From Fear to Fun

Today we visited a Playscheme. We got to play with a group of fabulous children, all with disabilities.

There are 9 staff at Global Care Soroti.  It’s a bigger centre than Rukungiri and has diverse programmes.  In the remote village of Abeko, Global care works in partnership with a Disability Support Group.  Last January we visited the group when it was starting.   One year on, they’re well established, have church, local government and local NGO partners, and several projects, including a Playscheme. The Playscheme started on 7^th February. For the first week, the group met every day while guardians, Playworkers and children got to know each other. The Playworkers said, ‘When the children arrived, we were not their friends. They didn’t speak to us, they even moved away from food we gave. They did not speak.  Now they are relaxed and talk, they eat the food and they talk to us.’  They told us children have learnt to count, use English words and feed themselves. Many of the children are bright, but they’ve never socialised. Having the opportunity to play can be life changing.

Twice a week, for 4 hours, 24 children play, sing, have health checks, and eat breakfast with 3 Playworkers and a cook. I had a great time singing and playing with them. Tom and David took a group of boys outside to play football.  I also wanted to talk to the caregivers – the mothers, aunties and grandmothers who care for these children.  David and I sat on the ground under the shade of a large tree (actually… I let him sit on the only available rock) and chatted to them, David translating my questions and comments into the local Ateso language. 

This is what they said:

‘My child is so happy – we have a seen a change since the Playscheme. He was helpless to the point where we had no hope, he used to just lie down and be sick. Now he plays with other children.’

‘I am so grateful for the support to CWD. She is happy and enjoying life.  Last year we told you we had a problem with money for clothes, now she has new clothes (gifts from Global Care as part of their Uganda 35^th Anniversary celebrations), something to eat, and someone to take care of her.  Thank you for the Playscheme.’

‘My daughter is autistic. Before, she moved from house to house and could not be controlled. Nobody wanted to associate with her, she just roamed around. They called her mad. She was stoned and beaten by children and communities. Now even the Playworkers have seen a change in her behaviour. Every morning she wants to go to the Playscheme. It is her happiness. She’s told that if she moves from the house, she can’t go to Playscheme next time, so she stays at home and waits, even when it is 3 days.’

‘Having our children in a Playscheme means our time to work has increased. We can chop more wood, if we sell at market, we can sell much, we have more time to work in the garden and crops will be better. When we are out, we are confident that our children are safe. I used to tie my child inside the house with a rope because I was afraid to leave him.  No CWD here has ever been to school. The Playscheme meets in a schoolroom. At social gatherings now I can be proud and say my child is at school.’

‘At home no-one associates with my child, only the mother cares for a CWD. If I go to shop, to the well, to the market, when I come home my child will be left in the hot sun. No-one would move my child into the shade. I wish the Playscheme could be every day.

The scheme has plenty of challenges.  Remember those impossible hills in Rukungiri? Here it is miles and miles of ‘footing’ across the plain and through the bush in the hot sun.  There were no walking aids in evidence, just one wheelchair loaned from the Ark. Children who can’t walk are carried on their mother’s back. One grandmother described how hard it is to carry a heavy child, but if you tell them they can’t go to the Playscheme, they are quite upset. Some families have a bicycle, one boy’s brother brings him to and from the school. 

We had to explain to the families that this is a pilot project. Ongoing funding can't be guaranteed – if they want it to work there’ll need to be a plan for self-sustainability.  Days like today are a mixture of joyful delight, measured optimism and anxiety. This is such a brilliant idea – but it needs funding to work. The Playworkers are unpaid volunteers. The school isn’t asking for rent. But… food costs money and at the minute there are very few toys, games or learning materials.  So far there’s been no discussion about walking aids or medical support.  Without outside donors, partners and supporters these children will be back in the sun, tied up, not talking, being fed…… or roaming around the area being stoned and beaten.  

That might seem very harsh, but for the 24 children at the Playscheme, there are 124 more represented by members of the Disability Support Group who are neither at school nor at the Playscheme – and that’s just one village.  Playschemes for CWD in all the rural villages in this area would be a full-time job for any organisation.  Global Care and other partners need wisdom to know how to respond to this seemingly impossibly great need. 

