Masese 3 and the transit centre

Another busy week with SALVE!! With a big fundraiser coming up in London this week, the UK staff have been working hard on the preparations. Meanwhile the day-to-day business of work on the ground here in Uganda has been ticking over. We had a weekend full of dramas with Richard and Avaga, one of the boys that we have been getting to know very well over the last few months. The drama concluded with both boys safely back in the transit centre where they are being carefully monitored by the staff there and by us. We are hoping that this time the boys will fully commit to the opportunity they have to reform and we will welcome both of them back into the SALVE home in the weeks to come. The major obstacle at the moment is drug dependency which afflict so many boys on the street and makes the transition to settled life even more difficult. The transit centre however, has the specific skills and resources available to help street boys to tackle their drug dependency issues and gives them an intensive rehabilitation period before re-entering school life.
SALVE is working closely alongside the transit centre to facilitate the boys rehabilitation; visiting regularly and liasing with transit centre staff to ensure that the boys are making positive progress and that any problems are quickly addressed. We are continuing to work on and develop this close relationship with the transit centre so that together we can maximise the effectiveness of our programmes and ensure that the most comprhensive care is delivered to the street children.
We spent some time in Masese 3 this week, familiarising ourselves with the urban conditions that have contributed to so many children running away to the streets. Masese 3 is a slum community on the outskirts of Jinja where many people struggle to get by with little to no income. The Karamojong people (from the North of Uganda) in particular rely on collecting food and doing small bits of manual labour in exchange for money, food or firewood. The community has several child-headed households and many part-time street children, who can be seen on Jinja streets in the day but return to Masese at night to sleep. Our trip to Masese was very enlightening and has taught us a lot about the background of many of the children in our programme.
Meanwhile our community education and street clinic programmes continue to move forward and are showing great promise. As the interns are approaching our final couple of weeks in Uganda it is very encouraging to see so many plans coming to fruition. We are really looking forward to hearing how things get on over the coming months after we leave.