to chicken farming groups. In a country where women have been so disempowered in the past its great to see them taking back control of their lives. From little acorns great oaks do grow...

Anyway enough philosophising for now!

Emma and Imogen

The fight against child sacrifice

This week has seen a hub of activity from Mike as he accompanied members of the Jinja network to the Ugandan houses of parliament in Kampala to offer MPs a petition and memorandum concerning child sacrifice. Child sacrifice is devastatingly common here in Uganda as witchdoctors frequently ask their clients for human blood to initiate people into the practice, along with promises of future wealth. The memorandum argues that the main provisions in the law for punishing the perpetrators of this devastating crime are rendered impotent in causing fear amongst people practicing witchcraft as so many child sacrifices have gone unpunished. The network has been working on this issue for some time and the memorandum outlines changes that urgently need to be made. Advocating for the rights of all children is an important aspect of S.A.L.V.E.’s work and it is great that our Jinja network membership is providing us with a collective voice.

In other news, a young boy called David was brought in off the street this week. Unfortunately, he ran back to the street within a few hours. Each child is different and the transition from the street to home life is wrought with difficulties for these young people. We hope we might be able to relate with him more next week and with some patience and understanding convince him to come to the S.A.L.V.E. home again.

The bead making is going wonderfully. We have now sent some beads back to the UK hopefully in time for sale at the S.A.L.V.E. Ceilidh fundraiser at the end of the next week. An online shop is also going to be created so you will be able to see and purchase the beautiful creations online too. In order to give ownership of the project to the women taking part, secretaries and mobilisers were democratically elected this week who will manage the stock-taking, time keeping and purchasing of new materials. It is important for the project’s sustainability that the women are taught how to manage the income we hope to generate, how to account for new materials and save money for expansion. Educating these women on these techniques is a large aspect of the project.

So another good week in Uganda. It is getting hotter and dustier here by the day…

Imogen and Emma xx

A calm week for the SALVE team in Uganda this week as new projects become firmly established and Isma settles into the home.

As we mentioned last week, the tourist education and bead making projects are fully up and running. Stephen is still attending the community education workshops in Mafubira 3 afternoons a week but the women are getting to a stage where they can manage themselves and next week will be discussing group responsibilites and voting for leaders. This is great as it means the project is moving more towards sustainability. They are also starting to finish necklaces which you can see above.

Isma seems to be settling in well. we have spent a fair amount of time at the house with him this week and he is becoming more confident and smiley. He's very helpful around the house and likes to play football in the yard when hes not busy with that. He's starting lessons with Assy this week to get him back into school mode. He and Junior get on like a house on fire too which is great- nice for them both to have some company of around their own age. They're both coming up to Bujagali Falls tomorrow morning for a swim and a look at the world famous rapids so let shope the sun stays out!

Emma and Imogen

A new face in the S.A.L.V.E. home

Bead Making in Mafubira

This week, Isma, a 10 year old boy who has recently been talking to the team during the street clinics agreed to come into the S.A.L.V.E. home to begin the rehabilitation process. By being in the house, Isma will be immersed in an environment of change. Hopefully with some patience and love, he may be able readjust to a life at home and leave the streets behind him. This time of adjustment and transition is crucial for his future. During this time, he will be prepared for the possibilities of acceptance or rejection that come in hand with the reintroduction with his family, and sensitized to living in harmony with the S.A.L.V.E. family. He’s a quiet self-effacing boy but is slowly becoming more confident as he begins his new journey.

In other news, the bead making project is now in full swing which is just wonderful to see. The women in Mafubira have picked up the skills very quickly and have rolled and glued thousands of beads already. They are currently stringing them up, ready to be varnished, and we hope that by the end of next week, we will have some beautiful finished necklaces ready for wholesale in the UK. They also seem to be really enjoying the workshops. Quietly chatting and laughing, there is a real sense of team work and spending time with them all is very therapeutic and peaceful. We’re going to interview them soon and gather their thoughts about the project as a part of our evaluation, so we will update you with their thoughts soon.

Our tourist education project is now fully underway too. People in the tourist hotspots have been very receptive about having our leaflets displayed in their venues and I even overheard someone talking about the information they had read in an internet café! There seems to be a genuine interest in the situation of street children amongst tourists, so we hope that these leaflets will provide visitors with the best information of how to help. Next week, we are going to get some collection boxes made too, and hope to create some extra revenue for the S.A.L.V.E. project.

