LITA

About ACIO

AIDS CONCERN INTEGRATED ORGANIZATION "ACIO " and ACIO Child Care Center, Sironko, Uganda

"ACIO"  is a locally initiated, community based organization founded in 2004 to address the growing number of HIV/AIDS orphaned and vulnerable children in the district of Sironko, Uganda. "Love Is The Answer" is in its 3'rd year of raising funds and support for programs and projects that benefit the orphaned children in ACIO's care.

Inspired by the Love and direction of Vincent, a local school teacher, ACIO's membership is made up of approximately 100 volunteer guardians - many of them Grandmother's and single mother's with several orphans in their care - along with concerned community members, all seeking to come up with viable and sustainable solutions to care for the children.

ACIO have identified there are over 400 orphaned and vulnerable children in their district. You can find more general information about orphaned children, caregivers and history about ACIO by clicking on the PROJECT archives from March 2008 and June 2008 and November 2008-2009

ACIO UPDATE - JUNE 2010

Until very recently - May 2010 - 60 orphaned children were living in full time care at ACIO Child Care Center, where they were being cared for by ACIO volunteers and housed in temporary mud and stick buildings built on ACIO land. Due to heavy rains that began in Uganda in March 2010, there have been mudslides killing hundreds, and flooding causing thousands to have to leave their homes and villages. While all the ACIO children have been kept safe, the Child Care Center, located on low land in a valley, became very water logged resulting in flooding of the children's weathered dorms, and the decision was made to relocate the children to safer accommodation.

30 of the children were taken in by caregivers in the community - many with several orphans already in their care - where they will stay for the next 6 months while we work on alternate accommodation for them. The remaining 30 children have been relocated to a rented home in Vincent's village and are being cared for by him and other volunteers for the time being. The daycare at the center that has been an income generating activity for ACIO, has also been closed due to the flooding. A caretaker is staying at the Child Care Center to protect the grounds, supplies and items like desks, benches, blackboards, and our library ( pictured here ) - all of which I am told are safe and not damaged - and to receive and care for the first 200 chicks that will be arriving in early June to the new poultry house, built just before the rains came, that most thankfully has not been affected by the flooding ( our 2'nd income generating activity for ACIO ).

Seeing the very great need that has developed, a local man in Sironko has stepped up and donated an acre and a half of land on higher ground in Vincent's village, and it is on this land that we are now planning to relocate and build the new Child Care Center. We have agreed it shall be built in the local style, out of baked bricks and concrete, with iron sheets as roofing, as opposed to the traditional, temporary, less expensive building style of mud and sticks we have used to date. We will be able to re-use hundreds of iron sheets we've bought for the roofing at the former center as well as the doors, windows, roof trusses, etc.

One day, hopefully within the next 6 months, we will complete the first phase, 1) the new dorms and latrines for the children, and then phase 2) a cooking and dining area, and then move on the 3) a daycare, and 4) a vocational training building, and eventually bring the poultry project up to the new land as well. More on all this as plans are decided upon...

ACIO ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO JUNE 2010

During the '08-'09 school year a very special relationship began between the students at Vancouver College Elementary School in Vancouver, BC Canada ( pictured here ) and the children at ACIO in Sironko, Uganda... a relationship that is teaching me how we can positively enrich the lives of children on "both sides of the water" by linking them with one another, making it personal for them, helping them get to know about, care about and share with one another. This first relationship that has developed has continued to grow as we have carried on through the '09-'10 school year, and it is my longer term intention to take what we are learning and develop many more such relationships, between additional schools in the West and orphan projects in Africa, along the lines of this model in the future.

It's a simple model really ... one school from the West, linked with one small, self determining, grass roots project for orphans in Africa ... I'm beginning to understand the incredible empowerment and education that can take place for everyone involved!

Thank you to the teachers, students and their parents of Vancouver College Elementary School as well as other private donors for embracing ACIO and financially supporting their project and the orphaned children in Sironko.

I think I'll know the vision has been made manifest on the day I'm in Uganda, with the children at ACIO visiting and talking on skype live with the children here in school in Canada! A day, I can honestly say, I almost hold my breath for..!

HERE'S WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED WITH ACIO SO FAR:

NB - A very important component of the model I am developing, one that I wish to accentuate, is that all of the products and supplies in this following list have been, and in the future will be, bought locally in Uganda, in trading centers and public markets within the communities the children reside in, providing support for the local economies, entrepreneurs and small businesses, and, providing materials that are common, useful and needed within the context in which the children live.

