The Chronicles of Uganda Autumn/Winter 2012 – 08.06 #7

Simone’s donation helped to purchase two treadle sewing machines, thread, scissors, tape measures, a big bundle of paper that would act as the girl’s first ‘fabric’ to sew with, and all the fabric that the 10 girls used to complete the project.  You can support Simone by learning more about her novel ‘Shellah-Dreaming’ and purchasing it here.

After learning about sewing straight lines and then curves, the girls moved on to work with very inexpensive fabric (blue floral) and each sewed their first samples of a pad and liner.

Empowerment Summary: After 3 weeks of full time classes, Mon to Fri, beginning each day once the girls had returned from early morning digging in their respective caregiver’s shamba (garden), and going until mid afternoon, the girls all successfully completed sewing at least 3 pads, with several liners per pad, for themselves. All the girls received a certificate for completing the course. Over the time, many, we noticed, also brought clothing from home that needed repair, continuing to practice and learn more about sewing in their spare time.

CCDO Caregiver Families – Sylvia and Juliet

Carrying on from entries found below in this posting.. following Grandmother’s Rose and Elizabeth, the two remaining CCDO caregiver families we worked with this past journey are Juliet, a recently widowed single mother of two, who has taken in four orphaned children, and Sylvia and her partner, who have two children together and have also welcomed two orphaned brothers into their family.

Both families were seen to be in great need of help with regards to their homes. As well, both required assistance with school supplies for the children of school age, beds and bedding for all the children, and start up capital for income generating activities. Very open and in depth discussions took place between CCDO Director Dan, the families, and LITA, particularly addressing the potential reactions of their surrounding community members and extended family members if they were to be helped with construction of

Empowerment Summary: A small, two room home to be made of bricks, with an iron sheet roof and metal doors and windows was designed. It was further amended to include a small room for food storage as both families are subsistence farmers. Materials and labor were estimated at around $3,500 per home. Juliet’s stakeholder contribution was to ferry the materials for the house to her compound, some distance from the road where they were dropped. Sylvia’s stakeholder contribution was aggregates (gravel) that her partner would hammer from rock for the foundation.

Construction went along fabulously, each home being built at the same time.. one part of the process completed on one, then to the other to complete the same work, and so on. Dan, the Director of CCDO, acted as foreman and did a fantastic job keeping the sites on track, keeping great accountability books, and keeping everyone focused on the finish line. In near to 36 or so days, and just prior to my departure for Canada at end March, both homes were completed and everyone, including neighbours, celebrated this tremendously empowering moment in the lives of  both families.

Following construction, each family was supplied with bunk beds for all the children, blankets, mattresses, fitted sheets and mosquito nets. The school aged children in both families were also all supported with school kits (fabric book bags sewn by teens enrolled in our Pads for Girls project.. info about that project will be in the next entry..) filled with scribblers, pens/pencils, and math sets.

With $20 of start up capital LITA donors provided, Juliet expanded her home based business selling paraffin to include tea, sugar, soap, fresh veggies, fruit and other daily needs her neighbours can purchase from her.

Sylvia and her partner started a home based business selling matoke (green plantain type bananas that people make a traditional local dish with) with $20 of start up capital from LITA contributors.

And super exciting to share.. following all this grand empowerment in their lives, Sylvia and her partner were recently married! How beautiful!

Angela’s Visit to Uganda

Early in the new year, Angela Beaumont, a delightful addition to LITA’s board in 2012, saw her two teenagers back to school, finished packing up a couple suitcases filled to the brim with medical supplies, special donations like red ball caps and backpack bags from friends, TJ and Teji Johal owners of Sports Unlimited in Surrey, along with various other requests from me, and climbed aboard the plane(s) that would bring her, some 30+ hours later, half way around the world to Uganda.

Angela writes..

There are many experiences in life that will change you forever and Uganda was one of those. I had the opportunity to visit Uganda and work on our projects there this past January.  Since then, I have been asked what I saw and how I felt while over there.

I saw unnecessary suffering that so many of us can assist with. I was made aware of the healing power of a hug. Whether giving or receiving, expressing Love with a physical embrace is very comforting and healing. For the orphan children to know that they are Loved is so important. It gives them the confidence and the ability to believe that they have a future.

What I learned was that very little can go a long way in other countries. One day we found two children while walking on a trail.  They were obviously ill, so we took them to a see a doctor.  They were tested for malaria and given medicine for a staph infection.  In addition, one of them was given a general anesthetic, his infection drained and dressed for a week – all for only $8.00!  I will never forget that day – the kindness, gratitude, sharing the moment of giving and seeing healing take place on so many levels.

We are all one in Love. If more people here in North America knew of the acute suffering that is happening over there, and how easy and gratifying it is to help and make a difference, I am sure that more people would take advantage of the opportunity!.

