I’ve just been replying to emails – last minute details for what seems a challenging set of aims for our time in Rukungiri and Soroti. We’ll be working with local teams as they prepare and deliver initiatives to support children with disabilities (CWD). Another group of people who experience unbelievable discrimination and injustice – even in Britain…
We’ve loved visiting the Ark disability day care centre in
Soroti and seeing the development and changes in children year on year has been
incredibly encouraging. It’s exciting to
hear children count, see them write letters or their name, even seeing them ask
to go to the toilet – when previously they relied on nappies. These children’s
families live in total poverty, but at the Ark they are fed, educated and cared
for with love. And… with their children safe and secure at the Ark, parents can
work. Last week we heard that some Ark children
are starting school this term, so we’ll be meeting new children next week.
Fantastic! This trip we’ll go to a new
Playscheme for CWD in a remote village in Abeko – an idea Tom ‘pinched’ from
another charity (they’ve been very helpful and supportive!). We’re going to review the scheme with local
staff and help them prepare a plan for ongoing work with CWD in Abeko. The ultimate aim of the Playscheme is to
support as many CWD as possible into mainstream education. That sounds pretty
straightforward, but for many CWD in rural Uganda it’s an upward struggle. There
are few adapted schools or specialist teachers. Transport is often
unaffordable, but disabled children can’t walk several kilometres to school. Alongside
school fees and uniforms, and extra costs for healthcare and welfare, school is
not prioritised for CWD – food or educating siblings comes first.
Our trip starts in Rukungiri in the South. The local team
are starting a project with CWD and are currently looking at how Global Care
can best support CWD in this region. For
the first phase, 18 CWD have been assessed – specifically as to how they could
be supported to access quality education – without bullying or discrimination. Most of these CWD had no mobility aids. All the children have been assessed by a
specialist and the team are sourcing and costing appropriate aids. Can you believe one child ‘bottom-shuffled’
over rough ground for hours to get to school, missing a large part of the day,
then had to face the 3Km home again? No money for transport or aids, no
adaptations or special toilets at school. The terrain is hilly, and paths are
mostly in poor condition, stony and rough when its dry, flooded, muddy and
impassable unless you’re able-bodied when its wet. Toilets in Uganda are mostly pit latrines (a
hole in the ground - if you’re lucky it has a concrete base). If you can’t walk
or stand this poses all kinds of problems and for many CWD it is basically
disgusting – which isn’t a word I use for many pit latrines, they’re perfectly
functional in the environment… although it helps if they’re kept clean to some
extent!
Our challenge is to help the team develop a project proposal
and present a range of costed options to help these 18 CWD access school. They’ll have lots of ideas and local
knowledge – we have experience of project planning and development. They’ll do the work – we’ll write it up! There are 2 big questions:
- How can the CWD safely travel to school?
- Are schools prepared to accept them and have the necessary adaptations made – and make sure teachers and other pupils treat them the same as everybody else?
Two questions, a whole host of challenges…
We’re excited and apprehensive. But… we’ve visited several projects and know
the impact Global Care makes on children’s lives. We know Global Care seeks to
help families break the poverty cycle and lift whole communities to a place of
sustainable development, and over 10 years of visiting Uganda we’ve seen it
happen. We’ve watched schools develop in
partnership with Global Care, seen local communities, families with sponsored
children and CWD earn a livelihood, and we’ve met previously sponsored children
who are now professional adults supporting whole extended families and working
to change the lives of the most vulnerable families. We’ve also learnt more
about the importance of projects being owned and directed by local communities
and all stakeholders – and that means involving them right at the beginning
during proposal development and planning. This requires patience, tolerance,
respect and understanding.
As we swam in the warm Indian ocean today, relaxing after a
hectic few days partying, we thought again about the young woman from Cameroon (@LydolSlam) whose musical poetry overflowed with emotion and spoke of the pain of a
nation. We have a deaf Ugandan friend
whose motto is ‘disability is not inability’. I love Uganda and my Ugandan
friends, but I’m also going because I want to stand with the local teams and
with CWD and their families. They should
know respect and love, be given a voice to speak of both their pain and
aspirations, and be supported to achieve what is practically possible. Everyone has a right to hope....
Come back when we reach Uganda… and you’ll find out how the
CWD project is progressing…..
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