Our work with S.A.L.V.E. International

Splashing, graduations, weddings and marathons...plus we are looking for volunteers!

2011-05-09T21:27:00.015+03:00

There are lots of great things to update you with from S.A.L.V.E. at the moment...

Uganda

First of all we want to say huge congratulations to Juliet, who is on our team of staff, and who recently had her graduation party from University!

We also want to welcome Lailite to our staff team as a home assistant!

The children have been enjoying a wonderful time on their holidays between first and second term of school. Lots of fun and games were had as well as a chance for the children to go and visit some of their relatives where possible.

We had especially good news for Hassan who has managed to be re-united with his mother who he lost touch with aged four when his parents divorced. It was wonderful for them to find each other again - and he got to meet his new half-brothers and sisters too!

UK

It's been a busy time for us in the UK too. We've had lots of incredible people taking on the Nile in the UK to make a Splash for S.A.L.V.E. and help to raise money for us, from Kate in Brussels, to Fiona in Chesterfield to the Manchester crew who took up the challenge yesterday (is that really a Nile crocodile in the UK?!). A huge thank you to you all for your efforts and good luck to all of those yet to swim!

Another huge congrats has to go to the amazing Kathryn Ellis who got round the London Marathon in style for S.A.L.V.E. in an impressive time of 4 hours 36 minutes - from all of us on the S.A.L.V.E. team, well done!

Another big thank you has to go to Becca and Jeremie who have been long term supporters of S.A.L.V.E. - so much so that they didn't forget us on their special day and did an incredible collection for us at their wedding! Thank you so much!!

Also a big congrats to everyone who took part in BUMMIT hitchhike from Sheffield to Poland with Sheffield rag. You all did so well and we are so proud to be one of the charities you have chosen to support this year!

Volunteer

Finally, just to let you know that we are currently looking for two amazing interns to go out to Uganda and help us in our work from September to February - check out the details on how to apply here.

If that's a bit too far to go - there is something you can do in the comfort of your own home to make a huge difference! We have entered the Co-operative's My Revolution Competition and are currently at 2nd place in our category (first place wins £5000 ... 2nd place wins nothing) and we have 20 days to get to number one! Please help us by voting and by asking your friends and family to vote too - £5000 would make a huge difference to the work we can do in Uganda this year!

Thanks again for your support,
Lots of love from the S.A.L.V.E. Team

Get Splashing for S.A.L.V.E.!

2011-03-21T01:30:00.005+03:00

April is right around the corner, and here at S.A.L.V.E. we're gearing up for a month that will be filled to the brim with swimming! Up and down the country, people will be supporting S.A.L.V.E. as they take part in Splash for S.A.L.V.E., our first ever nationwide sponsored swim. And we're not just confining our splashing to the UK, as we even have an event taking part as far afield as Belgium!

Ahhh, this is the life...

But it's not too late to take part in Splash for S.A.L.V.E., and with all money raised going towards buying a house of our very own, we're looking for even more brilliant supporters to get swimming. Whether you're a sedate or a serious swimmer, we've got something to suit you. Swimmers can choose to take on one of three challenges, all based on stretches of the River Nile which can be found close to where we work in Jinja, Uganda.

Fun for the S.A.L.V.E. children at the local pool

If you prefer things short and sweet, then why not go for our Determined Challenge, and swim 40 lengths in your local 25m pool? That's the same distance as the River Nile's world-famous Bujagali Falls. Or if you fancy splashing a bit further, try tackling our Demanding Challenge - by the time you've swum the 160 lengths required, you'll have gone the length of Owen Falls. And last but by no means least, there's the Difficult Challenge - 320 lengths that would take you from the source of the River Nile to Bujagali Falls.

Dinah enjoys a dip!

But of course we're not asking you to take on this swim in the Nile itself (although no doubt the crocs would encourage you to swim like never before!). This can all be done in the comfort of your local pool, where you can take on a challenge by yourself or as part of a team, splitting the distance between you all - the choice is yours.

Isma splashes for S.A.L.V.E.!

All you need to do to get involved is to sign up here, and then decide whether you want to get involved in one of our organised swim events across the country or whether you'd rather do things in your own time at your local pool.

Thank you from all of us at S.A.L.V.E.!

We desperately need a S.A.L.V.E. home all of our own, and we're relying on you - our brilliant supporters - to get us there! So what are you waiting for? Sign up today and get swimming for S.A.L.V.E.!

School visitation time, and all sorts of updates and news from S.A.L.V.E.

2011-03-13T13:57:00.009+03:00

Ugandan update:

This week was time for school visitation time for a lot of our children. This is a chance for our children to show us their schools, for us to get an update from teachers on the children's progress and for the S.A.L.V.E. family to enjoy some good food together :)

Good news is that we are getting a lot of positive reports on our children's progress - and we now have several prefects and class monitors amongst our ranks!

The Salve team has also been working hard to try to find a good (not too expensive) space to rent for our women's group in Mafubira - and the good news is we think we have somewhere now. This will mean a better, cleaner environment for the womens lessons!

We have also been doing a lot of work in our local town of Bugembe and are working alongside the town council there to try to stop the growing number of fulltime childrenliving on the street
in the area.

We have also taken in a lovely new girl called Faith (aged 11) who needed to escape from some members of her family wanting to harm her.

UK update:

Things remain busy as ever in the UK as we try our best to raise awareness about our work in Uganda and continue our big fundraising drive towards getting land and a home of our very own.

We are looking for sponsors for two of our wonderful children - Junior Masolo and Faith. Please do get in contact if you might be interested (£35 a month) = info@salveinternational.org

We've been out talking to the wonderful hitchhikers from Sheffield Rag who will be going all the way to Poland this Easter with us as one of the charities they are supporting (and have already raised money for us from their baby hitchhike last year!). Thank you so much for all you are doing for us!

We are busy preparing for our Spalsh for S.A.L.V.E. in April (a chance to swim part of the Nile here in the UK!) - Events are cropping up in Manchester, London, Sheffield, in some schools and even Brussels! Find out more about swimming or even going one spalsh further and coordinating your local swim!

And we are supporting the wonderful Kathryn Ellis in her London marathon run for S.A.L.V.E. on 17th April!

Do get in touch if you have any other ideas on where we could go to speak about our work or some good fundraising ideas? info@salveinternational.org

And the good news is our online shop will be up and running very soon .... A great idea for mothers day this year!

Lovely Junior Masolo in need of a sponsor!

2011-03-06T21:50:00.005+03:00

Do you or anyone you know have a heart big enough to sponsor one of our newest boys?

Junior Masolo is one of the loveliest, kindest, most gentle boys you could ever hope to meet. He has settled in so well with all of the other children and is a very popular and well-liked little boy. He is a huge fan of football and supports Manchester United...but don't let that put you off! He also loves basketball and learning all about computers, as well as playing with his friends and learning at school. He wants the chance to turn his life around with S.A.L.V.E. International and put his past behind him.

Junior's father left him to fend for himself when he was very young. He would go out and look for scrap metal to be able to afford food to eat and the fees that he so desperately needed to carry on with his education. Inevitabley he could not collect enough scrap to continue funding this and with threats from neighbours and the landlord of his father's home scaring him he ran away to the streets. He was thankfully put in touch with a local babies home who then contacted us at S.A.L.V.E. We were more than happy to welcome him in to the family and he is currently living in our family home. All he needs now is a loving sponsor to enable him to continue with his education that he so highly values and to let him stay with his friends who care about him. £35 a month is a small amount to pay on the path to changing this little boy's life and to bring him closer to his dream of becoming a pilot.

If you want to help Junior Masolo to continue with his education and to create a new family for himself then please do get in touch, we would all be so happy to hear from you. Contact us at info@salveinternational.org.

S.A.L.V.E. Turns Three!

2011-02-10T23:52:00.008+03:00

Happy birthday to S.A.L.V.E. - please celebrate our three year anniversary with us!

Looking back to our humble beginnings continues to fill me with awe at how far we have come in such a short time - which is entirely due to the incredible support we have found and continue to find along the way.

One of the huge highlights of our recent trip to Uganda for me has to be seeing the growing self confidence and self assurance of the children. From Emma getting a first grade in his Primary leaving exams - to all of the children singing, dancing and doing comedy skits in our talent show (perhaps too confident since they even did a skit where Moreen pretended to be me ... it turns out I have a very high pitched voice!).One of the excitements of January for the S.A.L.V.E. family is our yearly trip out - what better way to get the year off to a good start? This year we went to Mabira forest where we explored the mighty forest looking for monkeys, snakes and beautiful birds. The children loved learning about their natural heritage and I think we might even have one or two future guides for national parks amongst our ranks now!
The children are now all happily back at school - though they were lucky enough to meet Aunt Juliet (our lovely new staff member) before they went back.

So three years on from three people in a cafe with an idea of wanting to do something to provide support and love via education to those who need it most - we have an ever growing team of passionate staff and volunteers, 12 happy and healthy children with a safe home who enjoy school, 15 women learning new skills to earn an income they can invest back into their family, and many more children we have taken home to their family or supported along the way.

What's next you might ask?

- Carpentry and more vocational training opportunities in the community with those who need it most.
- More street clinics to allow us to help more children to leave the streets.
- More research into how we can continue to grow and improve the work we are doing and reach out to more of Uganda's most vulnerable people.

Key to all our plans to the future is buying our own land - a home for our growing family, and a place where we will be able to run vocational training courses and become a hub for the community. This is even more key since our landlord keeps trying to push the cost of our rent up.
Why not help us to make that dream a reality and make a Splash for S.A.L.V.E.? Perhaps by swimming a section of the Nile for such a good reason we might get some of the sunshine that goes with it? Fingers Crossed!

Fun in the Sun with the S.A.L.V.E. Children

2011-01-27T18:03:00.001+03:00

We’ve now reached the end of a wonderful first week for the UK team out here in Uganda, with many memorable moments, and plenty of progress to report.

The planning for the year ahead has now been done, after the S.A.L.V.E. team held their annual AGM on Thursday. Amidst a table full of paper, pens and glasses full of passion fruit juice, ideas were discussed and plans set in place for 2011. With fundraising for the land well underway in the UK, discussions about a future home of our own was a hot topic, as was the recruitment of new staff members who we hope will join us over the course of the year.

Some funny faces from our youngest boys!

But by far the most rewarding aspect of the trip so far for Nicola, Caitlin and myself has been all the time we’ve had with the children. On Friday, we made the trip to Teen Missions, the holiday camp which the older children have spent the last three weeks at. Helena, Blessing, Moreen, Tiff, Emma and Hassan all boarded the bus home with big smiles, certificates aplenty, and tales of the many new friends they had made. As we arrived back at the S.A.L.V.E. home, there were cheers and hugs all round as the younger children ran out of the house to greet them with open arms – a wonderful sight to see as the S.A.L.V.E. family was reunited once more.

The S.A.L.V.E. family

Saturday brought with it plenty of excitement for the children, with Emma’s primary school leaving results being delivered to the home first thing. We are thrilled to report that not only did Emma pass, allowing him to progress to secondary school, but he did so with flying colours, gaining a First Division result, and graduating amongst the best in his class!

After the excitement of the morning, we all set off for an eagerly-awaited trip to the pool. Swimming has always been a huge favourite with our water-loving kids, and the pool was soon filled with screams, shouts and three very wet Trustees!

Fun at the pool for Junior, Helena, Masolo and Asuman

And don’t forget, if you like swimming as much as the S.A.L.V.E. children do, make sure you sign up to Splash for S.A.L.V.E., our sponsored swim to raise funds for us to build a home of our own.

Nicola, Helen and Caitlin enjoy the sunset over the Nile

So after a very busy week, it was time for us to sit back and reflect a little on the trip so far, and where better for this than overlooking the Nile with a drink in hand. As the sun set over the water, we had plenty to think about and lots to look forward to for the coming week. With more trips planned to our street clinic and community education project, and the annual S.A.L.V.E. day out with the children on the cards, it looks set to be a busy week with lots more fun to come!

A final note from Imogen and Emma xx

2011-01-19T18:56:00.005+03:00

It’s very difficult to imagine that just over two weeks ago, we were saying our goodbyes to all the wonderful people we met in Uganda... Whilst readjusting to our familiar yet alien surroundings in the UK – culture shock in your own culture is a very strange feeling – the last four months are beginning to feel like a magnificent dream.

Uganda is a remarkable country. Its fertile soils and diverse landscape support an equally diverse culture of peoples. Tragically, a large proportion of these people face daily struggles against a sheer lack of opportunity and the debilitations of poverty. Globally, the young are burdened with great responsibilities. Comprising over 50% of the population, a lot of Uganda’s children are faced with ever more complex predicaments, as the all-encompassing suffering poverty causes inescapably and dynamically affects them. These children are increasingly expected to serve the ambitions and hopes of older generations, carry on the bloodline and, indeed, ensure the future development and sustenance of Uganda’s many cultures and societies.

There are a large number of children living on Uganda’s streets. As an ‘outsider’, interacting with some of these children on the streets of Jinja during street clinics verified in my mind that in a country of such diversity and sometimes disparity, children are a unifying force capable of bringing people together and to common ethical grounds. With time, patience and under the awe-inspiring guidance of Mike, a number of these children came to trust us and view us not as ‘muzungus’ with big wallets, but as friends. A number of children still living on the street in Jinja can speak English well, and over time we were able to learn more about their experiences and the varied, complex and always case-specific reasons as to why they are on the street.

