November 28th 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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