I also attended Nakanyonyi Primary School in Bugembe on Thursday, and assisted teachers in Primary 1 and 2 with their lessons. We’re hoping to create links with the local schools, as education is key to the S.A.L.V.E. mandate. Being at school is a lot of fun, and next week I’ll being leading my own classes in English and Maths, as will Emma at a different school in the area, so we’re looking forward to attempting some fun creative methods of teaching. Learning is magical and we hope to make it so for the children we teach…

So all is good here and it’s great to have Isma in the S.A.L.V.E. home. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a new life for him.

More news from sunny Uganda next week,

Imogen and Emma xx

Wowee! What a busy and productive week for the SALVE team!

Last Saturday was visitation day for the children at Magwa school and so we all got up early and met there to see the children, their school and teachers and share some lunch. All the children are doing well. Tiff especially so, he’s a good head and a half taller than me… must be all the posho. The children getting along OK at school, Blessing especially so. She excels in science and would like to be a doctor. I certainly learnt a thing or two from her biology book so I think she has a good shot.

Tuesday took Imogen and I off to Kampala in search of materials to start the bead making project. We went to the enormous Owino market to pick up coloured paper. Its incredible. A huge warehouse full to bursting point with old paper for recycling- posters, newspapers, magazines books- it all gets bought a used for numerous different reasons from packaging to bead making. A lesson there to be learnt about effective recycling I think. Anyway, we were successful in getting all our beads, hocks, paper and strings and made it badly to calm Jinja in one piece with filthy black feet to tell the tale!

Bead making has started this week and has really taken off. Thirteen women are participating and are really keen to learn a skill. Rose, our trainer is hugely impressed with how quickly they’re learning. I think their enthusiasm and quiet concentration speaks volumes about the lack of opportunities for people in Mafubira to earn a living despite their ardent longing to do so. We hope to have some things to ship back before Christmas and would love to have the women making their own designs as soon as they are qualified so we hope the products will be diverse, personalised and made with love.

Tourist education has also hit the ground running (finally) this week. The leaflets have been printed and look great and I took them around to all the hotels, backpackers hostels and rafting companies at BUjagali Falls just outside Jinja. The reception was great. People were really interested in the project and lots offered to have collection boxes in their restaurants or bars. Next week, we’ll drop some leaflets around the cafes and shops in town and start getting some boxes made so we can collect loose change too. With any luck, this project will really raise awareness about both street children and SALVE in the community and among tourist who pass through and also collect some revenue.

So yes, a great week, lots of success and lots to work on next week.

Emma and Imogen

Beads beads beautiful beads

Some good progress had been made this week with the new bead-making project we are setting up with a group of young adults in Mafubria, a very impoverished town near Jinja. Housing is very cheap there, so a lot of people move to Mafubira from rural areas in search of work. Unfortunately work is difficult to come by in Uganda, so many end up unemployed and destitute and are often enticed into a life of crime. This project aims to empower people by providing training so that they can produce products to sell both in Uganda and the UK, and become self-sustaining members of society, with the means to care for their children. Our workshops with a local trainer in bead crafts will begin next week and we hope to have a lot of beautiful traditional Ugandan jewelry which will make perfect Christmas gifts.

During this week’s street clinic, we met the same four boys that we met last week and have been building good relationships with them. Slowly but surely, these children have coming to trust the Ugandan team and myself and Emma, and are becoming more open about relating their experiences and desires. The seeds for attempting restoration to their families have been sown and whilst we were unsuccessful in carrying out any restoration this week, as all four boys changed their minds at the last minute, we hope that in time we may be able to persuade some of the boys to be accompanied home and begin the rehabilitation process.

This week has been a bit up and down as we heard the tragic news that Frank Waswa, the boy we found badly injured on the street last week, and restored back to his family, passed away on Tuesday. It’s a tragic waste of life, that bears testament to the extreme poverty that exists here as his family were perhaps unable to afford medical treatment, but his mother who informed us of the news, was very grateful to us that he died at home.

Emma and I have also started working in two schools in the local area. Assisting the teachers in class, we hope to provide further links between S.A.L.V.E. and the local community as well as gaining an understanding of the education system here in Uganda. Class sizes are enormous here, unsurprising as over 50% of the population in Uganda are children, so the teachers are very grateful for the extra pairs of hands and have been very welcoming.

Our tourist education leaflets are now printed and we are going to distribute them to the tourist hotspots in the Jinja area. With the exceptional white-water rafting on the Nile, many tourists pass through the town and come into contact with street children here. Our leaflets aim to inform the tourists about the lives of these children, teaching them that giving cash handouts only exacerbates the problem and undermines efforts by organizations such as S.A.L.V.E. to help these children in a sustainable manner. Money keeps children on the streets and lures new children into this lifestyle.

So a productive week here in Uganda for the team. As the work of S.A.L.V.E. expands, we are becoming more known as new connections are made. Next week we will come back with photos so please watch this space 

Bye for now x

October already...