Coming here shocks me out of complacency, but please God when I go home don’t let me forget the faces I’ve seen on this trip, the real people I’ve met. Or forget the thousands of unseen and unknown CWD in this country.  

Patience Charles, the Crocodiles Will Come

We have reached Soroti! We’re feeling very proud of our travel arrangements – so far, our maximum driving time in Uganda has been 5½hrs.  Pretty impressive… and partly due to road improvements but also our knowledge of the place and careful planning – and the fact that Charles and I are happy to eat snacks and not stop for a meal.  

We arrived at the Global Care Centre at lunchtime – we could hear a fair amount of shrieking in the Ark. The Ark is a daycare centre for children with disability and provides basic education, physiotherapy, meals and play in a safe secure and caring environment. It’s an absolute joy to spend time in the Ark – anyone who comes falls in love with the children and staff. We walked in to be greeted by ‘Hello Dr. Tom, Hello Auntie Barbara, you are most welcome,’ accompanied by hugs and handshakes from the staff.  The children were eating lunch, but a couple wanted to greet us and within 5 minutes my clothes were smeared with posho and beans.  There’s a lot of smiling and laughing in the Ark. Although the children who are familiar with visitors were excited to greet us, some of the newer children were shy.

And that, is the best thing that happened today. There are new children… because 4 children started school this term. Its brilliant news. One little girl, (the poster girl for the Ark if you’ve seen any pictures), has been there for years, but now the van that collects her and her wheelchair each day takes her to school, not the Ark.  And even better – she’s doing really well.  

Anyone who came to the 2015 Soroti camp will remember a small boy who ran around and didn’t really interact with anyone. He was a bit wild and undisciplined! Over the last 3 years we watched him become calmer, play with other children and listen to adults.  By January 2018 the change in him was quite remarkable. And yes – he’s at school too. That takes dedication and commitment from a staff team. They have remarkable patience and a belief in the potential of every child. We didn’t really know the other 2 children, they were only at the Ark for a year – just long enough to prepare them for school.   While we’re here, I’ve been asked to gather information about the children to help a team of special needs teachers who are coming in the summer to provide training for both Soroti and Rukungiri staff. I can’t wait to get started.  I’ll remember to ask for an apron next time!

The other focus for our visit is a Disability Support Group in a rural village called Abeko.  Last year we spent time with them as they started to think about formalising their group and how it would function.  Now they’re a registered organisation, and recently started a Playscheme – a programme devised by ‘Disability Africa’ to help children with disability socialise, mobilise and learn, a stepping-stone to formal education. While Global Care will help them as they become established, the aim is for them to become self-reliant and self-sustainable.  We’re looking forward to hearing their ideas, although we’ve heard that they’re hoping when we visit we’ll help them vaccinate their chickens and build bee houses. I’m hoping this is a joke. Anyone who knows me knows that animal husbandry and woodwork are definitely not anywhere near my skill set!

We’ve been coming to Soroti for over 10 years and it always delights us how much change happens from one year to the next. But I’m sure we’ll also be hearing about the challenges and once again come face-to-face with situations of intense hardship and pain.  Today, I’m sharing hope and encouragement, believing that in the same way so much has been achieved here, children’s lives will be changed in Rukungiri.

At the Game Park, Charles was desperate to see crocodiles. He even asked the guide, ‘When will we see crocodiles?’ The guide said, ‘They will come, they will come, just there, just there,’ while pointing vaguely into the distance. I teased Charles, ‘Patience Charles, the crocodiles will come.’ Sure enough, they did. Humungous crocodiles swimming across the lake and basking in the sun. 

Sometimes we have to be patient, to trust that change can come, that the unbelievable injustices we’ve witnessed can be repaired.  Last week I saw something special, I saw desperate families given hope just at the thought of their child receiving a walking aid or transport to school. But there’s no point bringing hope if we can’t deliver. Charles would have been even more annoyed if there hadn’t been any crocodiles. We can never make promises here – we can’t even promise we can provide a wheelchair until funding is approved and a suitable chair sourced. But we can bring hope, hope that might make a family think someone cares about their child or their situation.  And today we saw crocodiles – 4 more Ark children at school. Woohoo!

