The ‘vulnerablest of the vulnerable’

Today as we walked up to breakfast the sun was shining, the birds singing, and the views across to the mountains in Rwanda were spectacular. Our smiling waitress, Sharon, greeted us warmly and brought our breakfast (which bore no resemblance to what we’d ordered the night before). 

 We managed to meet Charles as appointed and took some clothes down to the office. The T-shirts are going to the children who come to the disability focus groups next week and Moses will distribute the rest as he sees fit. He’s trying to arrange for me and him to visit the local prison and we’ll take the baby and smaller children’s clothes as we know they have 3 young children there and several pregnant mothers.  There was some discussion about whether the clothes should go to these children, but Moses is adamant that as the sponsored children get fees and medical help and gifts from the UK that we should also be caring for the ‘vulnerablest of the vulnerable’ who can’t benefit from sponsorship. So if we can arrange it, there will be a visit to the prison (thanks to everyone who donated clothes to bring out).  We also talked about the possibility of taking clothes for the children at the hospital – but I didn’t bring enough :( 

We spent the morning planning meetings for next week and deciding who is going to do what. We did some group facilitation techniques training! We talked about how we’re going to get the message out that we want the children to come to the centre – as I’m writing this, Moses is trying to contact people by mobile phone - so far he’s managed to successfully speak to 3 out of 12 people! He’s put out an announcement on the radio for one of the meetings we’re planning. Hopefully we’ll get the right number of people – whatever that is…..

At lunchtime we went back to the hotel for a rest and sat in the garden for 10 mins – very pleasant.  I am enjoying the lull before the storm that I suspect will come next week. 

This afternoon we visited Taso (hyperlink) The Aids Support Organisation and were made welcome by Ambrose and the team and shown around the facilities. It was brilliant, plus we got to meet up with our friend rev. Moses.  They have a special ‘youth’ section where children who are HIV+ can come and play and receive counselling and medication.  They have a fleet of motorbikes to take drugs out to patients in the villages – I thought about some of my friends who would be very happy doing a job that involved riding motorbikes around Africa, but then I remembered the people they’d be visiting and maybe it would actually be a very difficult job.

The rest of the day was spent once again trying to get cash (!), speaking to Pete to try and sort out the house alarm, trying to teach someone how to edit a spreadsheet but in the end giving up and doing it myself (bad teacher… I think IT lessons are a job better done at the start of the day), and shopping for snacks for our trip to the Game Park tomorrow.

Because we are visiting, the team has a tea break in the morning.  I take water (tea leaves in the bottom of a mug of hot water with the occasional ½ teaspoon of cinnamon).  The Ugandan team take tea (mug of hot water, teaspoon of tea leaves, 2 heaped teaspoons of powdered milk, up to 3 teaspoons of sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon).  We have some of our most interesting conversations over tea. Today we discussed whether or not there is any real poverty in Britain since basic needs are provided (healthcare and food).  They were surprised when Tom said that the reason we can visit is because we are rich – but most people would struggle to afford to come more than once if at all.  They didn’t believe there is any poverty in the UK.  So todays first question is: ‘How do you define poverty?’  We also had a bit of a geography lesson and a discussion about language.

Today’s second question is ‘How do you define disability?’.  We were trying to decide who to invite to attend a focus group, which generated questions like, ‘Is having an extra finger a disability?’ and ‘Is being born a hermaphrodite a disability?’.  Just think about it – how would you decide who was or wasn’t disabled, and actually should you be making any such judgement unless you yourself have a disability.  We talked about the difference between describing a person as ‘disabled’ or ‘a person with disability’ which focusses on the person before the disability.

I have another question: ‘How can the most vulnerable children in any society be identified’.

Behind the beauty of the mountains and forests here, you don’t have to look far to see children in ragged clothes and no shoes playing in the dirt.  We know some of what goes on behind closed doors but it isn’t always easy to find the children suffering with disability and hidden from view for a whole host of reasons.  And what about our society? Do we equally stigmatise and judge? Are there children hidden away or who hide because it’s safer? Can our children with disabilities go to school without fear of bullying? I’m not sure I’m really prepared for next week at all.

Game Park tomorrow – Moses and Allen have decided to come with us so we’re off with Charles for some R&R.  May not get Internet again till Monday.