Wow its October already... time flies when youre in Uganda!

Street clinics started in their new location this week. Having a semi permanent place to hold them is a great help as it means we can have a concentrated session with the kids without interpution. This week we met with a small group twice and spent time tallking about their backgrounds and lives on the street in order to ascertain how to best assist them. Next week we'll start doing some counseling with them and hopefully some filming too.

The team also managed to restore a child called Frank to home this week after he was found badly injured on the street. He was chased both the police and fell into a drainage ditch breaking both legs. The team provided immmediate first aid care and the took him home to his parents for medical attention.

We've found a trainer for the bead workshops in Mafubira and will consult with the community next week with a view to starting production the week after. This community project is alot quicker to set up than the carpentry workshops and with good sales around Christmas time, will provide immediate revenue for the community.

It Friday afternoon here in Jinja and time for the weekend to begin. Its independence day this weekend so we're hoping for some good celebrations!

Until next week,

Inogen and Emma

New connections

This week has been a good one for behind the scenes work here in Uganda as we’ve been networking and making good connections with organizations that work in a similar manner to S.A.L.V.E. Recently a new member of Jinja Network, a network of NGOs, civil society and government organizations that advocate for children’s rights, we attended our first meeting on Monday. We hope that being a member of this network will mean that we can collaborate with other organizations that work outside the remit of S.A.L.V.E. so we can reach and help more young people together.

Today the S.A.L.V.E. team also went on a peaceful demonstration march with the Jinja Network in aid of raising awareness about child sacrifice, a practice that is devastatingly common here within witchcraft practice. Many children came along holding banners as we marched through the streets of Jinja with a brass band. A really good but baking hot day!

We’ve also been researching a new proposal for a community education project in carpentry, the aim of which is to provide people with skills they can lift themselves out of poverty with, so that younger generations may benefit and less children feel the need to take to the streets. We visited Mafubira, the village this will hopefully take place in, and the proposal is almost finished, so the team here will be waiting in earnest for the necessary funding.

Hassan has been at home this week, as he has come down with malaria but he’s on the mend and has been very chatty. He’s a really bright boy and a keen singer - we hope to be able to share some videos of his talents with you soon. And Junior is enjoying school and making good progress with his reading.

Next week, we have secured a venue in which to hold our street clinics. We are hoping to have a regular venue in which to meet the children so we can provide consistency and work at rehabilitation efforts through structured sessions. We’ll update you with more about this at the end of next week.

So a good week here and things are moving forward for the charity.

It’s really hotting up here so a swim in the Nile is in order this weekend.

Much love from sunny Uganda,

Emma and Imogen xx

This week opened with some good news from Jinja Network. Our membership application has been approved and we will be able to start attending meetings and participating in activities with other organisations who work for vulnerable or marginalised children in Jinja. This opens a whole raft of possibilities for us in terms of link building, partnership working and cementing our place within Jinja’s NGO community.

Unfortunately, this week has been a frustrating one for SALVE and the interns as far as street clinics are concerned. We have been unable to meet as many children as we would like to as the children have moved from their normal gathering places. Unfortunately one child was caught by a stall holder in the bus park attempting to steal some shoes and since then the children have been scared to return there as usual in the morning. This has made it difficult for the team to make contact with them and highlights the chaotic nature of the lives of these children. On a more positive note, we have been able to meet with some older children. Although they are too old to enter the SALVE project, we hope that in building contacts with other organisations through our membership with Jinja Network, we will be able to refer them on to other organisations who can help them.

The community education projects are slowly getting off the ground. We are in the final stages of putting together a proposal for the carpentry project. This will be sent to the UK for approval and hopefully funding will be granted so we can start work with some of the poorest people in Jinja to broaden their skills and employment opportunities. In doing so, we hope to reduce the number of families living in poverty and therefore the number o children forced onto the street.

Junior has successfully completed his first week of school. He has really enjoyed it but is very tired from the 6.30am starts. Its very strange to have him be so quiet at the dinner table! He reports that he’s made some friends and has enjoyed learning English. Topics covered this week include learning how to tell the time and how to describe what he is wearing. We hope all the English we’ve been speaking at home has helped him a bit!

Next week looks to be a buys one. We will start with our first meeting at Jinja network on Monday and hope to put in place the foundations of our tourist education programme. More to follow on that next week.

See you soon,

Emma and Imogen

A busy first week...

This week has been a very busy one for Emma and I as our time for settling into our new surroundings and orienting ourselves ended, and work began.