Ashiraff, a friend and street boy in Jinja

Mike Asiya has devoted his life to these children, and to fighting for the rights of all young people in Uganda. He spends a considerable amount of his time interacting with Jinja’s street children, building a rapport and relationship of trust with them. Witnessing their response to him is something I’m sure Emma and I will never forget. Calling him ‘Uncle Mike’, they trust him and recognise him as a symbol of hope and compassion. Mike understands the role of children and youth in bridging gaps between people, and through his counseling recogonises that they are not simply passive recipients but actors and participants in a society that is sadly, at times, cruel and unforgiving. Many of these children are living on the street during an age when some of the most high-level, complex social skills are being honed and critically developed. These years denote a period of life for all of us that are transitional in nature and crucial for identity construction.

Therefore, the effects of living on the street during these years can be considered particularly momentous. Mike directs his team in the street clinic programs to acknowledge the fluidity, contingency and open-endedness of these children’s processes of identity formation and encourages a focus on the ease at which they make connections. Just as a life on the streets will change and create social relations, so will a return to family life and education. Guiding S.A.L.V.E. with his years of knowledge and devotion, the organisation provides these children with a sense of hope, reconciliation and forgiveness – often fighting against the stigmas of society, he believes and has faith, as does S.A.L.V.E., in each and every individual that with some help, they can turn their lives around.

Once this is instilled in the children, and as S.A.L.V.E. allows the space for them to make their own choice to leave the street, a process of rehabilitation can begin. In consultation with Mike, we decided to change the strategy of the street clinics. During our time out there, three new children were brought into the S.A.L.V.E. rehabilitation centre. This was only after they expressed a desire to come, and once in the home, a slow process of rehabilitation back to a life at home could begin. This process is provided with patience, love, security and understanding. To witness the transformation in these three boys was phenomenal. It was amazing to see them flourish, gain confidence, and become children again, something we will both never forget, and which holds testament to the remarkable work of S.A.L.V.E.

Asuman and Isma playing in Bugembe

Once the children are used to the structure of being part of a family again, and again they express a desire to go home, restorations are attempted. It was concluded from experience, that restoration attempts have a tendency to fail if a child is taken home directly from the street, as they are not accustomed to home life and have not had the time needed to come to terms with their past, achieved through the counseling processes offered by Mike and the team. S.A.L.V.E. International practices a great understanding of the autonomy of children, and the realities of the decision making process in which actual children engage - from a life on the street through to rehabilitation. S.A.L.V.E. attends to the immediate needs of these vulnerable children, whilst taking account of their concerns, desires and realities, which serves to better their interests and future development in the long term.

Bettering the lives of Uganda’s children lies at the heart of S.A.L.V.E. International’s mandate. I hope that working in Nakanyonyi Primary School may have helped to create links between S.A.L.V.E. and Uganda's education system that can be built upon. And with Mike leading the way, we became involved in a number of campaigns during our four months. As a new member of Jinnet, a network of Ugandan NGOs, S.A.L.V.E. was able to demonstrate its commitment to children’s rights in a number of different ways. Movements to protect children’s rights are gaining momentum in Uganda and it was really great to be a part of that. It was also great to see Mike’s confidence grow as he was given the reverence and admiration within these circles he so deserves. His trip to petition parliament in Kampala on the issue of child sacrifice, a practice that is devastatingly common within witchcraft practices in Uganda, heralded his confidence and determination, and shows the forces that are coming into play in Uganda for the government to recognize the issues that face children on a daily basis.

S.A.L.V.E. is a young organization which is growing. Providing assistance to street children is at its core, but there is a recognition that it is at the local level of community, family and the children themselves that social relations will be talked about and lived through, where the root causes as to why children go to the street exist. It is this recognition that lay the foundations to our initiation of community education in Mafubira. Working with the Ugandan team, it was understood that the projects can best start by taking on board people’s own perspectives and subjective experiences as a knowledge base for the needs of any project we begin. So after consultation, the writing of proposals and a generous donation from Angie Rees in the UK, we were able to begin the bead-making project with 15 women in Mafubira, an impoverished town near Jinja where a large number of street children originate from.

The bead project in Mafubira

This in now in full swing and with the help of Rose, the trainer, we hope that we have provided the skills and knowledge required for the women to manage it themselves, providing them with a sustainable income that will enable them to better support their families, and in turn, reduce the number of children who may have potentially taken to the streets. They are now producing some beautiful items of jewelry ready to be sold here in the UK, and in time the online shop will also be set up so they will be easier to purchase.

S.A.L.V.E. International, with the generous help of its supporters, now provides care to twelve children in the home, who are back in education and provided with a home environment that is centred upon care and love. To have been a part of this unique and beautiful family is something Emma and I will cherish always. Each and every child on the S.A.L.V.E. project is an example of the hope there is for other children still living on the streets in Uganda.

The S.A.L.V.E. family at last year's Christmas party

Our four months in Uganda was a very steep learning curve, with its fair share of ups and downs, frustrations and delights. Witnessing the unwavering devotion of Mike to the children of his country was totally inspirational. He’s a remarkable man who holds his work in his heart and under his guidance and with continuing support from people in the UK and further afield, we know that S.A.L.V.E. International will go from strength to strength. Thank you for reading and for your support and thank you to all the incredible people in Uganda for making our time there so memorable and special.

With love,
Imogen and Emma xx

Greetings from Uganda! (And a fantastic start to the UK team's trip...)

2011-01-19T13:48:00.004+03:00

After a much-needed rest from travelling overnight Nicola, Helen and I are once again back into the swing of things and are very much enjoying our work here with S.A.L.V.E. International! As it is a return trip for all of us we were really excited to return to Uganda and experience the sights, smells and friendly welcome that we always receive from everyone.

Our work began this week with a long meeting with Mike, our Regional Director, discussing a few things before our schedule began. We were so glad to see his face after such a long time and it reaffirmed what a wonderful man and great example to the children he is. He then took us to the new S.A.L.V.E. home and we were welcomed by four new boys, all with smiley faces and infectious personalities. We enjoyed our afternoon playing, reading and getting to know them. The new house is brilliant and has much more space for the children and staff.

Mike and his lovely little girl Caren

Getting back to the street clinic was fantastic and my favourite moment here so far was when a boy, Waswa, who I met as an intern a year and a half ago recognised me and gave me a huge hug. It was a bitter sweet rendezvous as obviously this means he has remained on the streets all of this time. This changed today, however, as after some talking and time spent with him, Mike took him back to the S.A.L.V.E. home to begin his time as part of the family. We are all so pleased to have him join us and hope that he enjoys his new life! However, it can often be difficult for children who have spent a long time on the street to settle into life in a home straight away, so we will keep you updated on his progress as he begins his journey with S.A.L.V.E.

A group of girls we met on a S.A.L.V.E. street clinic

To complete such a brilliant day we then went to the Community Education project that is operating in Mafubira, an area just outside Jinja. We were met by a group of women, all making paper beads ready to make into beautiful jewellery that we sell in the UK. It was brilliant to see them all in action after hearing so much about the project from home! Our research has shown that poverty is a major factor in children coming to the streets. Some of the women attending our workshops have only the income from this project to feed up to six children, so we hope that this is a small step on the way to changing their lives and reducing the devastatingly huge number of street children in Jinja.

Women on our community education project put the finishing touches to some jewellery

All in all, I’m sure you’ll agree that it has been a very successful start to the trip! Nicola and Helen will be updating you on the rest of our time here so watch this space! In the meantime if you are interested in supporting our work then you can make a Splash for S.A.L.V.E. by swimming a length of the Nile! Take a look at our website for more information: http://salveinternational.org/id50.html.

Winding down

2010-12-17T15:02:00.002+03:00

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

2010-12-13T01:00:00.003+03:00

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'...

2010-12-10T10:33:00.003+03:00

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?!

2010-11-25T15:35:00.001+03:00

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

2010-11-19T14:25:00.003+03:00

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

2010-11-12T14:41:00.002+03:00

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

2010-11-05T13:30:00.003+03:00

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

2010-10-29T12:45:00.003+03:00

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

2010-10-26T11:21:00.003+03:00

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

2010-10-15T12:17:00.000+03:00

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...

2010-10-08T13:40:00.002+03:00

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

2010-10-01T14:59:00.000+03:00

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

2010-09-24T16:49:00.000+03:00

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...

2010-09-16T17:29:00.008+03:00

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

2010-09-11T12:57:00.002+03:00

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

2010-08-24T00:20:00.010+03:00

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!

2010-08-18T01:09:00.012+03:00

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!

2010-07-18T15:33:00.007+03:00

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?

2010-07-04T23:16:00.006+03:00

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?

2010-06-27T14:56:00.004+03:00

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

2010-06-23T21:14:00.002+03:00

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

2010-06-15T10:09:00.010+03:00

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!

Malaria and Marathons

2010-05-29T12:11:00.006+03:00

This is going to be a celebratory blog this week - looking at overcoming malaria and marathons...

Malaria

You may be wondering why this blog is coming out slightly later than normal? It's because in the last week we've all been anxiously waiting to hear more news of Moreen who was rushed to hospital with falciparum malaria last weekend ... and thankful we can now report she's at home and on the road to recovery. Although people in Uganda often get malaria - falciparum malaria is the worst kind (malaria plus plus plus in the words of Mike our regional director).

We give all of our children mosquito nets and talk with them about the importance of using them - but obviously they are not under them the whole time and unfortunately there is no vacination that we can give them to help to protect them from this killer disease yet.

One of our trustees Nicola Sansom was also struck down by this severe type of malaria earlier this year and this is what she has to say about it. "I can honestly say that it was one of the worst times of my life - your head aches constantly as light burns your eyes, your ears ring and even small noises cut through you like glass. You constantly want to vomit so taking your medication is a battle just to keep it down. The fever makes you shake with cold while you're burning up and in your semi lucid state you just can't understand why people are being so cruel as to take your blankets away. And if you are lucky enough to survive you then have a long battle to rebuild your strength, as you are so pysically weakened and exhausted all the time - I still needed a month off work after coming out of hospital just to get my strength back enough to be able to walk from the bus to the office."

"I was lucky because I didn't get symptoms until I got back to the UK so I was extremely well taken care of by the NHS in a specialist tropical ward - I got my own room and round the clock care ... The vast majority of people who get this in Uganda can't afford that kind of treatment. They are lucky if they can afford to go to the local clinic for a drip/ medication - but after that most people would have to go home to be taken care of by their family and hope for the best..."

So from this I hope you can understand why we are so happy that Moreen is on the path to recovery now - it's not going to be easy for her, she's going to be behind at school and feel very tired for the next few weeks ... but she's over the worst of it now and will have all our support to be fighting fit again before too long!

UK News

We're also very pleased to say that despite all the baking sunshine John Pegington managed to slog his way around the Edinburgh marathon to help to raise money for Salve last weekend. A huge thank you and congrats to him - it helps to make all the work we do out in Uganda possible and is currently adding to our fund to buy our own land!

And another massive thank you must go to the Melbourne Rotary club in Derbyshire who invited us to come and speak with them about our work this last week and kindly gave us a donation towards our land fund too!

Do get in touch if you are interested in having someone from S.A.L.V.E. come and speak about our work at your school/group/workplace etc. We are very keen to get the word out there about the work that we are doing to support the street children in Uganda! Contact: info@salveinternational.org

The Show Must Go On ...

2010-05-15T10:47:00.009+03:00

Hmmm what's this? A blog being written from the UK team instead of from Uganda. As you may have noticed we have made a decision as a charity to have a little break from volunteers in Uganda - not permanent we promise! We just felt that a year on from starting the program was a good time to do some serious evaluation and bring the intern program back even better than before later in the year ... so watch this space if you're interested in applying.

Holiday fun

Mike, Assy and Stephen are currently enjoying the school holidays with all the S.A.L.V.E. children. It's great to have a chance to relax and play together. And also for the first time we're getting the children involved with our staff in making their lists of requirements for the new school term, which could be fun ... Will we just be asked for the normal book, pencils and uniform this term? Or will that essential pet elephant that we just haven't considered before get added on?

New Children

Our Ugandan team is also working very hard at the moment with some new boys who we hope will be ready to enter our sponsorship scheme soon. It takes time to build a trusting relationship - but as soon as they are ready we can't wait to welcome them into the S.A.L.V.E. family. If you think that you've got what it takes to become a sponsor - why not get in touch (info@salveinternational.org) and find out more?

UK Fun and Games

And as for us in the UK, we continue to work hard to raise awareness of our work out in Uganda and to raise the vital funds we need. April was an incredible month for us - with our fab London event and amazing army of runners (huge thanks to everyone who got involved!). We are excited to build on that energy as we head towards summer ...

In London we are recruiting for people to join our local fundraising team (caitlin@salveinternational.org) - a couple of hours a week to help us raise that much needed money ... I hear rumours of a ceiliegh coming up so get your dancing shoes ready!

In Manchester John Pegington is getting ready to take on the Edinburgh marathon for us - good luck with your final training!

Meanwhile if you like swimming - do keep the first weekend of September free ... more info coming soon!

2010-05-01T11:53:00.003+03:00

We're sad to say that this is officially our last blog as SALVE International interns out here in Uganda. Our four month stay in Jinja has flown by so quickly - although it's not been without its fair share of dramas, hard work, fun and excitement.

We spent most of this week wrapping up our internship and saying goodbyes to the many friends and contacts we have made out here .... and most importantly to the SALVE children, who we took for a fun-day out on Friday. As we know how much the children all love swimming we decided to take them all swimming for the day and as the pool is situated right next to lake Victoria we also took the opportunity to go on a boat ride across the lake. The day was a huge success and everyone went home throughly soaked and exhausted (the children only briefly left the water for food before making a rapid return!).