I could spend the rest of my days walking those trails. In fact, I know that a large part of my life will be to continue down that path and provide Love, compassion and healing to empower children in need. We can all join together to make a difference.

Attached are a few of my favourite photos. Mostly of the beautiful children with their smiling faces. There is also a look at a homemade soccer ball.

Blessings,
Angela

CCDO Caregiver Families – Grandmother Elizabeth

Further to the last entry below and also based on the information shared previously in ‘Introducing CCDO’, the one the only, very vibrant and wonderfully inspiring Grandmother Eilizabeth needed some help around her home where she raises two of her grandsons. At our first few meetings and in answer to our queries, Elizabeth shared that beds, bedding, clothing and school supplies for the boys were ways she could really use our support for her and the boys. In addition, we noticed that while the traditional mud/stick home they are living in is a good size and in fairly decent condition, it looked like some repairs might be needed, alongside her little list of items.

Empowerment Summary: With generous financial help from donors in Canada, local roofers from the community were hired. As they began to take the old rusted and leaking iron sheets down it was soon realized that all the timbers making up the roof trusses were rotting and also needed to be replaced. Perfect timing, the roofers tore off all the timber, replaced it with new, and covered Grandmother’s roof with 24 shiny new corrugated iron sheets and caps, all in a day! Much to her complete joy, new wooden doors and window shutters were built locally and put on some days later and Grandmother’s very happy stakeholder contribution was the promise to re-mud the entire exterior of her home to seal it freshly once again and have it look “very smart”! We’re all invited to return for a party at Elizabeth’s further on in the year after the mudding has been completed! Without a doubt, how happy we will be to be there!

On one of my last visits with Grandmother Elizabeth before I returned to Canada this time, there was a moment when, in all her gratitude and joy, she knelt in front of me taking my hands in hers. She stopped her usual joyful bantering and looked seriously into my eyes to say, “I have buried nine of my ten children and the last boy is sick from alcohol. But now, because of all this Love being shown to me, I feel like my life has begun again”. And then we hugged, and she gave me the precious gift of four fresh eggs. I wished that I could share those eggs with the generous contributors back in Canada.. pure treasures, indeed

CCDO Caregiver Families – Grandmother Rose

In October of 2012 I posted an update titled “Introducing CCDO”. Please click here if you’d like to read it for more information about the foundation of LITA’s relationship with this community based organization that is caring for orphaned children in Buyobo, Uganda.

With dedicated financial support from of a group of donors in Canada, we began our Lovework with CCDO by addressing the needs of their four caregiver families who are supporting 17 orphaned children between them with home based care.

Empowerment Summary: Along with Rose’s personal stakeholder contribution of two roosters, we were able to facilitate the purchase of 20 hens for her poultry project. Four bunk beds were built for her by the local carpenter, eight foam mattresses were purchased and transported from Mbale along with sheets, blankets and mosquito nets. All the school aged children were provided with ‘school kits’ that included scribblers, pens/pencils, a math set and sharpener inside a zippered book bag. We also provided Rose with a solar lamp system that has the capability to charge cell phones. Another great way to

YOU – Youth Of Uganda

While we support the local economy in Uganda as much as possible and purchase the vast majority of supplies for our projects within the country, even the community, where we are working, contributors often want to donate awesome things for the children that may not be available locally. At my departure from Canada in late September, I was pretty loaded with stuff to bring as a result of people’s kindness. Angela, one of our sister board members at LITA took this pic outside Vancouver Airport as she helped me haul all the stuff from White Rock to the

“Youth Of Uganda’s vision is to see a generation of youth who are healthy, empowered, visionary and working together to see a better Uganda.

Youth of Uganda was founded on the following main objectives;
To prevent the spread of HIV infection among the young population of Uganda.
To provide youth friendly services and support for those young people already infected with HIV/AIDS.
To provide youth friendly education about all issues related to reproductive health.
To encourage and facilitate leadership development among youth.
To establish a foundation for peer-to-peer

To partner with other organizations and institutions in order to provide more complete support to youth.
To encourage youth to use their own voice and discover the importance of self-advocacy.
To provide a space in which youth of the community gather comfortably and have access to the services provided by the organization.
To enable youth to develop their potential through education and vocational skill building and other activities.”

LITA is happy and grateful to share Love and empowerment with YOU!

The Chronicles of Uganda Autumn/Winter 2012

Love Love to You.

LITA’s most recent journey to Africa saw me in Uganda from late September 2012 until returning to Canada almost six months to the day later, in March 2013. While lots of focus during that time was on the building of dorms, a library, and an office at ACIO Child Care Centre for orphaned children in Mutufu, and the project took us over four months to complete, there were a great many other amazing connections of Love and empowerment with orphaned children, and their caregivers, that also took place during that time. (Click here for Part One, Two and Three  photo essays on the building of the dorms mentioned above..)