Monday was our first day of accompanying Mike and Stephen on the street clinics in Jinja. Having negotiated the busy rush hour streets, dodging matatus, boda bodas, bicycles, and huge trucks, our first port of call for meeting the children was a derelict bus stand, set behind a market square in the centre of town. Wooden crates are piled up in front of the stand, and stalls selling shoes are set across the entrance so that when the children are here, they are mostly hidden from view. The stand consists of rows of wooden benches - upon arriving, we found up to ten children in this area, socialising with one another and sniffing glue.

It was amazing to see the children’s responses to the arrival of Mike and Stephen. The greetings were sparked with excitement followed by a fist-to- fist gesture which is common between friends here in Uganda. Referring to Mike and Stephen as ‘uncle’, also a term of endearment that children give to adults who are friends, introductions to the new ‘mzungus’ were carried out, and conversations ensued.

We split into two groups, myself with Mike, and Emma with Stephen. Emma and I took notes as Mike and Stephen interpreted for us; although some of the children can speak English, it is more natural for them tor relate their personal experiences in their mother-tongue.

Mike and I spoke to a number of children, three in detail, who were willing to spend some time with us. A young boy called Jimmy, 13, was particularly keen to speak to us.

Jimmy on the street in Jinja

He told us that his mother left him with his Grandmother when he was very young. During this discussion, in which we heard his realities and desires Jimmy, who originates from Kalangulumira, a town about 50km from Jinja, told us his story and fervently expressed a desire to return home to his Grandmother.

As soon as we arrived a young girl approached Stephen. Zula told us that she had already spent two nights on the street. As a young girl of 13, we were lucky to come across Zula as street-life presents a number of threats to a young girl - exposure to prostitution, sexual abuse and child trafficking, to name but a few.

The team met and discussed the case of Jimmy and Zula on Tuesday afternoon. It was decided that it was imperative that we take Zula in to the SALVE home for the night. We also decided that we should make an attempt to return both children to their families.

On Wednesday, Stephen and I found Jimmy in Jinja and set out for Kalangulumira to find his grandmother, and Assy and Emma accompanied Zula to Gulama.

Upon arriving in the village, Emma and Assy were met by a large extended family including Zula’s grandmother, with whom she had been living, an uncle, three siblings and two aunts. All attested that Zula was a very bright girl, achieving good results at school, and very helpful and hardworking in the homestead. However, she had a habit of running away and this particular occasion was not the first. The family were very happy to accept Zula back but before leaving, Assy and Emma tried to understand Zula’s reasons for running away from a loving family, home and school. Zula said that she was keen to go to boarding school and had gone to Jinja to pursue this aim. She had been confident that she would find a ‘mzungu’ to pay for her fees.

Zula with her family in Gulama

After the hour long bus ride, upon finding Jimmy’s Grandmother’s house with his direction, Stephen and I were greeted kindly. Her reaction to Jimmy was not as I thought it would be, perhaps being difficult for me to read, it seemed to carry an element of indifference and perhaps frustration.

Jimmy’s Grandmother was very forthcoming in talking to us and explaining the situation with her grandson. Jimmy was left with her, as he had previously told us on the street in Jinja, by his mother when he was very young. A number of her own children have died so she cares for many of her grandchildren. She has no employment as such and so grows food to feed her family – some of her grandchildren are in sponsorship schemes and so are at boarding school but the family are very poor.

Jimmy’s grandmother explained that Jimmy has run away to the streets many times. CRO, another organization that sponsor street children through school, have returned him and paid his school fees at a local school, yet still he has run away to the streets. His Grandmother claims to have received him back each time with open arms and without reprimand. It was decided that Jimmy would stay with his Grandmother, as that was his expressed desire and she also agreed. We are going to contact CRO and hopefully get him back to school in due course.

Stephen with Jimmy and his Grandmother on her porch in Kalangulumira

So all in all, a really busy week. We’ve managed to restore two children to their families. The examples of these two children show that the reasons why children take to the streets are varied, complicated and always case-specific.

We have also been spending a lot of time with Junior, who is very excited about going to school. He’s a really confident boy with a great sense of humour and it is very difficult to imagine that he was once on the streets - testament to the important role SALVE has had in his life. He got some new school shoes, bed sheets and a mosquito net yesterday – he spent more than an hour in his room setting up his new belongings and proudly modeled his shoes for us. We’ve been going through the phonetic alphabet with him in an attempt to help him with reading, while he has been teaching us some Luganda.

Welraba J xx

New arrivals

Hi all,

So it's our first post from Uganda and you'll be glad to know that we made it here safe and sound. The journey was a bit of a long one and we're pretty tired so we've spent the last few days adjusting to our new surroundings and sleeping!