We have both learnt a great deal during this internship and it has given us many opportunities to meet and interact with some really interesting and inspiring people. There have been many great times had with the children, making breakthroughs with research projects and adventures out to the villages. There have been the inevitable difficulties and harder times. Working with children coming from very difficult backgrounds can be very rewarding but also very challenging and we have experienced both angles over the past few months.

We have also experienced the challenges of working for a small scale newly-formed NGO and the various trials that they face. Struggling to maintain good relations with schools, other NGOs and at times the children and trying to establish ourselves firmly within the community.

This internship has been an invaluable experience for us both, giving us the opportunity to learn a great deal about the day-to-day functioning of a small NGO and to be able to input into its progress. SALVE has a bright future ahead of it and we hope that the work we have been able to carryout whilst here will be continued and contribute towards that future.

We are sorry to say goodbye and we wish SALVE international all the best in the future.

The interns

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

2010-04-23T14:39:00.005+03:00

During our time here in Uganda we have had the opportunity to conduct research into the difficulties and troubles that girls and women out here encounter in their day-to-day lives, along with the mass responsibilities that they take on in their roles as mothers, home-carers and wives.

The gender gap that exists the world over is very stark in Uganda. Girls receive less education, are much more likely to be subject to abuse, and the majority still occupy a traditional subservient role in marriages and families. Supporting girls and women is deeply connected to working to put a permanent end to children of both genders living on the streets. Many of the children in the S.A.L.V.E. programme and many more that we encounter on the streets have been abandoned by their mothers who were forced into early marriage, sexually and/or physically abused and uneducated about family planning. By supporting girls' and women's rights and education we can reduce the number of unwanted children given birth to. As well as, very importantly, promoting equality and raising the standard of living for everybody.

One of the most common and successful ways that female rights are being promoted in Uganda are through local women's groups that meet regularly to address the issues of most concern to women in the area; be it family planning, literacy, child care, dealing with abuse and domestic violence, or politics.

This week Assy and Laura were able to visit a local women's group in Masese 3 to see how it was run, and to learn more from the women involved about how they feel they benefit from the group. It was a great experience, allowing us to see how empowered the women had become from the group and has shown us the possibilities that these sorts of groups bring to the women who attend them. We hope that as more of these groups emerge, they will begin to spell a brighter future for the next generation, and we will ultimately see fewer and fewer children taking to the streets.

Masese 3 and the transit centre

2010-04-16T12:09:00.005+03:00

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.

Street Clinics at the Bus Stop

2010-04-12T00:11:00.010+03:00

Most of the clinics this week have taken place at a bus shelter behind Jinja’s main bus station which many of the street children frequent during the day. We have discovered during our time here in Uganda that there are many different types of children that can be seen on the streets of Jinja; there are children that tend to go to the streets during the day to earn money through performing small tasks for local shop keepers or finding and selling scrap, before returning home at night; ones that permanently stay on the streets both day and night; as well as older children who have been on the streets for many years and have become very hardened to the lifestyle.

During our street clinics this week we have been able to interact with both some of the younger children who permanently stay on the streets as well as some of the older ones that come there during the day to earn money before returning home. A major issue that became immediately apparent on stepping foot inside the bus shelter is the number of children that have resorted to taking drugs (sniffing aviation fluid). This is something that we as interns were well aware of but walking into the station and being hit with the fumes really brings it home.

The clinics have given us a great opportunity to talk with the younger children and find out more about their individual situations and ways in which S.A.L.V.E. may be able to help them - as well as gaining their trust in us as an organisation. It has also enabled us to interact with the older street boys, which has been a really interesting experience. Our previous understanding of the older children, before spending time with them this week, was that they would be the most hostile of the various groups that live on the street.

However, we were surprised that they were very receptive to idea of talking to us and discovered that they, much like the younger children, have been written off by society and there is a great challenge ahead to try and reintegrate them into society. Whilst our facilities at the moment are better suited to take on younger children (under 16) , we are always going to continue to build relationships with the older street children in the hope of being able to offer them more opportunities in the future, such as vocational training, as S.A.L.V.E. continues to grow.

Happy Easter from Uganda

2010-04-07T23:46:00.007+03:00

Happy Belated Easter from everyone in Uganda!!

The S.A.L.V.E. children were all happy to be back at the Bugembe home to celebrate the Easter weekend, although they all had a lot of work to do with plenty of homework to help to prepare them in the lead up to their exams in a few weeks. They managed to put aside a few minutes for us in their busy schedules to share some chocolate with us, which went down very well. Today though its back to school and lots of revision!

We decided to spent the holiday back in Kibuye village celebrating with some friends! The setting was slightly more traditional than the Easters we are used to at home. We spent our time cooking an Easter feast of rice, sweet potatoes, greens and meat over the fire, and taking long walks around the beautiful village setting. We managed to bring a small bit of our traditions to the Easter celebration though by bringing some Cadbury’s chocolate with us!

Earlier in the week

We were excited to help to launch a new community education initiative. S.A.L.V.E. has chosen to work in the area of Mafubira (which some of S.A.L.V.E.s research last year identified as an area that a significant number of the local street children might have come from for many reasons like poverty or abuse) where there are many people very eager to see change and improvement in their area and in their circumstances. We are hoping that S.A.L.V.E. will be a positive influence in the area and will help facilitate people eager to help themselves. In our first meeting, our main aim was to assess the needs and interests of the community. Ideas came both big and small from the participants. We are looking forward to our next meeting this week and are hoping to see some of the many ideas take off in the coming weeks and that in time this will lead to less children from the local area ending up on the streets in the first place.

We are really pleased that by the end of the week, we had picked Richard from the streets again and brought him to the local transit centre. The whole organisation got together to decide what the best next step for Richard is. Like so many children who have lived on the street and come from very unsettled backgrounds, Richard has a lot of trouble adjusting to settled life. We are hoping that with enough time, patience and loving care, we will still be able to work with Richard and continue to keep him on the programme and ensure that he has every opportunity for the future.

In other news

Last weekend saw a historic 4-0 victory of Uganda versus Burundi in the national stadium in Kampala. The interns took up their front row seats and enjoyed watching the football drama play out. Despite the stadium being quite empty and bare, there was plenty of atmosphere and the Ugandan victory ensured that there was lots of singing, dancing, conga lines and chanting taking place! A small taste of the football fever that will hopefully be taking over Africa before long when the World Cup descends. Even though Uganda is not participating, people here are very excited about the build up to the event.

Everyday challenges in Uganda

2010-03-26T13:33:00.012+03:00

Firstly, we'd like to apologise for the lack of blog last week. It was a bit of a crazy week, with Janet's birthday, Emma leaving, a trip to the hospital and missing children .... so there is a lot to update you on this week.

This week we have been experiencing the difficulties street children encounter when trying to settle back into a 'normal' life. There were two separate emergencies this week. Firstly Ronald was rushed to hospital by his school, after swallowing a nail. It later turned out that he also had a fractured arm following a fall whilst playing the previous day, which he hadn't reported to teachers. Shortly after recieving the news that Ronald is going to be fine, we heard from Magwa school that Richard had gone missing. On Wednesday morning, Stephen found Richard on the streets and took him back to bugembe to discuss the situtaion. Although Richard hated life on the streets, he finds it very difficult to settle down and when he feels he has done something wrong, his natural instinct is to run away. Although we returned him to school, and had some long negotiations with the principal, it doesn't look like he is going to settle and we are now facing a big decision as an organsiation of how to deal with the situtaion from here on - finding the best solution for Richard.

Richard in the S.A.L.V.E. home

The other disappointing news this week is regarding the house hunting situtaion. Despite a few promising leads on houses thus far, they keep falling through and we are facing a time constraint of finding somewhere before the children return from school in April. At the moment it looks like our plans to move to a bigger house are going to have to be put on hold temporarily.

In constrast to this week of challenges us interns spent the weekend on a mini safari break to mark Janet's birthday and our last weekend with Emma before she returned to England. We have had some really amazing opportunities so far to explore Uganda from wartorn Gulu in the north to scenic national parks of the south west. Our trips have been hugely enjoyable but have also enabled us to get a more complete picture of the geographical, religious, politcal and socio-cultural factors that shape the lives of the Ugandan people that we interact with on a daily basis. Almost three months into our internship, we are really starting to feel like we're getting to grips with the complex intricacies of this society that has become our home.

In particular, our trip to Gulu was an amazing opportunity to see an side of the country that we have heard a lot about but for a long time has been very inaccessible to visitors. In 2006 the LRA declared a ceasefire on the war they had been waging in northern Uganda for the previous quarter century. Gulu was one of the strongholds in the north, where many refugees fled to during the conflict, the town and the northern region generally are now undergoing a period of recovery. The scars of the conflict are very evident on the landscape but the town is actually a very pleasant place to visit. The people are very firendly and there is a lot of evidence and progress and people's determination to move on. Change is slow but steady.

In contrast to Gulu, the southwest of Uganda is a tourism hub. The national parks have long been hailed as some of the best in Africa and although they took a turn for the worst during the Amin years, they are now back to being close to their former glory. The landscape in the south is possibly the most stunning throughout Uganda. The jagged peaks of the Rwenzori mountains burst through the Savannah plains, occassionally broken up by deep gorges and crater lakes. The beatuy of the south west has long attracted tourists and the legacy of colonialism is nowhere more notable.

The plains of the south west and some of the wildlife in the national parks

Despite the many challenges in our daily lives here in Jinja, we are having an amazing time overall and are learning from all our experiences here, good, bad, fun and sad. We're really looking forward to all the experiences yet to come in our final month here!

Laura & Janet

Parent Teachers Meetings!

2010-03-14T11:20:00.002+03:00

This week we had the opportunity to spend time with the children in their schools. The week began with the Magwa and St. Nicholas visitation days, which was a great opportunity for the children to meet Auntie Assinance, our new home carer. The St. Nicholas boys are making excellent progress in their new school and are loving the new environment. Although Hassan is slightly lacking in confidence with the challenge of a new school year, he is improving lots and his teachers are very encouraging. After some small run-ins with the school authorities over his rather extravagant fashion sense, Ronald is now settling in very well also!

Down the Magwa end of town, the children are all flourishing. We spent the day having our first ever experiences of parent-teacher meetings, waiting nervously in front of the teachers desk as they updated us on the childrens progress. Some of the children are struggling slightly to keep up with their classmates but the Magwa teachers are helping them catch up with extra tutition in the afternoons and their grades are continuing to improve. Despite some inevitable school yard spats, the school is getting great reviews from the children and they all seem to be enjoying themselves immensely.

Later in the week was the Magwa sports day. The interns were shocked, horrified (and at some points rather bored) to discover that the day involved a series of five kilometer races. Emma represented the SALVE household in the two kilometer race and did us all very proud coming an impressive second.

This week also marked one of the most important day on the Ugandan calendar: International Women's Day! The day is a national holiday here where the women get a well-deserved opportunity to put their feet up while the men take over the work for a change! After getting some paperwork out of the way early in the day, the interns celebrated the day with an afternoon by the pool, enjoying the beautiful views over the Nile.

Thats all for now folks!!

Laura and Janet

Networking and Cooperation in Uganda

2010-03-05T21:39:00.002+03:00

Jinja is a haven of NGO’s. The sides of every street are lined with signposts displaying logos and slogans of the various NGO’s from large globally recognised names such as the Red Cross to smaller, more locally focused charities, such as ourselves!

Although all the NGO’s (allegedly over 500) come to Jinja with their own programme and values in mind, ultimately they are all here to improve and develop the town, the surrounding villages and the country at large. One of the unique challenges of working in the Jinja area is how to maximise the manpower, resources and money for the greater good as well as allowing each organisation to pursue their unique area of interest, be it religious goals, micro-financing or human rights.

One of the initiatives in Jinja enabling NGOs to exchange ideas and maximise impact in the town

We would really like SALVE to be part of the co-operative effort, JINNET (Jinja Network) which enables organisations to work alongside one another, particularly those focused on vulnerable children, in order to improve the situation for street children in Jinja generally. This week we have been filing applications to join the network and hope to be able to become members as soon as possible.

So far in SALVE’s short life we have already encountered many of the advantages and pitfalls of working so closely alongside other NGO’s. Over the coming month, networking and co-operation will be a focus for the interns and the SALVE staff and we hope to keep you all updated via our blogs of our progress on that front. Though we have quickly learnt from our time in Jinja that the course may not always be as smooth and simple as it seems at the outset so wish us luck!!

If anyone would like to learn more about the recent landslide that has affected Uganda please have a look at the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8548808.stm. Here are a few photos to show some of the devastation that this has caused.

Getting To Know...Stephen

2010-02-27T16:19:00.001+03:00

Last week we introduced you to our Regional Director, Mike, who heads up all of SALVE’s operations here in Jinja. Working closely alongside Mike is Stephen, our community worker. Despite his job title, Stephen is involved in every aspect of SALVE’s work, although his real passion is for community education.

Stephen, S.A.L.V.E.'s Community Worker

Stephen was born and raised in the Jinja area and like Mike is determined to provide a better future for the next generation than what he experienced. Stephen’s mother was very young when she gave birth to him. As she was still was still in school she left Stephen in the care of his grandmother. Later she married Stephen’s stepfather but as is the case with many stepchildren, he was not fully accepted by his mother’s new family. And so he grew up being very self-sufficient, lacking any proper guidance, love or support. He would leave the house early in the morning and struggle to find food and small jobs to earn money.