A Gratuitous Zebra

We waved goodbye to Lake Mburo with a mixture of sadness (could happily have stayed a week – I do love open space and wildlife) and excitement about visiting Soroti. Yesterday we spent a very relaxing couple of hours cruising down the lake, bird-watching and hippo and croc spotting. It was peaceful and tranquil (its best not to think about the lion – there’s only one, leopards and pythons).  A very happy place to be. 

As we set off for our overnight stop just North of Kampala, I quickly noticed changes in the scenery, and started thinking about the differences in the three Global Care Uganda centres.  The 3 of us passed half-an-hour of our 5½ -hour journey listing our suggestions of the differences between South West Uganda, the capital city Kampala, and Soroti in the North East.

Apologies to Global Care local staff for inaccuracies – this is our personal list. We described Rukungiri as having tall trees, mountains, cold and rain, families living on top of inaccessible hills, Children with Disabilty (CWD) scattered around the countryside ‘in the middle of nowhere’, no transport, Ankole cows (huge horns), daily labour – mostly agriculture, food…yams, pumpkins, not much posho, too many snacks!  Kampala is very different. Its loud, busy, noisy - basically chaotic. People crowd into small areas, there are too many vehicles, its hot and dirty, roads and roadsides are full of people working and hustling. You can eat any kind of food - but you have to look around to find what you want.  Soroti is different again - scrubland and small trees, flat plains, very hot and dry. The Global Care CWD Ark project is focussed in the community of Pamba near the Global Care Centre, so children can be collected by minibus. There are established Disability Support Groups providing focal points for other CWD.  However, there are still transport difficulties, and some families are scattered. Charles and I like the food – mandazi (doughnuts – yum), posho, Rolex (rolled eggs with chapati).

Anyway – the main point is that everywhere is different – you can’t come up with a ‘one size fits all’ solution if you’re working to support people to find sustainable solutions to break the poverty cycle. Since yesterday’s blog, that blinking Live Aid song has been buzzing in my head. I don’t just get frustrated at suggestions that we should all be trying to sort ‘Africa’, like its one country… It’s the assumption that after a brief visit you can either a) make a difference, or b) understand the problems and find solutions. It’s the same throughout the world, individual communities develop around their own individual cultures and identities and when things go wrong, they need unique sustainable solutions to mend and move forward.

In the car today we were discussing differences between Ugandan and UK English. Tom was (I quote) ‘wetting himself laughing’ yesterday at me talking to people on the boat in my Ugandanised English – even after I knew they were from the USA! I’m not completely bonkers, we have to adapt the way we talk.  Every time we said we were going to the ‘boat’, wanted to buy tickets for the ‘boat’ etc, no-one understood us. Tom & Charles tried to teach me the Ugandan pronunciation – they failed! (It’s something like ‘bo(r)t’ - I can’t write it). Then we got onto Geordie – hilarious. Charles made a good stab at, ‘Aya’alreet Pet?’  Think about it – if I wrote this in South Yorkshire or Geordie, how many of my Kent readers would understand?

People ask why we come here – I was asking myself the same question on Saturday! The answer is entirely down to Global Care.  We’ve seen first-hand the difference their work makes in three different countries, and in Uganda in three different centres. We’ve met and interviewed previously sponsored children who started life as orphans in total poverty and are now professionals – thanks to Global Care. We’ve met young people who were born HIV+ who are fit and healthy and educated – thanks to Global Care. We’ve seen children with extreme disability living in harsh and destructive situations learn to laugh and play and go to school and learn to look after themselves.  We’ve watched schools be transformed from disintegrating shelters with local latrines to award-winning thriving communities with concrete buildings and productive gardens and farms.

Why do I want to support Global Care? Several things – Global Care works with local partners with knowledge and experience of their local community, they target the most vulnerable children in any particular community – specific to that community, they aim to involve the whole community, not just individuals. In the case of disabled people, we can’t understand their situation, so we need disabled people to talk to us about what will help them and to drive any development work. We're getting better at involving local disabled people and local and national disabled people’s organisations in ptoject planning. While education for children is often the key aim, the compassion and care of local partners mean children are treated holistically, their whole situation is taken into consideration. That might mean building simple family toilets or motivating a whole community to work with another agency to build clean water facilities.  And there is a real attention to sustainability.  We learnt very quickly when we started coming here that we rarely have solutions – but we can help local staff look at things differently, and we can ask the hard questions. These things don’t happen without donors and we’re slowly learning how to help local partners understand the needs of potential funders and existing donors in terms of accountability and information.