It was great to finally meet the Ugandan team. They've all welcomed us with open arms and we've already had some good discussions about the kinds of projects we want to work on together. A priority is writing the project proposals for the community education carpentry and jewellery making projects to get these finalised, funded and off the ground. We also discussed starting some sort of tourist education with the overland tours that come through Jinja. A major problem seems to be that children are encouraged to stay on the streets by large handouts from wealthy toursits- a practice which may seem helpful in the short term but only exacerbates things in the long term. We'll also be concentrating on the street clinics as have past interns. All this starts next week and I'm sure as things develop we'll have more on our plates so stay tuned!

We just missed most of the children who have all (except one) gone back to boarding school now. We're looking forward to visiting them soon though and have plenty of things to do planned for when they come home in December. The one child who remains in the house is Junior. He joined the project 3 months ago having been on the street for 4 years previous to this. He's settling into the house at the moment and we hope he will be able to start day school as soon as possible. He's a lovely child- full of smiles and energy and a keen artist. He hopes to be a pilot and fly to London one day so we need to get him started on maths and physics I think...

As for us, we're just settling into the house and getting used to having constantly grubby feet covered in red dust! It's pretty big and we've got electricity which is great as alot of houses in the area don't. Steven and Assy have big construction plans to make it spic and span for when the children get back in December one of which involves a wall and a sledge hammer... although I am assured that Steven has plenty of experience in construction so no worries there.

Yesterday was Eid and a national holiday in Uganda. The whole day had a party atmosphere from 8am when the music started next door. Bugeme's residents were out in force and their finest and the main street was absolutely buzzing in the evening with people out and about enjoying the day.

Thats all for now,

Emma and Imogen

Preparing for Uganda

Last week saw us introduce S.A.L.V.E.'s two new interns, Emma Vickers and Imogen Bancroft. At the beginning of September we will be waving them off as they head for sunnier climes and the welcoming smiles of the S.A.L.V.E. Uganda team. With their departure just around the corner, we wanted to find out how they were feeling as they work their way through their enormous to-do lists as they prepare for their big trip. Are they nervous? Excited? And what are they most looking forward to getting their teeth stuck into?

Imogen (left) and Emma (right)

Read on to find out, as we hear from Emma and Imogen in their own words...


Emma Vickers

I graduated from Nottingham University in 2008 and since then have been working towards a career in developmetn. I have spent time working in research at a city council and recently spent a year in France to learn the language, however, my main ambition is to work in Africa.

Since first visiting in 2007, I have been unable to forget the colour, chaos and vibrancy of the region, and this internship gives me the perfect opportunity to return in a more helpful capacity than your average backpacker. I can't rememember when I decided that I wanted to work towards alleviating poverty. I think the disparities in opportunity and personal freedom between the wealthy and the poverty-stricken is something I have always been aware of, but perhaps was particularly hammered home during my time working and traveling in East Africa and Africa.

Emma

But then of course, the big question is what to do about it and where to focus my skills? The scale of the problem is enormous, but I do know that I have always enjoyed working with children and young people and I also have enormous faith in the power of education to raise aspirations, broaden horizons and provide opportunities for progress.

I am hugely excited about meeting the team, the kids, and putting into place all the projects Imogen and I have started to plan. I hope we can move S.A.L.V.E. forward to help more children and develop the community so that children are not driven to the street in the first place. My one worry is the huge amount of preparation it seems we have to do before we get on that plane - but i'm sure we'll manage!

Imogen Bancroft

The more I have learnt about the improtant work of S.A.L.V.E. International since being accepted for the internship, the more my excitement has grown. I have recently completed a Masters at SOAS (School of African Studies) in Development Studies in which I focused my studies on Africa, youth and children's rights, and I feel that this role is an amazing opportunity for me to rbing my knowledge and understanding to the charity, and to learn and develop my own skills.

Imogen

I spent a year in Africa in 2003, spending four months setting up a project at a school in Kenya, and traveling around Southern Africa. This humbling experience transformed my life and I have since dedicated my time to learning about the African continent, its troubles and context within the world, and to exploring wyas that I may be able to help those less fortunate than myself. I feel that children are key to the positive development and wellbeing of any society, as they are representative of the future and have a unique way of acting as connectors. But what also attracted me to this role was the comprehensive grassroots nature of S.A.L.V.E. in addressing the needs of the most vulnerable by providing a safe and meaningful grounding in education.

Imogen and Emma modelling their new S.A.L.V.E. t-shirts!

I can't wait to get out there, to meet the children and the team, and to get stuck into doig what I can to help the children on a personal level, as well as aiding the development of the charity as a whole.

Introducing Some New Faces!