Stephen takes centre stage at the S.A.L.V.E. staff meal out! L-R Emma (Comms), Laura (Intern), Stephen, Harriet (Home Care Helper), Janet (Intern)

Stephen has a very clear vision of the future that he wants to see for his community and for the children of Jinja. Through community education programmes and empowering the youth, Stephen hopes that the local communities will learn to be self-sufficient and that the children living on the streets of Jinja today will be the leaders of tomorrow by guiding and counselling others and ensuring that the cycle is broken. Having worked with street children for a very long time in many different capacities, he recognises that the street children of Jinja are lacking love and support in the same way that he once did. Many of them have left home because of violence, disobedience or splitting of families. He believes that SALVE can help to reconcile children with their families, rehabilitate them from street life and provide education to empower them to lead the way for the next generation.

Stephen with one of the S.A.L.V.E. children, Ronald

In other news, we are very pleased that baby Peace has now found a great home in one of the nearby babies’ homes that will take very good care of her over the next few weeks while we still wait for her HIV test results to come back. Her condition is continuing to improve and with an in-house nurse on hand over the next few weeks, hopefully she will rapidly regain strength.

Come back next week for more news from Uganda!

Laura and Janet

Getting to know you, getting to know all about you!

2010-02-19T17:19:00.003+03:00

This week, Mike was in the hot seat! For the first month and a half we have been getting to know Mike fairly well, but we have never had the opportunity to sit down and fully get to the bottom of what makes him tick!! So we brought our resident camera lady (SALVE comms officer, Emma) along and threw some of the most hard-hitting questions we could manage at him. After the short interview, I think we learnt an awful lot not only about him personally but also Uganda at large and many of the deeply rooted social issues in Ugandan society.

Many of you may know Mike Asiya as the Regional Director of SALVE international in Uganda. Mike was born and raised in Northern Uganda by his grandparents, along with his cousin. However, both children found themselves living on the streets of Arua after their grandparents were killed in tribal war.

During his time on the streets Mike (aged around 7/8) experienced many forms of abuse and exploitation. At one time he was used to traffic gold across the Congolese/Ugandan border in exchange for chapatti, which remains his favourite food to this day! After sometime, Mike was picked up from the streets by a man working for World Vision, who took him in and cared for him. However, as in many of the cases we have heard regarding street children, Mike was not accepted into the family by the man’s wife and found himself subjected to physical and emotional abuse - eventually returning to the streets again to escape the violence.

Eventually Mike ended up being put in touch with a lady who ran a local orphanage and who offered to look after him. As it turned out, one of the workers in the orphanage was a relative of Mike’s, whom he’d lost contact with after the death of his grandparents, and she took him in, caring for him and putting him through school.

Mike’s time on the streets had an immense influence on the rest of his life. Although he has worked in many different fields, his main passion has always been to reach out to the children living on the streets of Uganda and give them a sense of hope for the future. Mike is a fantastic example for all the children in the SALVE home. He shows them that regardless of their pasts or what they have done up until now, they are capable of achieving anything in the future if they work hard enough and are given the opportunities they deserve.

As well as his very large SALVE family, Mike also has a small family of his own. His wife Robina has been a wonderful mother figure to all the children in the SALVE home for the last year and we both have great admiration for her. Baby Caren is universally doted upon and treated as a little sister by all the SALVE children.

As a follow up to what we told you last week about baby Peace, this has been a tumultuous week. On Saturday, we received the news that her father died in the village in Kamuli. Her widowed mother is receiving treatment in Kamuli but feels unable to look after Peace in the near future. Peace spent the week in and out of hospital being treated for various infections, malnutrition, pneumonia and malaria. At the end of the week she seems to be getting stronger and is currently out of hospital. We are still awaiting her HIV test results which will take another few weeks to come back due to a broken lab but as soon as we receive news Peace can begin ARVs and Ashley, her current guardian will find suitable long-term accommodation for her.

And so concludes the dramas of the week in Jinja!

2010-02-13T11:42:00.002+03:00

Following the childrens return to school, the SALVE house suddenly seems very quiet this week. Only Maureen remains and she is chomping at the bit to start at her new secondary school on Monday.

Mike's daughter, Karen, has taken this opportunity to fill the void of the children by starting to walk on her own, something we've all been desperately trying to tempt her to do for the last few weeks (even to the extent of Mike buying her some squeaky shoes in an attempt to persuade her!)

Now that the chaos of preparing the children for school has abated the SALVE staff have had the opportunity to really make headway this week, putting plans made at the AGM into motion. House hunting and recruiting new staff have both been on the agenda.

As the SALVE family is gradually expanding it was agreed by UK and Uganda staff that we need to find new accomodation. The goal of SALVE is to own a piece of land and build on it, allowing us to have a home that suits all the needs of our growing family, along with the security of owning land rather than renting it. However, at the moment this is not possible and not something we want to rush into, so in the interim we are looking to rent a larger house until we find the perfect plot of land. This, however, is appearing easier said than done - and also a job that is strictly for the Ugandan staff as seeing us drives prices up.... No 'Mzunqu' allowed!

After the departure of Harriot last week, for cloudier climates, this week has seen Ugandan staff interviewing candidates for the new home carer role. As briefly mentioned last week, SALVE has plans to develop it's community research and explore the phenomena of girls living on the street, aiming to incorporate them into our work. With this in mind, and also in light of future plans to move into a bigger house and for Mike to move into his own family home, it has been decided that it would be more suitable to slightly adjust the role of SALVE staff out here. The new intention is to have both male (Stephen) and a female (new recruit) living in the house with the children and also being able to conduct gender sensitive research alongside SALVE interns. We have therefore been interviewing a variety of candidates for this role and will hopefully be able to let you know the outcome in next weeks blog - it suffices to say that it is very exciting to see the potential for expansion in this area, and its something we all feel very passionate about.

Finally, just a little update on our visit to Harriet's village. As mentioned last week, whilst we were there we took the opportunity to conduct some research on why girls marry at such a young age. There was a particularly heartbreaking story that we came across of a young girl marrying at sixteen and now has two daughters (aged three years and six months). However, the girl was not informed by her husband until very recently that he has HIV. When we met the family it was clear to see that the husband was very ill, but also that the baby was in a bad way - malnourished and suffering from servere mouth sores (both clear indicators that she too could be suffering from HIV). Harriot really tried to talk to the family about seeking medical attention but it appears that the husband was in denial about his condition and wouldn't allow it. HOWEVER, we have had some very good news this week that the family did - at least in part - take notice of what Harriot said and came to Jinja to seek medical attention for the baby (Peace). We are currently awaiting her HIV test result and in the meantime she is on medication to treat her symtoms and is getting healthier by the day! Again, we hope to be able to update you on her progress next week.
Laura and Janet.

(NB pictures to follow)

Back to School and a trip to the Village!

2010-02-06T10:25:00.004+03:00

Back to school time in Uganda causes a bit of a kafuffle about town. The ATMs have queues around the block for parents withdrawing the money for school fees. Out of the window of the taxi you can see bodabodas (the local motorbike taxis) taking students to school laden down with duvets, clothes books and all their other requirements. Among the interesting sites spotted on Jinja road this week was a boda driver taking a student to school complete with 2 live chickens dangling over the handlebars!

The SALVE house didn’t escape the chaos either! There were dramas a-plenty in trying to organise ten very excited children for school. Thankfully by the end of week we are pleased to report that all ten SALVE children are safely installed in their new schools, happy and prospering, despite over-packed bags, missing underwear, lost jerry-cans and minor arguments over the trading-rate of biscuits!

(Stephen and Ronald)

For us interns, we were really lucky this week to have the chance to visit Harriet’s village as she paid her last visit there before heading off the Finland. The village was about a 1 hour (rather precarious!) boda ride from Kamuli town and was a huge contrast to our experience in Uganda so far. Far away from the thumping R’n’B on main street, the Daily Monitor, and the heated debates about the 2011 elections and anti-homosexuality bills, is the village of Kibuye.

In contrast to the occasional power cuts in Jinja, there is no electricity at all in the village. The population rely almost entirely on subsistence living; growing, rearing and fishing for their food and only trading in small amounts of money at the nearest trading centre. Many people in the village have never even ventured as far as Kamuli.

As we moved about the village, we got a clearer understanding of the vulnerable situation that many young women find themselves in. The girls are often married off by their families at an incredibly young age. One woman told us that she gave her daughter over to be married at the age of 10. After this the girls take up the burden of home-making as well as looking after their husbands who are often much older. Much of the work of cultivation and child-rearing is the women’s responsibility, while the men seem to be most commonly found at the local drinking huts, sharing some local brew.

(Men in Harriet's village)

In Jinja, there are street boys everywhere, but we have found ourselves wondering where the vulnerable girls might be. Our experience in the village, illustrated that perhaps it is necessary to go a little further afield to find the vulnerable girls. Our street clinics, our main way of reaching out to the street children almost exclusively attract boys. This reflects the fact that along the streets of Jinja it is almost only boys that you will see sleeping rough and begging. The streets are too dangerous for vulnerable girls and they often seek shelter from abuse and neglect in different places.

(Local children greet the visitors!)

The girls in the SALVE house have all come from very difficult backgrounds but none of them were found begging on the streets as was the case with many of the boys. For example, if it wasn’t for a lucky coincidence with a friend of Mike’s visiting his home village, our newest SALVE addition, Blessing would never have found her way into the SALVE home. In the case of Maureen, after she ran away from home to escape being forced into early marriage, she slept in a church construction site outside Jinja and she only ventured into the town to buy food. It was on one of these trips that she met Mike, who recognised the signs of abandonment and started talking to her.

(Harriet takes a dip and enjoys a beautiful sunset)

One of the challenges that SALVE now faces is how to reach out to girls neglected and abandoned but not as visible on the streets. Certainly our trip to the village among other encounters we have had has made us feel very aware of the hidden suffering of many girls. Although there are many more avenues to explore, we are hoping to be able to expand the work of SALVE to be more inclusive of girls.

Janet and Laura

The Other Side of the Charity!!

2010-01-30T20:56:00.010+03:00

This has been a very exciting and busy week for SALVE all round. With the UK team visiting Jinja, there was both fun, games and of course... meetings!!

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.

(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!

(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.

Sunburn in January!

2010-01-15T13:34:00.000+03:00

After precarious journeys through snowy England and Ireland, and various delayed flights.... we were both very relieved to arrive in a balmy Entebbe airport late on Saturday (2nd) night. The New Year got off to a bumpy start with an unplanned stop over in Lugazi on the way to Jinja. Earlier rains and a power shortage made it too dangerous to drive through Bugembe at night. When we finally arrived at the SALVE house, we were greeted by Robina, Caren, Blessing and Helena. After catching up on some sleep, we spent some time getting to know them all, playing some Ludo and orientating ourselves in Bugembe.

The next few days were a light introduction to SALVE and Jinja. As the house is fairly quiet at the moment with the boys away at 'Teen Missions' and many of the girls at home visiting family, we decided to make use of some free time with a research trip to Kampala. We met many interesting people and visited lots of different projects which have given us a lot of inspiration about how to move SALVE forward.

We are hoping that next week will be very exciting, with the UK team coming to visit and more of the children returning from their holidays! Once the registration comes through, we are also looking forward to re-starting street clinics.

20th December 2009

2009-12-21T14:32:00.003+03:00

Hi Everyone,

Well it's finally here, my last blog as a SALVE intern, I can't believe it. I certainly feel very mixed emotions at the moment; of course I can't wait to see my family and friends at Christmas. I am really sad to say goodbye to the friends I have made, to the SALVE family and Uganda. But I do hope I will return one day as it has been a fabulous experience and Uganda is trully a wonderful country with such friendly, welcoming people.

(Ugandan Christmas tree)

My final week has been spent winding things up and making sure everything is ready for the next interns, Janet and laura, who I am sure will have a wonderful time and accomplish a great deal while they are here. On Monday I visited Victoria about the bead project and she gave me some of the completed jewellery, the rest of which I collected at the end of the week before I left. They have begun to produce some beautifully woven earings which I am sure will be a big hit back home (I'm actually planning on buying a few pairs myself). Victoria and the matron had also been busy boiling and drying coffee beans for the jewellery and were just looking into an efficient way of making the holes for the thread. I have also made sure that they have enough money to buy materials so they can continue working until the UK team and the Interns arrive in January. After Victoria kindly took me home to meet her family, who were lovely, and gave me some avocados from her own tree and I have to say they were the best I have ever tasted!

(Coffee bean beads)

(Woven earrings)

All week Mike has been trying to meet with the Community Development Officer to discuss the constitution. But unfortunately one of the people who has been looking into things for us has been unavailable all week so he will have to wait until next week and I hope that even though it is Christmas week there will be no more delays. This week I have also spent some time producing some suggestions for Janet and Laura to give them a few ideas of the things they can be involved in while they are here though I am sure they have lots of great ideas of their own.

(Helena, Blessing and Karin)

On Thursday I actually thought it was time I started my Christmas shopping (better late than never) so I went to Kampala for a tour of the various craft markets. And for the first time this December I actuallt began to feel a little Christmassy and I hope I have found some nice gifts that will give my friends and family a taste of life in Uganda! I visited the house on Friday, where currently it is just Helena at home and we were expecting Dinah, Teddy and Moreen to return home on Saturday for Harriet's wedding. I took some of my clothes for the girls which Robinah will give out to them as and when they need them. Unfortunately the girls were unable to make Harriet's wedding but it was lovely that I was able to spend my last full day in Uganda with Mike and Robinah. It was a beautiful day, a lovely service and a very fun reception after and of course Harriet and Topi made a lovely couple!