We’ve left Rukungiri with 19 new children we won’t forget, and we’re excited to watch as their lives start being changed.  In Soroti we’re going to visit a new Playscheme for CWD and help the Ark as they prepare for some training in the summer from UK special needs teachers. Different children, different solutions.  

We are incredibly grateful to Global Care. Two retired people who have the privilege of working with inspirational local partners, meeting brave and beautiful children, and seeing fantastic positive change in desperate peoples’ lives.

For more information about Global Care, go to: Global Care UK

And a gratuitous zebra picture!

The Termite the Aardvark and the Warthog

Friday and Saturday were spent pulling everything we’ve done together and developing a series of reports, proposals and budgets. I say that as if I’ve done loads of work… Unfortunately, I acquired a reason to still focus on latrines and spent most of Saturday in bed.  Tom, Moses & Penlope produced an incredible amount of detailed work, and we have a pretty good plan for what it would take, and cost, for our 19 children to go to school.  

On Sunday we travelled to Lake Mburo Game Park for a couple of days rest before moving on to Soroti and a new set of interesting challenges. We left Rukungiri in pouring rain and still feeling cold. As we drove out of town and watched people sheltering from the rain or running for cover, it was another stark reminder of our own good fortune and privilege.  It was pure stupidity that left me cold – I should have taken more care with that dratted fleece. The people I watched from the comfort of the car were dressed in thin clothes. Many poor people have leaky houses, few have coats or waterproof shoes.  It’s not something people sing about – what its like for the most vulnerable when it’s cold and stormy ‘in Africa’.  As the paths turned to muddy rivers, we thought again about the children living at the top of hills only accessible by steep stony, rocky footpaths. No mobility aids, no money for a boda-boda. It was a sobering thought.

As I’ve got older, I seem more susceptible to stomach bugs – but I always have a comfy bed in a dry room. In Rukungiri, I had visits from staff to make sure I was OK when Tom was out, they brought me cold bottled water, and asked if I wanted medicine or food. Here in Mburo, they made me ginger tea –  just what I needed.  Ugandans are generally incredibly kind and thoughtful, they are respectful (apart from the ones who are my friends who deny me cake or tease me about my age).  The people we met in the villages and remote houses were all welcoming and pleasant. They were delighted that we visited and wanted to try and find a way to help their children (I suppose apart from the child who screamed the whole time because he was afraid of our white skins!). Most of the children laughed and tried to play or talk with us. The families seemed to genuinely love their disabled children – they desperately wanted to help them.

Its easy to focus on the struggles, to become slightly patronising and think we can help when other’s lives become hard. Our motivation to help should be compassion and care for these children.  We have to recognise the children and families in the project are people, not objects for our western sympathy, money or salvation.   Moses and Penlope are passionate about the children – they want to start making their lives easier and helping them get to school straight away. They have incredible energy and enthusiasm. They would have taken us to meet all 19 children if there had been time because they knew if we met the children, we would understand the problems – not because they were trying to make us cry. It’s not about knee-jerk solutions to a crisis, it’s about understanding a whole structure and culture and seeing how we can support those who know far better than us what those solutions might be. Tom and I mostly asked Moses and Penlope questions and filled in forms and wrote proposals from their answers… then asked more questions. We rarely produced answers.

Today we were walking with a guide in the Park. We saw loads of huge termite hills, some even blocking the road. We looked at one with a big hole and tunnel in the middle.  Moses our guide (there are always lots of Moses in my blogs!) explained that the holes were made by aardvarks at night feeding from termites. Then suddenly there was a loud rustling from a bush beside us and a herd of disgruntled warthogs thundered out from the foliage right beside us. Startled I grabbed Moses as we watched them charge off away from the wretched people who had disturbed their sleep talking about termites and aardvarks.  
Moses turned back to the termite hill. ‘When the aardvark leaves, the warthogs use the hole and make it bigger as a sort of cave for them to sleep in.’

 said they were ugly brutes, but Tom announced, ‘I love warthogs – they’re fine and they’re just themselves, they don’t care what anyone else thinks – they’re happy to be warthogs.’ 