You may ask why it's been a little quiet on the blog front recently. Well, here at S.A.L.V.E. we have very good reason, as it's been a whirlwind of activity as we recruit for our two new interns, who are due to head out to Uganda in early September!

So, without further ado, let us introduce the two lucky girls who will be joining the S.A.L.V.E. team... Huge congratulations to Emma Vickers and Imogen Bancroft who fought off some incredibly tough competition to take up their places as the new S.A.L.V.E. interns. As the UK team sifted through all of the applications we received for the position, we were struck by two things: how the number of applicants has increased enormously, and the incredibly high standard of all those applying to us. In the light of this, we can safely say that both Emma and Imogen should feel justly proud of being selected as the lucky two, after what was a very tricky selection day!

Esther and Cailtin: S.A.L.V.E.'s first two interns

Alice, one of our second interns, with baby Caren

After being given the exciting news that they are off to spend four months in Uganda, there are lots of things for them to do before jetting off. Not only do they need to sort out their visas, jabs and flights, but they need to fundraise for their time away as the money they take with them will go directly to the projects they work on whilst they are out in Uganda.

Esther holds a community education workshop

But then, what projects will they choose to work on?! There are a whole host of different things that they can put their efforts towards whilst working with our Ugandan team - previous interns have set up jewellery-making projects and drama groups, or have concentrated on establishing our street clinics or carrying out research into why children come to live on the streets in the first place. As a small charity, our interns are invaluable to the work that we do, and as we grow, the ways in which they can help us are ever increasing. We are incredibly excited to see what Emma and Imogen will make of their time with us in Uganda, but one thing's for certain - we know they both have the energy, passion and enthusiasm to make it a huge success!

The S.A.L.V.E. jewellery-making project in full flow

From all of us at S.A.L.V.E....good luck girls!

First things first - can we all take a minute to think about all those poor people affected by the Ugandan bombings this week in the capital, Kampala. It is distressing to think of everyone who must have been so frightened and upset by the attacks and we send out all our prayers and wishes that the the trouble will soon be over. To read more about the attacks click here: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/12/uganda-bomb-blasts-kampala.

But now on to some exciting news - this weekend the interviews are taking place for the new set of interns to venture out to Jinja and help to continue the work of SALVE over there. We have had some fantastic candidates applying which we are sure means that two wonderful people will be going out to spend some time with the SALVE children and staff. We are very jealous but also very grateful that others understand and support the vital work that must be done for street children in Uganda. Good luck to all candidates and we look forward to seeing who the lucky chosen two will be!

Not only are we interviewing for new interns, but also for a few Local Fundraiser posts. These are very important positions as our fundraising drive has really begun and we need much more money in order to buy the land we desperately need. The Local Fundraisers will have a fairly free reign of things they can get involved with, from writing Trust applications, shaking buckets, and putting on events. Hopefully this will mean we can reach our target of £50,000 sooner than we think!

On a related note - watch this space for an exciting event in November...let's just say get your tartan out and your dancing shoes on! Thank you for reading and we hope you come back next week for more SALVE news.

Want to intern with S.A.L.V.E. in Uganda?

So it's that time of year again where we are looking for two amazing passionate people to go and intern with S.A.L.V.E. out in Uganda. And the deadline is approaching fast (this Wednesday!).

This is an exciting post for someone hoping to get more involved in the charity sector, which will provide excellent hands-on experience. The successful candidates will undertake a four month placement, and will be involved in all aspects of the charity's work on the ground. Interns will work closely with the charity's Ugandan staff in their work with children on the street through our street clinics, as well as on site at the charity's foster home. Interns will also be expected to help in the charity's community education program to help to address the causes of why children take to the streets in the first place, i.e. through research, syllabus design and facilitation. There will also be opportunities to assist our link schools, particularly assisting the teachers with (but not limited to) music, art, sport, debating and homework clubs.

As a relatively new charity, S.A.L.V.E. International offers the chance for very real experience, and the opportunity for interns to bring their own ideas to the table. We are looking for enthusiastic, dedicated applicants with a can-do attitude who are not afraid to get stuck in with any sort of work. There will be many duties within the local community, and we expect the successful interns to act as ambassadors for the charity, whilst also being happy to carry out a certain amount of administrative work behind the scenes.

This position is unpaid and the interns will be expected to finance their transport and living costs whilst in Uganda. Please download the full job spec from charity job (http://www.charityjob.co.uk/seekers/jobdetails.aspx?jobid=176779) and to have any questions answered please email info@salveinternational.org.

Please apply in writing, sending your C.V. and a covering letter explaining why you are suitable for this role to info@salveinternational.org by 12 noon on Wednesday 7^th July. All applicants must be available for interview on Sunday 18^th July and a training day on Saturday 7^th August. The successful candidates will depart for Uganda in early September 2010 and stay until the end of late December.