(The happy couple)

As this is my final blog I just wanted to first say a big thank you to Helen and Nicola for giving me this opportunity and for all their advice and support during my stay. I would also like to thanks Mike and Robinah for welcoming me into their home and to Mike particularly for being such a wonderful Manager. He does such an amazing job here and I trully hope I will see him again some day. And finally thank you to Stephen, harriet and all the children who have helped make this experience very special for me and Alice. Sorry its begun to sound a little lik an Oscars acceptance speech hasn't it!?

I hope you have all enjoyed reading our blogs and that they have given you a good idea of the wonderful work SALVE is doing and will continue to do here in Uganda!

Thank you for reading.

Lots of love

Esther xx

13th December 2009

2009-12-13T11:06:00.006+03:00

Hi Everyone,

Well you'd think that things would be beginning to slow down towards the end of my time here but its been another busy week in Jinja. As well as SALVE work I have been participating in the Jinja pantomime which had meant four hour rehearsals all week and then our two big performances this weekend. I have to say it's been a great success and was lots of fun. On both nights we had wonderful audiences and its been lovely to see all our hard work paying off as well as raising lots of money for charity! I'm sure I'm going to feel at a bit of a lose end next week now its all done and dusted.

(Me, Sarah and Tom as the Chorus)

(Wishee Washee, Twanky, Emperor and Princess)

But on to the penultimate week of my SALVE internship. As I discussed last week we were looking into SALVE's registration in Uganda, so on Monday Mike, myself and Harriet went back to the Community Development Office. Where we met one of the Community Development Officers and discussed our situation. he advised that we continue trying to get CBO registration and once we have that it would be easier to get a recommendation and certificate from them to take to the NGO board to become an NGO. As part of the process he said he would look over our consititution for us to ensure that it corresponds with all the Ugandan requirements and notified us that the Probation Officer and District Health Officer would need to come and inspect the SALVE house at soem point during the registration process. Mike arranged to meet with Peter, the Community Development Officer, later that week once the consitution had been looked at to discuss any necessary changes. In the afternoon I attempted to meet with Victoria and the women involved in the bead project to discuss their progress. But unfortunately after waiting over an hour for them with the Joy School Matron no one had arrived and i had to leave to attend rehearsals. But I will of course be returning for their next meeting where hopefully they will have lots of beautiful paper bead necklaces and bracelets for me to take back to the UK.

On Tuesday I went to Kampala in order to meet with the very kind people at Gustro Ltd, who are a publishers i have been liasing with about buying a selection of readers for the SALVE children. I didnt have the greatest start to the day as the heavens opened on my way to to the taxi so I had quite a damp journey to Kampala. But by the time I arrived the sun was shining and I soon dried off. Everyone at Gustro was more than helpful sitting me down and bringing me a wide selection of books from different ranges they do and suggesting particulary good stories. I decided to go with the Oxford range which usefully has questions at the end of each of the books which will help check the childrens understanding and they are more culturally relevant so i hope they will enhance the children's enjoyment when reading them. They even gave me a 25% discount so I was able to afford a lot more books from each level than I had thought so decided to buy some childrens books on health and HIV/AIDs and a range of books on science, geography, world religion etc to help with their studies.

(Gustro Ltd in Kampala)

(New books for the SALVE Library)

On Wednesday a book which I had ordered from the UK about teaching street children finally arrived. It contains some facinating information about the usefulness of teaching life skills to street children and how it should be done. So I spent most of my day using this and the World Health Organisation mosdules on teaching street children and other internet based research to work on the resource i have been putting together for the street clinic and workshops. I have tried to give possible lesson and activity ideas and soem information about teaching street children and the methods that would be particularly useful.

After moving house on Thursday morning (I am now staying with Harriet for my final weeks and a half) I met with Mike to discuss his meeting with the community development officer. There are some minor changes that need to be made to the constitution but they are all quite superficial and mainly about to changing the way some of the sections are referred to as the Ugandan's use slightly differen phrasology. Mike and I also had a good discussion about all the children and other SALVE issues, I really am going to miss our meetings. I then spent the rest of the day putting the finiahing touches to the street clinic resource and making notes for my handover document for the next interns.

Having not been at the SALVE house all week due to everyone but Mike being away visiting relatives in the villages I decided to go to Bugembe on Friday. I wanted to deliver the new books and also see the boys as they were going to teen missions at the weekend. It was actually only Helena, Tiff and Robert that had returned but we had a nice afternoon together and Mike's mother and surrogate garndmother to all the SALVE children was visiting so it was lovely to see her again. When it was time for me to head back to town they would let me leave without a massive bag of mangos from Mike's mother's garden and I have been making my way through that over the last couple of days. I arranged to go back to the house on Saturday morning to say goodbye to all the boys but when I was on my way Mike called to let me know that not all the boys had returned yet. So Mike turned up at Harriet's house in the afetrnoon with all the boys so we could have a catch up and say farewell which was a lovely surprise for me and Harriet. You could tell they were all really excited about the prospect of Teen Missions and I hope they have a fabulous time - though we will miss them of course.

(The boys before they headed off to Teen Missions)

So there you are another week over and just one more to go, though I am really looking forward to next week very much as it is Harriet's wedding on Saturday and we are all very excited about helping her and Topi celebrate their special day!

Lots of Love,

Esther xxx

2009-12-05T09:01:00.003+03:00

Hi Everybody,

As I write this the sun is streaming through the windows of the internet café, it’s been a gloriously sunny week in Jinja and so nice to have a break from the torrential rain. It has also been quite a strange week for me adjusting to not having my partner in crime, Alice, here any longer; she’s being missed terribly by everyone including myself!

I began my week by visiting Victoria at the bead project to collect some white seed earrings that had been completed and to provide them with some more coloured manila to produce the paper beads. However, over the weekend Victoria sourced a new supplier for the manila and although they are slightly more expensive the colours are more vibrant and will not fade as easily. So Victoria can now just use the papers I brought for her learning aids at school, so nothing goes to waste. After sorting my visa at immigration (a long process due to the queues) I completed my community education research, writing up the profiles and summarizing the findings which I hope will be of use to SALVE when we set up the community education programme.
On Tuesday with the help of Harriet as translator I interviewed Robert, one of the street children Alice and I had been working closely with, for an article in November’s newsletter. It was great to here his version of things and I hope it makes interesting reading. Actually apart from a meeting with Mike in the afternoon to discuss communication from the UK team I spent the rest of the day working on the newsletter, writing articles and choosing suitable images.

(Me and the boys looking very smart in their new clothes from CRO)

(Harriet and the boys after helpign me translate Robert's interview)

On Wednesday I headed to the SALVE house and met up with Harriet. At the moment there are only a few children at the house (just Hassan, Richard, Moreen and Helena) as the rest have gone to visit relatives but they should all be returning by the 10th December. So whilst the children finished their daily chores Harriet and I discussed the children’s profiles, comparing notes and information. We then spent some time doing some drawing and colouring in and playing with the inflatable globe that I had brought from the UK for them before we headed back to town. I then spent a lovely couple of hours with Harriet exploring the market and sampling some of the very tasty local food before heading back to my second home, the internet café, to put the finishing touches to the monthly newsletter.

(Blessing and Richard helping around the house)

I visited the house again on Thursday, where now on Richard and Helena remain and spent some time chatting with them and Rubina and they watched a DVD. Unfortunately Mike is quite unwell at the moment with malaria but we had a short meeting about the possibility of SALVE registering as an NGO instead of a CBO. After which I visited our friend, Henry, at JIDNET (the Jinja District NGO Network) who provided me with some documents about the requirements and rules and regulations and advised me to visit the NGO desk on Friday (it only open Monday and Friday). It’s great that we have developed such useful contacts in Jinja who are so keen to help us in developing SALVE and achieving our aims.

On Friday Harriet and I visited the NGO desk but sadly the Chief Administrative Officer for Jinja had died suddenly so the whole office was shut to attend his burial. Instead we went to the SALVE house and spoke with Mike and all three of us plan to return on Monday. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon with the SALVE family. Helen made us a wonderful lunch of cabbage in g-nut sauce (groundnut), okra and posho; if she doesn’t become a police officer like she hopes she can always fall back on her cooking and become a chef! This week I have also been very busy with lots of rehearsals for the Jinja pantomime, it’s all beginning to come together and I finally got my costume, a very fetching bright orange and blue outfit.

So there you have it another week in Jinja and only two more to go, I really need to find some way to slow down time……

Lots of love,

Esther xxx

November 28th 2009

2009-11-28T11:42:00.008+03:00

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

2009-11-23T08:37:00.003+03:00

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

2009-11-13T12:49:00.011+03:00

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

2009-11-06T08:56:00.009+03:00

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

31st October 2009

2009-10-31T09:18:00.007+03:00

Wow! We cannot believe that it is going to be November tomorrow, our time here really has flown by! We had a fun start to the week when on Sunday we went to the SALVE home for visitation day, all the children (apart from Moreen, who unfortunately did not have the day off due to being at a different school! ) were home for the day so we had a lovely day playing games and eating lots of food prepared by Robinah and Harriet...Everyone had an excellent time and especially liked playing and winning Ludo! We left feeling very full and tired but are really looking forward to when we all get together again.

On Monday morning we came across the boys on the green by main street, they had found two tiny puppies and were having a great time playing with them, they had made them a house from a cardboard box and it was lovely to see how much they wanted to care for them, we stayed with them on the green and played games, whilst Esther gathered some more information for Charles profile with Charles and Stephen. We also got to meet with 6 more street girls sorting rubbish who were all very willing to answer my questions for the research on street girls I am undertaking for SALVE.

We were invited to a meeting of people and organisations keen to help the area of Masese on Tuesday, this was a very informative meeting held at Pastor Terry's house (We were also treated to a lovely lunch cooked by his wife) Everyone there was pledging their support to help this dis-advantaged community, and when we said that we were keen to undertake research into the girls who come from this community and go to the streets, everyone was very supportive and keen to help. Harriet and Stephen continued with the football, and said that everyone had a great time!

On Wednesday unfourtunately I was unable to attend the clinic at Source cafe. Esther said that it was a great success, with Mike speaking with the boy's about how he came to be on the streets and how he came off them.

We wanted to concentrate on Joy Beads on Thursday, as due to the two members of staff running the project at Joy being unwell at various points it has been hard to arrange a time to speak with the staff and the women at the same time. We met with the Matron who showed us some of the lovely seed necklaces that have been made so far. We were keen to meet with all the women so we were invited to return on Friday to speak with them all and see more of their fantastic designs! Unfortunately we got a phone call yesterday to say that the meeting had to be cancelled, but we will attend again next week. I have also been having some positive meetings with Jinja hospital this week regarding educating pregnant women on family planning and spacing of pregnancies which is all a vital part of the picture whne looking at why children come to the street in the first place.

Next week we hope to do further community education research in Mafibira and the surrounding communities. Esther will tell you all about this and Joy beads in our first November blog!

Thankyou for reading.

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther xx

24th October 2009

2009-10-24T09:47:00.004+03:00

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to another blog.

As we have come to expect from life here in Uganda things never go according to plan so when our plans to do community education research on Monday got waylaid it was no surprise! Alice and I were on our way to meet Stephen when we met a boy called Asharif, we had never seen him on the street before and were very concerned by how young and upset he looked. So eager to see what we could do we took him to meet Stephen and spent the majority of our day looking into his situation.

After a brief conversation with him we established that he was known to CRO so we took him to see Rose. Both Noah (a CRO social worker) and Rose were very surprised to see Asharif with us as they had been involved with placing him with his current guardians and had seen him attending school just the Friday before. We were told Asharif's story and for someone so young, only about 7 years old, he has had a hard life. He was abandoned as a baby to a women who didnt really want the responsibility of looking after a child. He was moved from pillar and post, spent time on the street and in the transit centre only to be finally taken in with CRO's assistance by a family who were neighbours of the woman who had originally looked after him when he was dumped. However, it appears that although the mother of the family was keen to take him in her older children were not so happy with the situation and have constantly made him feel very unwelcome until he finally ran away to the streets on Saturday. As a team we all met with CRO senior staff to discuss Asharif's situation and it was decided that CRO would investigate the allrgations with the family and try and reestablish the relationship so he could return to school and if not he would be sent to the Transit Centre. Asharif did return home for one night but was unhappy so he is now staying in the Transit Centre and he is being closely monitored by ourselves and CRO.

Tuesday saw what has become our regular football slot with the street children which ws great fun although pretty muddy due to all the heavy rain we've been having every night of the week. The rst of our day was spent working on our various sets of guidelines and putting together displays of the children's artwork that they have done over the last couple of workshops.

Wednesday was workshop day and also Alice's birthday so as an extra special treat for the children in addition to our usual chipatis and juice at break we have iced cup cakes (kindly made for free by Jude at Ozzie's Cafe). They went down very well and we all sang happy birthday - the extra long Ugandan version!

The numbers increased again this week, with six boys attending and we began by asking them to draw their favourite things. Suprisingly they were all modes of transport and we had some very impressive looking motorbikes, lorries and helicopters.

Harriet took this week's lesson and she focused on teaching all the boys about children's rights, we quizzed them at the end and it was was great to see they had taken lots of it in. During the course of the session we noticed Luca has some sores on his lower back and bottom, so beig concerned it may be syphillis we took him to be tested. Happily both his syphillis and HIV tests were negative and it appears he may have a fungal infection that the doctor has advised us to keep an eye on. On wednesday evening we celebrated Alice's birthday with a trip to Falvour's cafe with some friends for their weekly film night and they kindly put on a film of Alice's choice, Bridget Jones!

