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