I think we need to learn to live like this…. We need to work together - and see the value in each other.  We shouldn’t judge but fight for justice for all.  Without the termite, the aardvark has no food and the warthog doesn’t have a cave.  We saw herds of impala with zebra and vervet monkeys.  Moses said they have a symbiotic relationship – they always travel together. The impala browse vegetation and disturb insects which the monkeys eat. The monkeys act as look-outs warning off predators such as leopards and baboons (who knew baboons eat young impala?).  I think we need to work on symbiotic relationships – we learnt so much from Moses and Penlope, and we learnt from the families too – seeing how love and care can bring joy and security to children with disability even when they have no real hope for the future.  I’d like to think that in different situations I can be a termite or an aardvark, a monkey or an impala - maybe I need t try being a warthog… I never want to come like a baboon, someone who needs to be kept from the vulnerable for using for my own gain.

PS one little girl had a paralysed leg which she dragged around to move. The open ulcer on her leg was a problem to be solved... How could we protect the leg and support healing. Penlope sat on the ground and talked to the child. She gently asked if she could lift her dress to look at the leg. She was gentle, respectful & spoke with dignity. I learnt from Penlope. 

Today we did not eat crisps

We've spent today in the office. When it started raining we were very glad we've finished fieldwork... The roads/paths would be impassable in the rain & we'd probably be stuck in the middle of nowhere. We've realised some of our research project children will struggle to get to school in bad weather. You'd need a trail bike to get up the steep muddy paths.

Today's job was to collate & analyse all the data we've collected, start to make recommendations, and cost the various options. For each of the 19 children! Yes, it took all day, and tomorrow we have to get more quotes and meet the local Disability Association... you guessed it... to discuss latrines.

We've had some interesting discussions that have stretched our brains beyond the usual extent of retired people!

1. As a charity, how do we balance immediate desperate need with encouraging and motivating people? For example, if a family are day labourers, on any particular day they may not have any money... Literally no money. But if we give them the full amount for transport to take their child to an orthopaedic camp, will they expect us to keep giving money and not look for work? Our solution is to budget for the full amount but decide how much on the actual day.

2. If several local suppliers quote a reasonable price for a child's motorcycle helmet, can we be sure it's good quality? Our solution.. Visit the shop and look. The helmets were like toys, and they break if dropped. Hopeless. Our children will be negotiating steep hills on paths with unstable surfaces. Our final budget is nearly twice the cost - but we can't compromise on safety even if that's the locally acceptable solution.

3. Our schools are in deeply rural areas previously out of the range of Global Care. We can get quotes from builders here in town for constructing latrines, but in the villages the price of labour and materials will be much less. We've decided to get several quotes from town so we can prepare a budget now, but the team will contact schools for local builders and get quotes from them. Otherwise we'll have to pay for town builders to make site visits with one of our team because, 'they'll never find the school'!

We went out for lunch today. Local food which cost £8 for 5 of us to have huge plates of rice, matoke, cassava, vegetables and meat stew.

We didn't have hot water yesterday... I'm ok with cold showers after my cold water exploits but it's quite cold outside in the morning. Our resident go to person went to our room, stood in the shower in very muddy shoes, fiddled with pipes and it works again.

Today we arrived back at the hotel to no electricity or wifi. We said we needed to send emails so he sent a boy out for fuel for the generator! We're online woohoo...

When we left the office, we asked if the team were happy with the work today. Moses said, 'I am happy, I did not eat crisps.'
Tom said, 'I am happy, I did not travel into the hills and I had a Ugandan lunch.'
Charles said, 'I am happy, I had a rest day...sleeping in the refrigerator (it was very cold this morning and Charles forgot his Rukungiri jumper) and eating lunch.'

We didn't peer into any stinky huts today either...

We Need To Talk About Poo

It has been another hot dusty day. We travelled a total of 67km... Most of it on unmade roads (otherwise known as footpaths). However the van rattles less and there is some improvement in comfort after Charles took a trip to the garage. We paid the huge price of £17 for a new bush on the rear suspension! I have no idea how Charles negotiates the trees, boulders, narrow bridges, partially washed away roads or tiny tracks on steep inclines. Somehow he does it and we only have to walk a few hundred metres at the end. And thanks for the messages, yes today I had cake. Banana cake Ugandan style!

