The full SALVE house was suitably chaotic this week! For the children, there were many highlights of the week. Wednesday was a busy day of enrolling all except Moreen in their new schools and getting all their supplies together for the new term. This year the children will be attending Magwa primary school and St Nicholas primary school and they are all very excited about the change of venue. For Moreen, the first member of SALVE to complete primary school, she was able to collect her P7 results from St. Nicholas and was very pleased with her results and is now greatly looking forward to starting secondary school in a few weeks and moving one step closer to her goal of becoming a nurse!
(A new school for the S.A.L.V.E. children!)
After many afternoons packed with arts, crafts and games, the week culminated in a trip to WonderWorld; Uganda’s biggest and best theme park!! All the children proved to be much braver than any of their adult counterparts by going on almost every ride available! Having seen some of the hair-raising rides, I think that we all felt very lucky to have made it back to Jinja with only one vomiting incident en-route!! And of course, this did very little to dampen the spirit of the children, who had an incredible day all round.
(Lots of fun for everyone at the S.A.L.V.E. day out to Wonder World)
For the SALVE staff and interns, our week of fun and excitement, also consisted of many meetings!! SALVE is very proud to be approaching its two year birthday and the UK team visiting Uganda signalled the time for the AGM!!
The AGM comprehensively discussed the various successes and challenges that SALVE has faced over the last two years. One of the biggest decisions that needed to be taken was to move the children to a new school. We chose Magwa and St. Nicholas primary schools because of the good reports we have heard from Harriet, whose family attends Magwa and Moreen, who excelled in St. Nicholas. However, we will continue to have ongoing evaluations of the schools to ensure that the children are being cared for and supported while they are away at school. This continues to be a big challenge for SALVE.
The AGM comprehensively discussed the various successes and challenges that SALVE has faced over the last two years. One of the biggest decisions that needed to be taken was to move the children to a new school. We chose Magwa and St. Nicholas primary schools because of the good reports we have heard from Harriet, whose family attends Magwa and Moreen, who excelled in St. Nicholas. However, we will continue to have ongoing evaluations of the schools to ensure that the children are being cared for and supported while they are away at school. This continues to be a big challenge for SALVE.
(Moreen proudly shows off her primary school leaving certificate with Hassan)
The other big decision taken was to move the SALVE house. Mike, our regional director, now has a family of his own and is hoping to set up their own home soon. This combined with issues of space for the rapidly expanding SALVE family means that we are looking to upgrade the SALVE house.
This produced several long discussions about problem solving and comparing and contrasting our various ideas about how to move the charity forward. We also worked out a more comprehensive communications strategy which is very important for a charity that works between two different countries. It seems we had a bit too much enthusiasm for new ideas and debate, however, because our AGM to become a 2 day affair. The second day was a planning exercise, about putting our new ideas in place and creating a very comprehensive vision of the future of SALVE over the next ten years. Everything from future staff roles to buying land were discussed. We all left the meetings with a great sense of enthusiasm about continuing and improving the work of SALVE.
Unfortunately this week has brought up some very sad news that Harriet, our home-carer, is leaving the SALVE team to join her newly-wed husband in Finland. SALVE wishes her very well and hopes that they have a wonderful, if slightly cold, future together. She will be greatly missed by all the SALVE staff and particularly by the children, whom she has formed some very close bonds with. Despite having only having known her a few weeks, it is clear to us that that Jinja will greatly miss Harriet, who seems to be one of the most well-known and popular people on main street. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank her for helping us settle in to Ugandan life and introducing us to her many contacts!
This produced several long discussions about problem solving and comparing and contrasting our various ideas about how to move the charity forward. We also worked out a more comprehensive communications strategy which is very important for a charity that works between two different countries. It seems we had a bit too much enthusiasm for new ideas and debate, however, because our AGM to become a 2 day affair. The second day was a planning exercise, about putting our new ideas in place and creating a very comprehensive vision of the future of SALVE over the next ten years. Everything from future staff roles to buying land were discussed. We all left the meetings with a great sense of enthusiasm about continuing and improving the work of SALVE.
Unfortunately this week has brought up some very sad news that Harriet, our home-carer, is leaving the SALVE team to join her newly-wed husband in Finland. SALVE wishes her very well and hopes that they have a wonderful, if slightly cold, future together. She will be greatly missed by all the SALVE staff and particularly by the children, whom she has formed some very close bonds with. Despite having only having known her a few weeks, it is clear to us that that Jinja will greatly miss Harriet, who seems to be one of the most well-known and popular people on main street. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank her for helping us settle in to Ugandan life and introducing us to her many contacts!
(Laura and Harriet take the S.A.L.V.E. children for interviews at their new schools)
And so another week flies by, future plans in place, a SALVE staff position to be filled, and a house full of very excited children about to start their new term at school. All round there is much to look forward to and we will endeavour to bring you your regular weekly news of the progress.