Many of our past interns have gone on to get their ideal job in the charity sector on the back of this experience. In fact one of our first interns Caitlin O'Neill (who now works in the fundraising department of a major charity in London) has even gone on to become a charity trustee and now heads our fundraising work in the UK.

And this is what Esther Dobson (another of our previous interns) has to say about her experience:

'My time in Uganda was certainly one of the most rewarding and fulfilling of my life as well as being a fantastic opportunity to build the skills and experiences needed to go on to do so much more. From the very beginning my intern partner Caitlin and I were welcomed into SALVE family and by the end of our 4 months we were good friends with a lot of the “full timers” living and sleeping on the streets. It was such a privilege to be part of the process helping some of the children through the transition from the streets to SALVE home and seeing their transformation as they became clean, educated, loved and accepted. Other projects I got involved with like creating an income generating project for poor mothers, research and educating local authorities about street children have been brilliant experience for my masters in social policy and will be invaluable in getting a job in project development in the international development sector. I am also very grateful for SALVE teaching me so much I needed to know to set up my own children’s home in Nepal, now a loving family to nine orphaned, abandoned and street children. Thank you SALVE!'

How to Help?

Nights on the streets in Jinja are a world away from the life we know here in the UK. When Nicola and Helen were first setting up S.A.L.V.E. back in 2008, there is one night that sticks out in their mind more than any other.

After a day spent meeting children on the street, they returned to their lodgings as usual. But whilst their day that had been filled with sunshine and plenty of hope for the future, there followed one of the wildest nights in living memory. A storm of huge proportions hit Jinja. The winds raged, lightening flashed and the thunder deafened. And as the shutters were battered against their bedroom windows, all Nicola and Helen could think of was the children they had left on the streets as they came home that evening.

This is one of the most difficult things about S.A.L.V.E.’s work; that however many children we help along they way, there are always more who we haven’t been able to offer assistance to, often due to circumstances beyond our control. And so, when we are unable to bring a child into our house and onto the S.A.L.V.E. sponsorship scheme, we look for other ways in which we can help them.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that one way we do this is through our street clinics where we are able to offer support and counselling to those kids who are still living on the streets of Jinja. But if the circumstances allow it, another crucial aspect of our work is to reunite children with the families thy have left behind. Children take to the streets for a wide variety of reasons, and whilst it is logical to think that they left home because their families no longer want to look after them, this is often a long way from the truth. In fact, many children end up on the streets because they have been searching for family, but don’t know where to start and soon find they have nowhere to go. So whenever we can, we try to bring a child back together with their family. Sometimes this takes a good bit of detective work on our part, whilst at other times this can be very straightforward, as a child will often know where to find their relations but simply doesn’t have the means of getting to them.

This week, S.A.L.V.E.’s Ugandan team were able to help a child in just this way and are currently in the process of restoring a boy called Junior to his family. Junior has been living on the streets for three years now, and desperately wants to be back at home with his elder brother who we are currently searching for. Although this may take a bit of time, we are getting there slowly but surely, having recently traced his grandmother, who hasn’t seen him since he left home. With many other family members to care for, Junior’s grandmother is unable to take him in, but she was overjoyed to see him, and we hope that through her we will soon be able to get Junior back to where he belongs. We'll be sure to keep you posted on any developments in our search for Junior's family, so do come back to see how we get on.

A Spotlight on S.A.L.V.E. Uganda

Last week’s blog saw a fantastic insight into the fundraising that we do, and the generous people who give up their time to do this for us. So this week, let’s turn the spotlight on our work in Uganda, to see some of the places that your donations are going.

Supporting Street Clinics!

Central to our work as a charity are our weekly street clinics. As we can only care for a small number of children in our home, our street clinics provide an opportunity for us to counsel and support those children still living on the street, and to get to know them and their backgrounds. Our street clinics offer a chance for these vulnerable children to see some familiar faces and to rebuild their trust in the adults around them.

At this week’s street clinic, our Ugandan team also saw a familiar face – Kefa, a child who we used to work with on the streets, but haven’t seen for a long while. Recognising Mike and the team, he came closer and gave a shy smile. Gradually he began to talk, and quickly showed how keen he is to return to school and bring an end to his life on the streets. We hope that we will be able to help him to achieve his dream, so watch this space to see what happens over the coming weeks.

Community Education

If you think back through our many blogs, you’ll remember that our first set of interns, Caitlin and Esther, ran a small jewellery-making project for local school children and their mothers. This was a great success, and we soon hope to turn this trial project into a full-time reality as part of our community education programme.