We visited 5 children today, 4 were at school. We did 4 school visits and 1 home visit. One of the key issues for these children is how they manage to use the toilet, and whether facilities at school and home provide them with practical solutions for going to the loo... And there's the question of privacy and dignity.

I had a good laugh yesterday. Remember we're out in very rural locations. I needed what is euphamistically referred to here as a 'short call'. We were at a village so Penelop went about finding me a loo. Eventually we were directed to a flight of stairs going down to the basement of a guest house. At the back was a narrow concrete passage with lots of doors & 3 women lounging around. Penelop had a long involved duscussion then shook her head and started walking back.
I said, 'Whats the matter?'
She said, 'They do not have flush toilet.'
I said, 'Its not a problem.'
Penelop looked surprised, asked if I really meant that, looked behind a door and pulled a face. I walked past her and did my business in a perfectly suitable extremely basic latrine. I laughed at her expression all the way back to the 'boys'.

So we all have expectations, but sometimes the need outweighs the preference for sweet smelling cleanliness. But... should we expect children with disability (CWD) to put up with what's available if their inability to squat means their hands might be on a filthy floor, or because they can't stand they have to sit on the floor? Of course not.

Every home and every school visit includes discussion of how the child manages with toileting, followed by a latrine inspection. I've decided the latter is much more suited to Tom's skill set than mine!

Sometimes we're pleasantly surprised. One family built a separate latrine for their disabled child as she can't stand,  she has her own clean place. The government installs one accessible toilet when it funds new school latrines. They may not be built to specifications recommended by Ugandan disability groups, but its a start. At least there's one latrine with handrails... They may be too high or too low for most children, there's only one so its for boys or girls not both, it may be built at the bottom of a rough track which a wheelchair couldn't manage, the ramp may curve at the top, be too narrow for a wheelchair to negotiate the toilet door, and the stall too small to turn a wheelchair... But its a start! Or is it?

Several children we've met can manage on their own. Others are carried, supported to squat or have learnt interesting ways of negotiating a hole in the ground. We've spent a lot of time thinking about this. How can we help children get to school if they can't get to the latrine at the top or bottom of a hill over rough ground or they can't stand or squat?

We've got lots of ideas, but every child and every school is unique. We're getting quotes for different designs of latrines, quotes for septic tanks where latrines can't be dug deep enough. We're researching child sized commodes and will be asking for a design and quote for a wooden frame with a raised toilet seat. At one school a child's parents pay for a teacher to take her to the toilet. At another, the teacher leaves a class of nursery children so she can take a child to the toilet. Our big challenge in the next few days is to come up with creative solutions for about half the children in the research project. We'll be talking about poo for the rest of the week....

The Elephants Who Came for Tea

We've spent the last day and a half in a Super Custom minivan driving around the hills and valleys of Rukungiri district. Yesterday was cold and wet – I very much regretted ‘losing’ my fleece jacket during the chaos at Dar es Salaam Port. Today was very hot and sunny – Tom regretted the vest he wore to compensate for being cold yesterday! Our team consists of Charles, our driver, and Moses and Penelop the local Global Care staff.  The day starts with a trip to buy snacks for the journey - consisting of a variety of crispy vegetables, the bananas left over from our breakfast, and today cake. I was a bit miffed in the supermarket when Moses put 3 cakes in the trolley ‘for the Ugandans’.
I said, ‘What about me?’
He said, ‘You only eat small snacks.’
I said, ‘Give me cake.’  He did. 

Today we also stopped for lunch in a village café … They said we needed lunch because we needed to build our strength for the next visit…. I will explain.

We’re here to help the team with an action research project exploring ways Global Care might support children with disability (CWD) to access education.  They’ve identified 19 children to take part in the study and visited them all at home. I collated the data back in the UK and Tom summarised the findings. The UK management team looked at the results and we are starting the next phase. The team need to visit schools and put together an action plan – a proposal with options and costings.  We left the UK with open minds – you never quite know what you’ll find ‘on the ground.’ Yesterday we spent a couple of hours reviewing the work so far and deciding what to do next. The Ugandan team wanted us to visit some homes to meet the children and understand a bit about the location of their homes, and visit schools to discuss their approaches to CWD.