1) 2009 - For the 60 children in care at ACIO ~ blankets, mosquito nets, foam mattresses for sleeping on, extra clothing, school uniforms, school supplies, art supplies, hygiene supplies, soccer balls

2) 2009 - For 90 children in home-based care ~ school scribblers and pens/pencils

3) 2009 - For the public daycare ACIO has recently opened ~ The daycare is ACIO's first income generating activity and provides some of the funds ACIO requires to feed the 60 children in full time care.. donor funds have provided lumber for roof trusses, iron sheets for roofing, desks ( pictured here ), benches, blackboards, books and paper supplies.

4) 2009 - For the new ACIO Library ~ The library serves the 60 children in full time care as well as the 350+ orphans living in home-based care in the community. Donor funds helped with the purchase of windows, 1 shelf, desks, benches, a selection of supplementary Ugandan curriculum text books, novels and beginner readers.

5) 2009 - For Vincent, the Director of ACIO ~ After years of riding a bicycle, we have been able to provide Vincent with a used motorcycle to help him in his daily travels including to remote and mountainous villages and communities where his membership and many orphaned children live.

6) 2010 - For Phase 2 of the ACIO Library ~ Donor funds have helped to purchase additional text books, readers and novels along with 2 shelves

7) 2010 - For the 60 children in care at ACIO ~ School scribblers, pens, pencils and math sets

8) 2010 - For 90 children in home based care ~ school scribblers, pens, pencils and math sets

9) 2010 - For the new Poultry Project at ACIO ~ This is ACIO's 2'nd income generating activity to help the org take steps closer to self sufficiency. Through a "gift card" program donors helped generate the capital required to start the project by sponsoring chicks for $11 each which included funds for the building of the hen house, as well as one chick, and all it's medicine and feed for the first 6 months until it begins to lay eggs. In total, I am most grateful to say, 312 chicks were sponsored! In June 2010, the first 200 day old chicks are being delivered and "peep peep" our "ACIO Poultry Project" will be underway!

AND HERE'S WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON RIGHT NOW WITH ACIO:

1) "From Chicks to Bricks" Program ~ Due to recent flooding at our existing child care center, as noted above in my ACIO UPDATE JUNE 2010,  we are now in the process of coming up with plans for our new center to be built on higher ground in Sironko. After a successful "gift card" program in which donors sponsored baby chicks ( and their housing, care and feed costs until they begin to lay eggs and create an income ) for the new poultry project, I am now turning my focus to raising funds to build the new permanent Child Care Center... out of bricks! In much the same way as the chick program, donors will be able to sponsor "another brick in the wall"... or more likely, several! Fun!

More on the "From Chicks To Bricks" Program very soon!!!

1) A Heifer Milk Cow Project for Caregiver's ~ We're in the process of designing a project to support guardians and caregivers, including Grandmother's of orphaned children, to increase their ability to earn income in order to be able to continue to provide home-based care for the orphaned children living with them.

About the heifer project, Vincent wrote in an email to me, "We had a meeting with caregivers ( pictured here ) and they agreed on the following project. ACIO has about 100 members. They agreed to form clusters of 5 people per group which resulted in 20 groups. They suggested that if they could buy 20 heifer calves, each group of 5 could take 1 calf. One member keeps the cow when it gives birth, he/she takes the calf and pass the mother cow to another member and the cycle continues... "

Vincent also confirmed that each group of 5 members has agreed to raise and contribute 25% as stakeholder contributions toward the purchase of the first heifers, asking for our help with the 75% balance of the purchase price. They will also build the proper pen for the heifer, and plant and grow and store the special grass the heifer will feed on that will help it produce excellent quality milk. Once the heifer program starts, the milk will contribute to better nutrition for the orphans in their care and for themselves, and the caregivers plan to create a milk co-operative in the trading center and sell the excess milk as the number of cattle grows over time! Nutrition, income, sustainable self-sufficiency ... caregivers and orphaned children benefitting ... YEAH!!!

For more on the "Heifer Milk Cow" Program click HERE!!!

HOW TO DONATE TO ACIO

If you would like to make a "General Contribution" to ACIO that will be applied to the top priority on our list for ACIO children at the time it is received, you can do so here. Thanks very much for supporting the children in care with ACIO!

After the transaction fee paypal charges, 100% of funds raised for "ACIO General Contributions" will be applied to projects and programs directly benefitting the orphaned children with ACIO in Sironko, Uganda.

You can view the "Bricks" and "Heifer" programs page here

You can view Messages from Vincent, ACIO's Director here

You can view Vincent's ACIO photo album here