Thurday saw another busy day. We met Mike bright and early to pay a visit to Joy school to see how the bead project has been progressing and also to check on Helena who has not been feeling well this week. Victoria, a teacher who is working on the bead project, informed us that the group has not been meeting very regularly due to sickness but they plan to meet next week so both Alice and I will be attending that meeting, we also purchased some more manilla paper, vanish and glue so they are able to keep producing their beautiful jewellery. Unfortunately Helena was not well but she was quickly diagnosed with malaria and is now receiving treatment so we are confident she will make a swift recovery. In the afternoon we met with Rose from CRO and two American women Katie and Tamara and attended the Masese 3 women's group meeting. They are setting up a bead project with the women so it was interesting seeing how they are doing it and are dealing with the problems they're facing. However, the main purpose of our trip was to see one of the houses rented by CRO for girls in Masese 3 and interview them for our streetgirl research which was really useful. Luckily for these girls CRO intervened before they had to face the hardships of a life of working on the streets of Jinja picking through rubbish.

The week ended with some much needed time in the internet cafe typing up our weeks findings and some visits to medical centre's around town to look into the cost of consultations and treatments and the care avalable for children with HIV for Alice's health guidelines. We are also looking forward to Sunday when all the children are coming home from school for the day, it'll be great to see them all together and have some fun. But Alice can tell you all about that next week!

Thanks for reading.

Lots of love,

Esther and Alice xxx

17th October 2009

2009-10-17T12:54:00.008+03:00

Hi everyone!
Esther and I have had another very busy week in Jinja! Lat weekend we were concerned that we had not noticed any of the boys on the street. On Monday we went straight to CRO to speak with Rose and ask if she knew anything, she said that there had been a rumour of the police coming and doing a 'round up' of the street children, so most of the boy's had been directed to the transit center by another organisation. The boy's were staying at the tramsit center at night and coming back to town during the day to attend CRO. Rose did not know exactly when a round up would be happening, but she did think that there would be one soon, we will find out as much information as we can and Rose has said that she will keep us informed.

Tuesday was a fantastic day, we met up with the whole SALVE team along with Robert, Charles, Luca and Hasna ( a new boy who we have started to work with.)for our first weekly game of football at the local pitch. The boy's loved it and are all really looking forward to coming next week. Mike also surprised us with his football skills.....

On Wednesday we held our second workshop at Source, all the boy's from last week came plus Hasna they had a great time designing and colouring in their own football strips and after a snack we undertook some teaching based on 'staying safe' we covered topics such as sanitation, hand washing and simple first aid. The boy's love learning and are giving us lots of excellent answers!

Thursday was spent with Rose as she had kindly let us come with her to watch and gain research from one of the women's groups she facilitates in Massesse III (There are 3 Massess's surrounding Jinja town!) Seeing the womans group was fascinating, and they are all so eager to learn and participate in making their own crafts to sell. The women were all very helpful and welcoming and were happy to answer many questions as part of our research into community education. We also discussed with Rose that we are keen to undertake some research into the street girls who are seen in Jinja during the day, Rose has said that she would happily come with us next week to interview some of the girls which is really exciting!

(Rose with the women's group.)

Yesterday was great. We met with the project manager at TASO (The aids support organisation) in Jinja who was amazingly helpful and has given me the last bits of information I need to complete the guidelines for SALVE and even though (after many years of service at TASO) he is leaving the organisation to move to a different area he has still sad he is very hapy to review the guidelines when finished which id great! After a torrebtial downpour we went back into town were we met with Henry at JIDNET (A network for local NGO's within Jinja) he has been invaluable in helping us get CBO status and is always very patient when it comes to all our many questions!

So it is now the weekend and we are writing this after going back to the SALVE house in Bugembe to see Hassan, Richard and Ronald all are well and are looking forward to getting back too school on Monday!

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther xx

11th October 2009

2009-10-11T10:17:00.004+03:00

Hi Everyone,

Alice and I have just returned from a day away exploring some of the beautiful scenery Uganda has to offer. On Friday it was Independence day here and was a national holiday. So we decided to make the most of it and visit Sipi Falls which is near Mount Elgon and is meant to be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the country and it definitely didn't disappoint! It was very impressive and such a peaceful place to spend a night.

But on to what we've been up to this week. As Alice said last week sadly Musa decided to go back to the streets, his main reason appearing to be that he missed his friends. They are a very close group spending the whole day together, working together and sleeping in a group on Main street for safety, so we could understand that it must have been strange for him not being able to see them. We spent the early part of the week trying to investigate what had happened to MUsa, speaking to his friends, to shop owners we knew helped him and to senior members of CRO staff. As yet we have not been able to get hold of his parents but CRO staff think that it may be possible that he has journeyed to Kampala. But we are continuing to look into this and hope to have more information on his whereabouts soon.

This week also saw the start of SALVE's use of the local community centre at Source cafe for our street clinic. We're really pleased to now have a safe and regular place where we can conduct our clinics at least one day a week to begin with. We decided it would be really beneficial to have a team training so we held that on Tuesday at Source. It was great to all come together and discuss SALVE and our aims and objectives and we also spent time deciding what topics we think it will be useful for us to cover during our one day a week lessons with the children such as basic hygiene and life skills.

Our first workshop with the children on Wednesday was a great success and we're really looking forward to seeing it develop and grow in the weeks to come. Luca, Robert and Charles were the three boys that attended this week and we hope that they will come back regularly and our numbers will grow. We began with asking the children to draw round there hands, write their names in them and decorate them (which is something all the children at the SALVE house have done). It may not sound very exciting but they really enjoyed it and you could see it was nice for them just to do a fun activity for a change. We have now cut them out and mounted the hands and are planning to display them at each lesson and ask any new children to do them as well. This activity also highlighted that it might be beneficial to cover some basic reading and writing skills as all three boys had trouble writing their names. After this Mike spent some time explaining to them exactly who SALVE is and what we are trying to do and we then we had great fun playing a game to trying to learn each others names, for most of the day I was Elizabeth and Alice was Alex - close enough :) We took a break for chipatis and juice, not before trying to explain the importance of their hands before eating and then moved on to collecting some basic information about the boys such as where they're from, how long they've been on the street and how they get food and money. At the end of the lesson all the boys said they were looking forward to coming back next Wednesday and were even more excited about the game of football we're planning for Tuesday. Alice and I have also started using a log which we will use on each street clinic so we have a clear idea of who we are meeting each day which hope will help us monitor and evaluate their progress.

We ended the week by doing some essential admin and deciding on the criteria for the research we want to do for SALVE's planned community education project. We plan to visit villages in the Jinja district to establish exactly what each community sees as a priority for community education and what they would like to be covered. We also want to find out what community education already exists in the villages so we will be able to compliment them once SALVE's project is up and running. We have also been having a look into how charitable organisations in Uganda gain funding and hope to put together a list of possible sources for the future, although fundraising is not as established here as it is in the UK.

So there you have it another week in Uganda, as always we're looking forward to seeing what next week brings!

Lots of love,

Esther and Alice xxx

4th October 2009

2009-10-04T11:02:00.006+03:00

Hi Everyone,

We have now come to the end of another week working with SALVE. We cannot believe how quickly it has gone, but it has certainly been quite busy, if not a little emotional!
Our week seemed to start and end with Source cafe, on Saturday we attended an NGO forum which was very informative, and helped us to make a lot of useful link's with other NGO's and community groups in the area, we were also filled up with very lovely coffee and brownies, which alway's help at a meeting!

On Monday we met with Mike and Stephen to dicuss the way forward for the street clinic, we goig to start the street clinic's a little earlier, to see if we are able to become aware of more children, as often later in the morning they are doing job's for shop's and restaurant's which pay them a very small amount of money. We were also becoming more aware of the need to have a room/space to hold the clinic, on Saturday we noticed that Source cafe had room's available to hire, it was decided that we would arrange a meeting with the manager ASAP and see if he would be happy to work with Salve. Stephen discussed with us that he had found two young girls who he felt had been abandoned at his church, he had arranged for the girl's to stay with a trusted person in the village and was keen for our input on the situation, it was decided that we would go to the village the next day and speak with the girls. Mike also said that he would be going back to the Transit centre in the morning to speak with Hassan which was really positive.

On Tuesday we left early for the vllage, we were struck by how young the girl's were. Veronica was 8 and Martha, 9. They said they were cousins and were living with their auntie and going to school, when the aunt ran out of money she said that she needed to take the grl's back to their home in Bugeri, while on this jurney they drove through Stephen's village and stopped at the curch, the girl's were told to wait for the aunt whilst she went for some shopping, the girl's waited for hour's but the aunt never came back. They said that they loved their family and wanted to go back. Bugeri is around 4 hours away from Jinja, so after speaking with Mike we decided that we would come back in the morning and speak with their families. Stephen said they were safe for the night, and we made sure that their carer had enough money to fed them. The girl's seemed very happy once they realise we were there to help them.

After our trip we went back to the Salve home to see how Musa was setteling in, ad to drop off some much needed felt tip pen's (There has been a lot of very artistic boy's in the house recently!) Musa was very happy, and was showing us all of his picture's. Esther then spoke with Richard about his experience of living in the Salve home for the new's letter which came out really well! Mike then told us some excellent new's that Hassan would be returning to the house later that evening which was a really fantastic result!

(One of Musa's fantastic drawings!)

It had been arranged that we would meet with Stephen and the girl's at 9:30am on wednesday morning, before leaving we got a call from Stephen to say that the girl's had gone missing, he had looked everywhere but could not fine them, we went to CRO and checked if they had any information, they had nothing on the girls. This was a huge dissapontment as they are so young, but we will keep looking, and if we see them again we will help them as best we can. Today we were also told that Musa had left the Salve home saying that he was missing his friends, Mike has been working really hard with him, and at the moment the change from the streets to the house is prooving very difficult for him, we are doing everything to work with him on the street's and hope to have him back in the Salve home soon.

On Thursday myself and Esther went to the Mildmay HIV hospital in Kampala, after a very bumpy taxi ride (with a coffee -not recomended!) we were greeted very warmly to the hospital. It was an amazing place, with fantastic staff. After meeting with the country director I feel like I know have an excellent overview of the HIV/AIDS care in Uganda and some invaluable research for my project.
www.mildmay.org

On Friday we got some excellent new's as every wednesday we have secured a room at Source to hold one of the clinc's, this is great as it mean's we can do much more with the children, while allowing them to feel safe and have the chance to act like kid's again for a few hours! We also spoke with Mike about all of us meeting up as a team for Salve's first team training session, this will happen next Tuesday and Mike is really keen to get started as he has lot's of fantastic ideas!
We welcomed Harriet back yesterday, and spent last night at the volunteer's house party which is run by Harriet's sister, Sharon it was a lovely party and was great to see some old face's and a few new ones!

We have a busy week coming up, and we hope to be able to tell you more about our work with Musa and our new developments with the clinic...

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther xx

25th September 2009

2009-09-25T11:25:00.005+03:00

Hi Everyone,

Here we are at the end of another week, the time really does seem to fly by so quickly here! Its been a funny week weather wise with torrential rain and impressive electrical storms one minute and glorious sunshine the next. Though luckily we've managed to avoid getting too wet. Alice and I are now happily settled into the Bridgeway Guest House in town, our new home for the next couple of months. Its in a very leafy part of town which reminds me slightly of the suburbs in London, only much prettier!

So on to what we've been up to this week. We began with our street clinic on Monday during which Mike met with Musa and as a team we decided we want him to be a part of the project. So the next step was for approval from the UK team and to produce a commitment form for Musa's parents and the local council to sign - so we have everything in writing. This and Musa's profile were sent to the trustees for their approval.

Our next street clinic on Tuesday was spent looking into the situation with Hassan. For those of you who don't know, Hassan had been part of the project but after a misunderstanding at school had run bac to the streets. The week before last Mike met with Hassan and members of CRO staff and it was decided that before going straight back home he should go to the Jinja Network Transit Centre, where street children go for rehabilitation. So this is where we visited with Steven on Tuesday for an evaluation of Hassan's progress. Unfortunately when we arrived we were told by the house mother that we had just missed him as he had wanted to visit Mike and personally give him a letter of apology for any trouble his running back to the street had caused. But we stayed with Joanne, the house mother, to hear about Hassan and the work they do at the Transit Centre. She said that there had been a marked improvement in Hassan since he had been at the centre which was great to hear. It was also interesting to hear about the Transit Centre and the positive work they do. It is the only one of its kind in Jinja and works with mainly boys and girls aged between 8 and 15 years old. We met some of the other children staying there who were lovely and very pleased when they saw the big bag of fruit we brought them. After the visit and speaking to Mike it was decided that he would also visit the centre himself during the week to discuss Hassan's progress further.

Wednesday was a really exciting day for us as we had received the okay from the UK about Musa so we took him back to his parents for them to sign the commitment form not before he'd gone to CRO to have a wash and spruce himself up :). With all the legailites done with we took him for his HIV test and were pleased to hear of his negative status and then went to buy him some new clothes. He seemed very excited that it was all really happening as were we! Steven took him back to Bugembe and Alice and I continued with some work. Alice has been making contacts with TASO and Mildmay and completed staff surveys regarding HIV/AIDS issues. And I have been looking into how to develop a reading culture amongst the children, something which has also been recently highlighted in the local media to be lacking in Uganda.