We quickly realised that most of the 19 children live miles apart - and several Km from the nearest school. Yesterday we visited 3 children and 2 schools – we left the office at 11.30am and arrived back at 6pm! We drove for miles and when paths became too small, we walked. Because of the rain it was muddy and slippery. We had a sad visit to a very disabled child and happy visits to children we’re sure could get to school with help with transport. We even found a school with a section for disability.

Today we left town at 9.30 and took the main track towards Queen Elizabeth Game Park, North West of Rukungiri. The dusty rough road goes for many miles, climbing up and up through a forest. The mass of vegetation includes eucalyptus trees, pampas grass, pine trees, spear grass, mango trees and many others we don’t recognise. Small children run or walk along the road alone, often barefoot.  As we continue, we see fields of coffee, matoke, sweet potato and the bright orange flowers of flame trees vividly breaking the monotony of the greens and browns of earth and homes. After 1 hour we arrive at a small town, Bwambara. People are everywhere as it is market day. Coming out of town the road narrows and we can see the Savannah of the Game Park in the distance. After another 10 minutes we turn off again onto a narrow track. If it rains this ‘road’ is impassable. The track becomes a path, just wide enough for the van, and we have arrived.

The boy we have come to see (we’ll call him John), comes running over as he sees us. He’s limping and holding his arm awkwardly. He has hemiparesis. He goes to the local school which is on the next field.  People come over to talk to us. We learn that the Game Park plays a huge part in the lives of families in this community.  They are afraid of the elephants which eat their crops and trample farms and buildings. John’s family live in a very simple house. The area is incredibly poor – it is so far from towns that it is neglected – the health clinic has no supplies, the school expected government teachers but they have not arrived so the parents have to pay the teachers which makes school fees expensive -£6/ term. The nearest government school fees are £1/term but is too far away for John to reach without transport – which no-one can afford. Most of the adults in the village are uneducated beyond a very basic level – their grandparents didn’t go to school at all. Education is not a priority. Families depend on agriculture. The area is the hottest and poorest in the district – but during last year’s severe drought they had no government support. Children didn’t go to school because there was no money.  The villagers have always followed the ways of their grandparents who lived in the bush – education is a new concept.  Moses said, ‘They haven’t worked out a relationship with schools.’

John has 8 siblings (4 others died). His father has 2 other wives, one wife has 15 children, the other has 12. There is very little money to go around so education will not be a priority. The village school only takes children up to Primary 3 – what will happen to John after that? He won’t complete village education unless there is help with fees – his father can’t afford £6/ term when he has 35 other children to think about, and he can’t afford transport to send John to the cheaper school. It is fantastic that John can go to school now – but he often runs away and goes home if there is no-one there to send him back.  The lovely young Deputy Head told us they are working with John and his family to improve the situation and his behaviour has improved, he is learning well and his hygiene is improving.

After we’d seen John, we spent half an hour in the van travelling to meet a 4-year-old who was completely terrified of our white skins and wouldn’t stop screaming… In these remote villages many people have never seen a Mzungu. A Head Teacher told us he’d never talked to a Mzungu! This child had paraplegia and lived in a village on a hill with vey rough terrain. After another 40 minutes in the van we visited a CWD at school – a huge rambling school on a hillside. We’ll call him Stephen. Stephen has been at school for a year and is doing very well – he’s ahead of others in his class. But… he’s always late because it takes him so long to walk to school (3.5Km) on his deformed leg. And after 40minutes drive we walked up an incredibly steep narrow path to meet a lovely little girl with Spina Bifida. She was sitting happily eating lunch when we arrived – but she has medical and physical problems that need resolving before we can even think about how she’d get to school.

We stood outside this last house and looked out over the distant hills and mountains. The lush hillside forest beneath rustled in the slight breeze. It was truly beautiful.  But for these children, the outlook is harsh.  Once again, this time in the context of children living with disability in incredibly remote and difficult environments, we can only refer to the Global Care ‘motto’, ‘We can’t do everything, we can’t do nothing, we must do something.’

From Z to U

Yesterday we left Zanzibar and flew to Uganda via Nairobi.  Marvelling at the enormity of Lake Victoria from the plane, we realised it was our first daylight arrival! We were met by our friend and driver, Charles, and set off for a 3-hour drive to our first stopover in the bustling town of Masaka.