As a charity, we have always felt that community education is hugely important to the work that we do as we try to look past the problem and to the cause. We hope that by working in local communities, educating locals and providing them with a revenue stream, we will be able to have some impact – however big or small – on the poverty which drives children to the streets in the first place.

And finally…

We are now advertising for our next set of interns to join us out in Uganda! Our internship runs from September to December, and offers the successful candidates the chance to really become a part of our charity and to have a say in the crucial work that we carry out. We are looking for people who are enthusiastic, proactive and have bags of energy…but above all, they must be PASSIONATE about what we do! If you want to apply, or think you know someone who would be perfect for the role, then let us know at info@salveinternational.org.

To download the full job spec, please visit http://www.charityjob.co.uk/seekers/jobdetails.aspx?jobid=176779 and apply with your CV and covering letter by 12 noon on Wednesday 7th July. You’d better get your skates on!

A focus on the Fundraising

In honour of the fact that we are launching our incredible London Fundraising team very soon and are currently recruiting for dedicated volunteers we thought that we'd do a special blog for you all about fundraising.

Now anyone who has been following our work this year must have noticed our rather creative efforts to raise money are ever increasing: we decided as an organisation to start fundraising to buy our own land during our annual general meeting in Uganda earlier this year and so far the support we've had has been tremendous and we've raised over £5000!

This has been raised through a variety of ways: people being sponsored to take on challenges, fundraising events and through people generously donating (either a one off or a regular sum no matter how big or small does make a huge difference to us!).

Two of our most recent fundraising champions Becca and Lucy Fawcett wrote this about their recent running triumph:

Running the BIG half for SALVE

Why SALVE?

After seeing the amazing difference that the S.A.L.V.E. team had already made to street children's lives in Uganda, Luc and Becca wanted to do their bit in support of the great project. Through the sponsorship of Maureen, the Fawcett family has had a glimpse into the day-to-day struggles of the street children in Jinja and the amazing work S.A.L.V.E. does.

S.A.L.V.E's work is particularly pertinent to the girls as the charity was set up and is run by people their own age. It also offers a great opportunity to see 100% of donations go straight where they are desperately needed. As the charity is still small, they can see that every penny raised makes a real difference.

Why the Sheffield half marathon?

As neither sister had ever really run beyond the obligatory (and life-threatening) 1,500 metres at school they decided the Sheffield half marathon would be sufficiently taxing for 2010. For Becca it was a welcome break from the City and for Luc a reminder of what great sights Sheffield has to offer…
The sisters made the decision to run in February, giving themselves about 8 weeks to prepare. At first a grueling 20 minute jog around the block seemed epic, so the prospect of a 13 mile run was inconceivable. The Just Giving page was launched and a target of £500 was set – gradually the sponsorship started to roll in and the project built up momentum.

As the weeks went by a bit of cycling and a few sit-ups were thrown in to the ‘training regimes’ for good measure…in fact Becca and Luc were surprised at how fast they went from loathing to loving the runs. Knowing they had a target to achieve and children to help gave them the extra push to get up on those rainy Sundays to pound the streets of London and Sheffield. The sponsorship monies grew and grew and before long the target was met and even doubled. Alison and Simon Fawcett hosted a “Chili Evening” which was a great (and delicious) success.

Crunch time. The sisters were both feeling nervous as they stood on the track at Don Valley stadium amongst the crowd of very professional looking athletes. The running conditions were looking good: no rain, not too sunny nor too windy - perfect! Even better, another crew of cheery S.A.L.V.E. fundraisers were quickly spotted thanks to the bright yellow T-shirts. The “yellows” shared stories and momentary laughter. However panic quickly followed – if we don’t make it, we won’t have earnt the sponsorship…what then - what about the Jinja kids???

The sisters ran together, both feeling strong for those first six miles; running from Don Valley through the revamped city centre and along the popular Ecclesall Road…mile 11 was the point when they started to get emotional…nearly there! The last lap around the stadium was tough, with people collapsing in the final mile...

The sisters went for “sprint finishes”, Becca finishing in 2hrs 07mins and Luc in 2hrs17mins.

The next day was sore, but absolutely worth it.

THANK YOU S.A.L.V.E. International for motivating us to have such an emotional and exciting experience and giving us such an amazing target.

With generous sponsorship from the DLA Piper Charitable Trust, colleagues, friends and family across the UK, Becca and Lucy raised over £1,500 for S.A.L.V.E.

Do you want to get more involved?

We are always happy to help and support anyone who is interested in fundraising for S.A.L.V.E. and have a fundraising pack full of good ideas to get you on your way: please email caitlin@salveinternational.org for more info!