Yesterday we visited Bugembe to see how Musa was settling in and were happy to see he was very content in his new home. He also impressed us both with his artisitic skills and now see why when we interviewed him he said he wanted to be an artist. We were also over the moon to hear from Mike that Hassan would also be returning home this week and was very keen to get back to school.

All in all it has been a really positive week and we hope next week will be just as good and result in us making progress with our much needed CBO registration. In other news Alice and I have joined a group that will be putting on a pantomime in December to raise monty for a charity based in Jinja (the charity is yet to be decided). The panto is Aladdin and we had our first read through this week, although we're just in the chorus we think its should be fun and are look forward to learning all the songs and dances!

Well thats everything for now, thanks for reading.

Lots of Love,

Esther and Alice xx

19th September 2009

2009-09-19T11:09:00.009+03:00

Hello and welcome to our second blog as SALVE International interns!

It started off a bust week with myself, Esther and Stephen conducting some research into the girls who spend their day's on the streets and their nights back in Massese, after a very long walk to Massese we asked many of the local people in the village if they knew where any of these girls may stay, none of the villagers knew of anywhere, but all where very helpful. On our return home we discussed our findings with Mike , after telling him how far we had walked we then realised that we had infact been to the wrong Massese! The village we wanted was actually very near and just behind Moreen's School, after a good laugh we said that we would go back to the right village next week and continue our research....

On Tuesday we went with Stephen and Musa to CRO to find out if there was anymore background information we could find out, we spoke with a lovely social worker, who gave us some invaluable information and also shared with us that Musa was a keen artist and singer! We got a taxi to Mbiko (Musa's home village) and from there a boda boda up to Musa's house, Musa was really excited about going to see his family, and had even made sure that he had a wash at CRO before we left! Once at Musa's house, we were greeted by Musa's elder sister and younger siblings, Musa ran straight to his baby sister and gave her a huge hug. Unfortunately neither of Musa's parents were at the house, Musa's upset was palpable, he is a lovely boy and was so sad not to be able to see his parents, but was definatley putting on a brave face. We took his elder sister's number and said that we would ring her and check that his parents were there before coming back again the next morning.

On Wednesday, Esther,Stephen and Musa went back to Mbiko where they met wit Musa's father, Esther said that the meeting went very well, and that Musa's father was very keen for him to be involved with the SALVE programme, the next step is for Musa to meet with Mike and fingers crossed he will be joining the SALVE home soon.

On Thursday myself and Esther spent most of the day with Mike in town to help develop the Ugandan constitution, we are all keen to get this done as it is needed for the CBO (community based organisation) registration, Mike is so keen that he told us he has been waking in the night and writing down ideas. Our meeting was very informative and we all left feeling that we had met our objectives.

On Friday we spent the day taking Helena to see her Mum and new baby in her village, we also met with Helena's grandmother who quite literally greeted us with open arms, invited us in and gave us some of the tastiest mango's we had ever had. We were also introduced to Mike's goat kid 'Gift' who is being looked after by Helena's grandmother who is adorable!

Throughout the week Esther has been busy developing a more uniform system for the SALVE profiles, and general adminstration in the house. I have started the task of arranging meetings with HIV/AIDS organisations in the area with the hope of developing an HIV/AIDS protocol for SALVE international. Harriet has been busy developing a libary system in the house, and we both wish her a lovely trip to Finland this week, and look forward to having her back on the 2nd October.

We have met with lots of lovely people this week, who we know will help make our stay here even more enjoyable!

Lots of Love

Alice and Esther

xxx

Alice and Esthers first SALVE blog

2009-09-11T11:54:00.003+03:00

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the first blog by Alice and Esther, we hope you enjoy reading our regular updates which we’ll be taking it in turn to write.

So after a very bumpy 18 hour journey from London we were relieved to see Mike’s smiling face at the airport. We were really happy and excited to finally be in Uganda and grateful Mike was there to kindly drive us the three hour journey to Jinja.

Once at the SALVE house we were showed around by Mike and met some of the children that were already back from visiting their relatives. They were all a little shy at first but we were sure it wouldn’t take them too long to get used to their new aunties. We spent the rest of the week acclimatizing and exploring our new surroundings. We were also introduced to some of Mike’s family, Harriet, the new home carer and Mary the head mistress of Joy School, all of whom were lovely and welcoming. Back at the SALVE house we quickly learned to brush up on our Uno skills and have enjoyed spending our time playing and reading with the children. One day we even made dolls and balls out of banana leaves under Harriet’s instruction, the children were great at them, much better than us!

When all the children were back home from their holidays they were given their new supplies for school which they were all really grateful for especially Richard who was really excited about starting school and very proud of his new belongings. On Monday morning the hose was buzzing with excitement as they got ready for school and they all looked very smart in their red and blue uniforms.

After taking the children to school we held our first ever SALVE team meeting and met Stephen. We discussed lots of ideas, many of which we hope to develop during our stay here. We also introduced ourselves to the CRO team. Tuesday was our first street clinic where we met the children who SALVE is already helping to help and found out more about their situation. We met with Hassan who encouragingly with every meeting we are we are getting closer to a positive outcome, and after meeting again with Mike later this week things are looking positive. Both Alice and I are keen to find out more about girls living on the street and their circumstances, so after chatting with a small group we have decided to visit Masese, where they stay so we can have a better understanding of their situation.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent at Joy school observing and assisting lessons where we could. We have now agreed to help with English and reading every Thursday in classes P2 to P5, help with PE and make learning aids for all the teachers – which we have already begun putting our artistic skills to the test.

So this has been our first lovely week in Uganda and we’re looking forward to having much more to tell you in the coming weeks. Until then thanks for reading our first blog we hope you enjoyed it.

Love Esther and Alice xxx

2009-08-29T11:20:00.013+03:00

After 4 months and 17 blogs Esther and I find ourselves at the end of our Internship and thus writing the last ever blog from this set of interns! We have both been incredibly busy this week but what with Esther’s much-anticipated Community Education workshop she has had a million and one things to complete and unfortunately still hasn’t finished. This is why you are reading another blog from Caitlin, I hope you don’t mind! Esther will write a quick goodbye at the end so that we can both officially sign off.

As I just mentioned Esther finally gave her Informative Report on Wednesday to many of Jinja’s authorities on Street Children, including a couple of representatives from the Police, the local media, and other surrounding NGOs. The beginning of her week was spent, after creating reports for various different purposes, creating flip charts to aid her’s and Noah’s (the volunteer from CRO who has been working with her) presentation. I think it is safe to say she was understandably quite nervous about the whole thing and, not being a fan of public speaking, spent most of Wednesday morning practicing her speech. I went to the meeting to take the register and the minutes so that CRO and SALVE could have a record of exactly what was said. The turn-out was brilliant; everyone who was invited came and listened attentively to Esther and Noah’s presentation – informing them of some shocking facts concerning street children, as you’ve read in previous blogs. Esther did really well, clearly explaining all of her points and I think the whole thing had a really big effect on all those listening based on the discussion that was held afterwards and their comments on the feedback forms. The whole workshop was given an average of 8/10 so I think Esther and Noah were really pleased that their research had such an impact. Everybody contributed to putting forward thoughts on what was the best way forward for street children in Jinja and the outcome was that there should be monitoring of local organisations by the government, all the local organisations should partner for the good of the children, community education plans will be a good step along the path, and we should all lobby for specific by-laws on street children. We really hope that these will all be put into practice and it is great to know that people are behind the community education plans that SALVE has.

Esther spent most of the day on Thursday writing up the minutes and completing all the final admin necessary after the meeting. This is what took up so much of her time and so yesterday (Friday), having to spend most of the day on the beads project, she wasn’t able to do all of the final things for SALVE – monthly achievements, accounts sheets, and the interns pack (more on that later). She had a pretty successful day at the beads workshop, however; she was teaching the teachers how to make all the children’s paper beads into jewelry ready for them to all be completed by Monday when Esther will pick them up ready to fly home with to the UK on Tuesday. She was also creating the accounts book so that the project can keep a note of payment to children, teachers and mothers, and all the profits that they are receiving. It was so good to see it all officially begin and all down on paper, and we are hoping that the market will be open to Joy Crafts in a few weeks when Esther is home! We had a really lovely good-bye meeting with all the teachers and Mary last weekend and Mary was just so thankful to Esther for having started something which is potentially so self-sustaining and profitable to all those involved.

Unfortunately Esther was too busy this week to do the Street Clinics so Steven and I did these alone. Monday was supposed to be the day for sorting out the future of David and so we turned up to his usual ‘hang-out’ ready to take him to see the Pastor and his brother Patrick at El-Shadei to discuss the possibility of taking him to be with Patrick. We were told by his friends that only the night before David was taken by a man to have an education and they didn’t know where or who this man was. They suspected that David would be back and I’m really hoping that he’s either happy with his new home or that he will come back so that the next interns can take him to see Patrick again. I’ve been thinking about him a lot this week and I’m really hoping he’s OK.

So without that to occupy us I thought it would be a good idea to go to the SALVE home with Steven so that he could meet a few of the kids who are there (and not visiting relatives) and also meet Harriet who was spending her first day at the home. It was a really fun morning – we drew pictures that we thought represented ourselves and also gave Richard a few basic lessons in Maths and English. Richard, Harriet and Steven, all new members of our family, are doing so well and we’re really pleased to have them all. Richard will have to start from scratch in his education which is why Harriet and I have been giving him a few basic lessons before he joins Joy School. He is so happy though, and often says how pleased he is to be off the streets and sleeping in a comfortable bed without the fear of being beaten. He is always smiling and it is a joy to see. I have learnt after the experience with Luca not to get too complacent but things are looking bright for Richard and his new SALVE family. He is starting sponsorship this week and his new sponsors should be really proud to have such an amazing boy.

Harriet is also doing really well and has so many ideas for development and fun with the children. She has been spending every morning this week at the SALVE home and I have joined her a couple of times. She has a natural ability with the children and gave us all a fun morning on Thursday by collecting huge amounts of clay from the swamp down the road and we all put our creative hats on and made pots, dishes, cups and stoves! These dried in the sun for the rest of the day and they actually used Richard’s stove to boil baby Caron’s milk the next day! So it was fun and practical at the same time! I’m really looking forward to seeing the future of SALVE now that Harriet is a part of it.

Steven is also doing really well and he is another person I will be really sad to say goodbye to. He starts his new role officially on 7th September when the new interns will probably be starting again with the Street Clinic and I’m also excited to see how he will get on. He has some great ideas as well and is always keen to get stuck into anything. It was great that he could be at the Community Education workshop on Wednesday so that he could see what his work with Esther had contributed to. We also spent some time during the second street clinic of the week playing ball games and talking to our regular street boys which was really fun but when it came to saying goodbye to them once again it was quite emotional! When they heard Esther and I were leaving their faces fell and they said 'but they really care' as if nobody else did. I explained to them that there would be new mzungus coming and they looked a little happier but that was a moment I'll remember forever - I felt like I'd really made a difference to some people's lives here and that is what it's all about.

I finally got round to going with SoftPower Education’s construction worker to Joy school. I think he was genuinely shocked at how little there was at the school and he has gone back to discuss the plans with the people in the office and will send me a quote for the building work this weekend. I’m really excited to get going with the fund-raising for this and am hoping to approach schools to do some for us and businesses to hopefully donate some money. I’m hoping that the credit crunch has eased off slightly (maybe a bit naively) but I’ll just have to wait and see.

I’ve unfortunately had to spend a fair amount of time this week recovering or redoing a lot of work that I lost due to a computer at an internet café deleting precious files from my pen-drive. It was really not what I wanted on my last week but I think I’ve managed to get everything back now. On top of this I have been creating an interns pack, which is also what Esther is completing today, welcoming Alice and Esther and giving them information on all our different projects which they will be carrying on with. It’s really great that they can continue with things that we have started and we can see things grow from the UK. I know that they are going to do a fantastic job with everything. I would say I’m jealous that I can’t stay but I think the time has come now where I’m incredibly sad that I’ll be leaving people I’ve come to love and respect but I am also really looking forward to seeing everyone back at home.

Some of the most important people I’ll be sad to say goodbye to are the children. We are going to the SALVE home in a few hours where Harriet has been slaving away over a hot stove all morning making us a delicious ‘welcome to Richard’ and ‘goodbye to Caitlin and Esther’ lunch. Steven, Mike, Robina and the children who are there will be joining us as well and I’m really looking forward to it. We are then taking the children swimming, something they have been very excited about, for the afternoon. It is sad that not all of them will be there as they are spending time with their relatives during the school holidays but I am hoping I’ll see them on Wednesday before I leave. It’s going to be a good day but a sad one where Esther will need to say goodbye to everyone, ready to leave on Tuesday morning. I genuinely can’t believe it has come to this already; time has flown by.

So now that I have reported all of the news to you from our last week working with SALVE in Uganda I guess it must be time for me to say goodbye! Thank you so much to you all for reading our blogs, whether it has been every week or just when you have found the time – I’m really happy to know that you have taken an interest not just in what we as people have been doing but what SALVE has been doing as well. I’ve already said it in the newsletter and in an email but I also want to say a huge thank you to Nicola and Helen for giving me this opportunity which has been so worthwhile and has touched my heart (sorry for the cheesiness!). Also to Mike who has been so fantastic as our ‘boss’ in Uganda. Thanks to you all!!!!!