It’s a year since we were last here, and we’ve noticed significant changes already. The new Kampala – Entebbe expressway (motorway) was something of a revelation. It’s hard to remember the awful roads we bumped over 10 years ago on our first visit. The journey is still full of hazards as Charles tries to avoid motorbikes, lorries and taxis (the annoying matata drivers who pull out into the road without warning). The towns haven’t changed… full of jostling vehicles, people and animals all fighting for space on any available piece of ground.  If a bus, taxi or car is stationary, its swamped by street sellers thrusting baskets of corn, bananas, peanuts, sodas, passionfruit and kebabs at every open window. No ‘hakuna matata’ here (the mantra of the Zanzibari).  

We crossed the equator (for the second time in a day) and the road stretched ahead through miles and miles of flat scrubland with sparse bushes and trees. Occasionally I’d spot someone walking towards us, drawing attention to the dust paths criss-crossing away from the main road leading to small communities or individual homes deep in the bush.  In front of us bicycles tried to avoid the heavy traffic, some precariously laden with an impossible number of full yellow jerry-cans.  In Uganda there are still many people without access to water, electricity and sanitation. 

As the sun began to set and we arrived at our hotel for the night, we began to register familiar smells of burning charcoal and hot earth. We watched the sun set over the city – marvelling at the intensity and speed as the luminous red ball slid under the horizon.  As we walked out of our ‘banda’ this morning, Tom remarked, ‘Ah, this is familiar - how Uganda looks and smells!’

Today we continued our journey down the Kampala – Kabale highway for another 3½ hours.  The monotony of scrubland and roadside villages was broken by a herd of zebra, and the further south we travelled, we saw more livestock – cows and goats, sometimes herded by small children with sticks! Another change is the abundant supplies on the roadside stalls.  There are piles of fruit and vegetables – with plenty of variety.  Whole carcasses hang outside butcher’s shops (yes - in the hot sun and delighting flies).  Last year the stalls were empty, and drought eventually led to serious food shortages.  Global Care were able to help with emergency feeding in the worse hit areas where we work. 

Eventually we turn off on the road to Rukungiri, and very quickly the landscape changes.  The trees are taller, the vegetation is lush, little farms are dotted on hillsides and small houses shelter in banana plantations in the valleys.  We see groups of Ankole cattle with their monstrous horns.  The mountains of Bwindi loom ahead out of the cloud and mist (fantastic driving weather) as the terrain becomes hillier. How strong must people be to carry all those jerry-cans up a steep incline every day? Occasionally we spot a huge fancy house with brightly painted walls surrounding ornamental gardens – we smile knowingly, must be a government official’s ‘village home’. He’ll use it for funerals and major events but lives in Kampala most of the time.

Finally we arrive at our familiar hotel.  There’s electricity and water – but no Internet as they haven’t got the money to pay for data. Someone is coming from Kampala with money tomorrow... maybe! There is one member of staff and a chef. There are no other guests. Its pouring with rain.  We can hear a loud church service – shouting and singing compete with birdsong outside our room. Our Uganda sim isn’t working so we resorted to expensive SMS on UK data.  Our Global Care contact has gone to church and turned his phone off – he will be gone for several hours.  We have arrived indeed!

PS Moses arrived and totally redeemed himself with the words, 'You look so young, I was expecting an old lady!'

Songs of Hope

Unusually, I’m writing my first 2019 blog on holiday in Africa, not with Global Care! We’re in Zanzibar for a Swahili music festival (Sauti za Busara if anyone’s interested), then some beach R&R before travelling to Uganda.  Festival musicians haven’t been afraid to be political or address past and present trauma and conflict. Music, song, and poetry are powerful media for transmitting raw emotion ranging from desperate pain and sadness to unadulterated joy. Yes – it’s been brilliant – and thought provoking and challenging at times! Even on holiday we’ve found ourselves wondering at the resilience of humans faced with what must at times feel like never-ending loss. There’s been a lot about discrimination too – particularly against women, and I’m leaving with the mantra ‘I am a strong woman, my sisters are strong women,’ ringing in my ears. Alongside the pain there was a sense of hope for the future, hope for change. Tausi Women's Taarab - Zanzibar's first all-female taarab orchestra, singers and dancers - were fabulous... energetic, funny, enthusiastic, and full of hope.
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:

1. How can the CWD safely travel to school?
2. 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…..