Lots of love

Caitlin xxx

Goodbye from Esther -
Thanks so much for doing this Caitlin, you've said everything so well there's nothing I want to add except goodbye everyone, and thanks for all your readings (congratulations, getting to the end of even one of our blogs is quite an achievement!), it's been great to have all your interest and support. Thank you! and big, big thanks to Nicola and Helen for all their help and support through our whole time here and for making this all possible. You've made such a wonderful difference and it's fantastic that so many others are getting the opportunity to share in it too! I hope you're really proud of yourselves :) I Look forward to hearing from the next Esther and Alice as they come to take over from us next week!
xxx
I'll leave you with some pictures from our swimming expedition yesterday...

and a very sweet little boy who just had to find his way on to the blog!
Stephen and I met him last week whilst visiting Mafubira.

PS I just have to share my excitement that the event with the police just made it into the paper! We had invited a local journalist along to the session but hadn't paid him to write an article (as its extortionately expensive) so it's great he has taken the initiative!! Unfortunately he picked up on the point of theft, making a big headline out of the 59% of the children living on the streets who admitted to theft, but then goes on to explain that the majority of this is amongst street children steeling from each other, only a very small minority stealing from the public. I think this is quite a challenging point to most of the public and I'm really excited it's getting so much publicity. He also mentioned about the number of children who make a living through carrying out domestic duties in town which gives a good impression of their positive impact on the area and that they are not all thieves as someone at the event had suspected. Even mentioned a few more things like where the children come from and the reasons for them being here (being mostly no fault of their own, as a result of domestic violence, poverty, death and separation of parents). So this is all excellent news and surprisingly accurate! I'm just so glad that it's all really being put to so much use whilst raising awareness of SALVE too : ) : )

2009-08-22T09:35:00.012+03:00

Welcome to our penultimate blog!! It has certainly been a hectic, emotional, stressful but massively rewarding week and I’m really excited to tell you all the news! I apologise if this blog is a bit erratic but I’m currently on a massive high (purely emotional, don’t panic Mum and Dad!) and so my thoughts might be all over the place. I’ll try and be as coherent as possible.

You find me writing this at five to seven on Friday night after an incredibly long day. As CRO gave me their consent yesterday to take Richard (one of the boys, along with David, who we’ve been trying to help for a really long time) with us into our S.A.L.V.E home I got up early to make sure I was at CRO nice and early to whisk him away to his new life. I was dealing with Simon, a social worker at CRO, who told me all about how Richard had stolen from a neighbour in his home in Kaliro, and was thus outcast by the community and threatened regularly with murder. It was therefore unsafe for Richard to go home. His mother a

nd father, as Mike and I discovered after the long journey to Kaliro a few weeks ago, had separately moved to unknown destinations and so we would have huge difficulty tracing them. As both SALVE and CRO want to put the safety and well-being of the child first, we all agreed that it would be best for Richard for CRO to refer him to us and give us permission, as a registered Ugandan NGO (we are still in the process), to have him. Yesterday, as you can imagine, I was incredibly pleased. It made it even better when I called Mike to ask if tomorrow (today) was too soon to bring him home and he agreed that it was a good idea for it to be as soon as possible. So, as I was saying, I went to CRO nice and early to go and greet Richard with the good news. I spent the whole day waiting for him as he was busy collecting scrap metal from the streets of Jinja. I eventually gave Margaret, another social worker at CRO, my number and told her to call me if he arrived. I’d given up hope but by 4.15pm, as I was back here at the guest house, computer on ready to write the blog, I got a call saying Richard was waiting for me. I bounded out the door and ran to get a boda boda to take me there as fast as possible. Margaret had run out of calling credit to let me know of Richard’s arrival and gave Richard some money to go and get some for her. Richard refused her money and, as he was so happy at what the phone call would be achieving, personally funded her credit with precious money he’d earned on the streets. At the moment I learned this it totally confirme

d to me what a special, beautiful young man he is. It is so amazing the capacity you have to unconditionally love and I really feel that, along with all the other SALVE children, I have developed such strong feelings for all of these children.

Anyway, I took him, after some ‘good luck’s and ‘be good’s from CRO staff, to get his HIV test. I expected another nervous wait for the result, as with Luca, and this was no different. Richard’s face was in utter agony at the thought of having a needle stuck into his arm but I held his hand and we got through it together. Thank goodness he turned out to be negative! The doctor gave him some cream and anti-biotics to clear up the rash caused by lack of hygiene on the streets and then we ventured to the market to choose him some new clothes, shoes, and toiletries. All the way through his face and my face were beaming and we must have looked a sight walking the streets of Jinja together. I took him on the bus to Bugembe and had his head shaved. As we reached the home and Tiff caught sight of us his face lit up as he remembered his friend from the streets and they both looked very excited to be reunited. Tiff showed him his new bedroom and let him choose a bed and they both kept nudging each other’s arms, happy to be back together again and to have a new playmate at home. All the other children are with relatives at the moment but I’m sure they’ll be just as pleased to see their new brother. I left Richard helping to clear out the wilting flowers from Mike and Robina’s wedding, keen to get stuck into some household chores in his new home. I got on the bus back to Jinja and smiled the whole way home.

But anyway, there is so much more to tell you about so I shall stop gushing and move on! As I just mentioned, Mike and Robina had their wedding on Saturday and it was a very special day! Mike had put so much preparation, time and energy into organizing it all, along with his ‘wedding committee’ so I think he was really glad to finally reach the day but also because of his pleasure in eventually officially marrying the lovely Robina! In keeping with Ugandan tradition the wedding didn’t kick off until an hour later than planned and Robin

a was even later arriving, bringing with her a downpour worthy of the monsoon season in Nepal. Both her and Mike looked stunning and their faces equally in awe of what was going on – Mike couldn’t stop smiling in a way which said ‘I can’t believe this is happening’, and Robina was the embodiment of pure dedication to the ceremony. I felt really emotional watching the two of them together, secretly thinking ahead (WAY ahead!) to my own wedding day as I think Esther was as we excitedly both drew our wedding dresses later on that weekend! As the happy couple and all of their entourage came out and paraded around looking incredibly beautiful we went up to congratulate them on their union. Mike grabbed my arm and said ‘in the absence of Nicola and Helen one of you must make a speech’! As Esther is a little shy of public speaking I agreed to do the honors. We ventured over to the reception and were met with sparkly lights, gorgeous arrays of colour, and a massive number of guests. The whole thing was so Ugandan – lots of food, speeches and dancing. The choir was incredible and there was such a happy feel to the whole thing. I think the SALVE kids who were there really enjoyed seeing their Uncle and Aunty married and so joyful. I think my speech went well; I was just so pleased to be able to let both of them know what I felt about them. My family and friends will know how enthusiastic I am about communication and telling people how you feel about them and I was really happy to be able to let Mike and Robina know how grateful I am and lucky I feel to have met them and that I will consider them friends for life.

So after the fun and excitement of the wedding and a relaxing day on Sunday, Monday inevitably had to come around and the week started very busily for both of us. Esther has been manically trying to organize SALVE’s and CRO’s meeting with the police after all her weeks of community education research. Unfortunately things became a bit complicated after Elizabeth insisted they had some more meetings to discuss what would happen and when. Esther has been back and forth trying to arrange things with CRO and has finally secured the meeting with the police for next Wednesday at 3pm, where all the local media will be in attendance, along with some very important members of the police and the local council. She has been busy writing up her report which is very impressive, showing lots of visual data which explains the real situations behind Jinja’s street children. I really do hope that the meeting is successful in persuading the police and the local authorities that street children don’t do much harm and actually contribute to the community by cleaning and helping people. We hope that beating will stop and that they will think about whether rounding groups of street children up, putting them in prison for the night and then releasing them, is really a useful option. Next week’s meeting will be explained in the blog in full and we’ll let you know its success.

Esther has also, as part of the community education research, been to Mafubira, an area fairly close to Joy school, to discuss how useful the community education plans for SALVE are. She was met with much enthusiasm and help by the local people who all agreed that it would be really good to have parenting and marriage counseling to prevent the problem of street children. Steven is certainly getting into his role as SALVE staff member and is becoming very confident and assertive in explaining what SALVE does and how we can help the community. Esther really enjoyed this aspect of her week which is fantastic seeing as this is what she wants to make a career of – researching problems in international communities and then evaluating, monitoring and implementing change.

She was also supposed to go and do some background research with a CRO staff member on Jinja’s female street children by going to a couple of their homes but unfortunately plans got confused and she didn’t end up doing this. She met a few on the streets and they confirmed that they come to the streets to collect food and do jobs but then retreat back to Masese where some of them rent accommodation with other street girls. She spoke with Rose, another CRO social worker, who told her that girls tend not to come to streets because of the dangers attached and cannot rent in Jinja (because children are not allowed to do this) so Masese is their only option. It is great to have this information as we thought we may be missing girls on the streets as they were hiding somewhere but now we know it is not likely we will find any and Masese would be our only option.

Esther has spent the day today teaching the mothers to make all the different variety of bead products so that they can produce some materials ready for Esther to take home next week. They all seem so enthusiastic which is fantastic and we really hope that the market in the UK will welcome Joy Crafts with open arms.

My week started with a successful street clinic, whereby Steven and I discussed with CRO the initial prospect of getting their consent to take Richard, and then going out to meet with our regular group of street children – a group of about 6 or 7 boys. It turns out 2 of them are children we’d been looking for to help and it was great to take their profiles down ready to give to the next interns to continue building the relationships with. These boys are called Musa and Robert. Musa told us he really didn’t want to go home as he felt he wasn’t loved. He has an aunty working in one of the shops on Main Street who also was negative towards Musa so Steven and I went to the shop to see if we could talk with her in an attempt to find out a bit more background information on Musa and try and counsel her as to the nature of street children and how to help them – having a positive attitude for change. Anyway, she wasn’t there and so we vowed to return in the next day’s street clinic. It turned out she wasn’t there then either so we spent the morning, Esther too, playing games and having fun with our regular street boys. We’d discussed that it would be great to give them some team-building and relationship-building exercises and also some fun to fill their day with. We bought each pair a newspaper and gave each pair a stone and told them to build a tower, sturdy enough to hold the stone (we were given this task in our SALVE interview!) – the first one to complete the task would win a fudge and a few sweets. It was so great to see them working together and thinking of innovative ways of building. Musa and his partner won and were grateful for the sweets, doing a victory dance around the field. We then played some ball games, introducing ourselves, and then played with some balloons Esther had bought from home. It was a really good morning! I’ve been met throughout the week with enthusiastic waves and beckons to come and join them all and today was told about their new business venture – selling clothes for profit and was asked my advice! I think they need a bit more start-up capital and I hope they’ll get this with all of their odd jobs! I’m really going to miss all of these boys as well as the ones that SALVE has already been able to help.

(As a quick aside – Luca greeted me today with a huge grin and kept saying ‘Bugembe!’ and nodding; I hope this means he has been thinking about life on the streets and that there is hope for him yet.)

The rest of my week has been spent finalizing all of the link-school programme materials. I have created a report, based on some research done in schools on the impact of global learning, to try and persuade the UK school we will be approaching that linking is a valuable thing to do. I have created a profile for Joy School which will go in the Resource Pack which I’ve been working on – this will be given to the secured UK link-school and also Joy School (without their own profile!). Along with this I’ve been writing linking practice advice, encouraging the link schools to adhere to the aims and strategies of the programme. I am so hopeful that it will all be achieved as I really think it will bring so much to any school in the UK and also be incredibly worthwhile for Joy school to profit from learning about international cultures and hopefully gaining some fundraising for their construction work. Speaking of which – I was supposed to be going with a member of SoftPower Education’s construction team to get a quote for the building work that needs doing and we’d arranged this for Wednesday. Maybe Steve, the Australian construction worker who rang me to arrange this, has been living in Uganda for too long as he called to cancel on Wednesday morning. We’ve rescheduled for Tuesday next week and I’m really looking forward to having a quote so that I can get on with getting some donations back in the UK! Next week I’ll be asking all of the SALVE kids to draw me a picture of their school with a big THANK YOU beside it so that anyone who donates some money will get this as a receipt.

I also met Harriet, our new full-time staff member, to visit our home in Bugembe to acquaint herself with her future residence. She met the few children who were there and she was utterly brilliant with them and I became a massive fan of hers as well. She’s so down-to-earth and easy to chat to, getting on with anyone she meets. I received a glowing email in response to chasing up her references which was so gushing about Harriet and her personality and work ethic. We’re so lucky to have found her and I’m really looking forward to seeing how she gets on. She’s requested that she start on Monday but, to give Mike a bit of time to find a new place for him, Robina and baby Caron, that she stays living in her own house and commutes everyday to learn the ropes and get to know the children whilst they’re on holiday. I’m sure she’ll get on with everyone and be a welcome addition to SALVE.

So as you can see it has been non-stop this week and we’re both looking forward to a relaxing weekend which it feels like we haven’t had for weeks. I cannot believe that next week is the final week of our SALVE internship. I’m getting increasingly sad about the prospect of leaving so many people I’ve come to like and love, but am excited about the thought of seeing so many people I equally care about back home.

Esther will do next week’s blog and will let you know all the goings-on of our last few days work in Uganda. I'll write a quick goodbye at the end just to officially end our SALVE internship! Thanks so much for reading again; I hope I’ve made sense and that you’ve enjoyed learning about the new addition(s) to SALVE’s family. We will be welcoming even more in a couple of weeks when the new interns, Alice and Esther arrive.

Lots and lots of love to you all,

Caitlin xxx

P.S. from Esther – I just have to say that we just saw two sheep’s heads roasting on a spit! Not a very nice sight for us but our resident carpenter was sitting by expectantly and looking forward to a very special meal…