Youth Resource Center Launch.

Last Wednesday, we launched our NGO Forum YRC aka 'The Garage'. It is one of the lasting schemes that as volunteers, through funding from Restless have been charged with implementing in our CSOs. We were quite lucky that the garage within the compound of our offices was given to us to turn into a YRC for the youth in the local area. We hope that it will be a lasting centre that the youth can use on a daily basis to access information in fields such as SRH, Civic Participation, Livelihoods and Sports. We have sourced material from all around the area so it is stocked to the brim ready to be used. The event itself was successful and the youths seemed really enthusiastic for the centre to be opened. We just hope that it will have a lasting effect. We painted it blue last weekend so hopefully from the pictures you can see it looks swish!

This is me and Trevor. I was on the registration desk and wandered in to help. I think he  just wanted the sweets we were handing out!

Before we opened the YRC officially, we held a talk about what it offers, why we are opening it and how it can be accessed.

One lucky youth was tasked with officially cutting the ribbon to the entrance.

This is the youth accessing different information on a range issues.

We had an opening banner which we asked everyone to sign their names on. It's now hung up in the YRC.

This was all the participants and staff at the event.

Ps. The beard has gone!

In the field...

 The work keeps on flowing in! This week we have held three launch events so far, one which I finally have pictures for! The launches are for a new 2 year programme that the organisation I am working for are starting to implement. Funded by the Independant Development Fund the project aims to teach and empower people to 'Respect the rights of the woman and the child'. These launch events have been held in the 3 sub-counties that we are working in. They are basically a meeting of all the local stakeholders to discuss what we are doing and how we can work together to implement this programme. At the end of the launch, we hand out t-shirts to the stakeholders and provide them with lunch. From here we will hold various events, such as theatre productions on human rights, human rights clubs in schools, empowerment meetings; all carrying this messafe of respecting human rights. Here are some pictures from the latest launch.

Nawaningi is the last sub-county that we held a launch in.

This is where we held the launch. Outside the front of the offices with local councillors, opinion leaders and headteachers.

These are the t-shirts that we give out. Some are grey others blue and carry either the english or lusoga translation.

This is Chris the programme co-ordinator handing out the t-shirts.

These are all the stakeholders at the end for a group picture!

This was in the local village where the launch was held. It is a borehole where locals come to fill up their gerry cans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sports morning!

So I am writing this post chilling out after an exhausting (in a good way) sports morning. I am relaxing in Sol Cafe a muzungu hotspot. I have another event to run at 4pm today in a school where we are delivering a talk on Sexual Reproductive Health and then facilitating an afternoon of volleyball and netball. This morning's sports event was for the out of school youths. Tom and I played in a team made up of volunteers and youths against the local football team. Unfortunately we lost 2-0 but the worst part of it is the heat. Trying to play football for an hour with little water in 30 degrees heat is hard. I don't know ho anyone was still running about afterwards. After the sports event we kept all the youths and football teams  together so that we could run a session that included condom demonstrations and sti teaching. Overall it was a success. Here are some pictures from it.

This is the local football team that we played against. Boys have got skillz.

This is Tom and I at half time. Taking in our glucose ready for the second half. Look at that beard!

Action shot of the football pitch. I was put on the right wing because of my searing pace and silky skillz.

This is after the football match as the SRH lesson begins. Flyers were handed out and groups were formed to run through the session.

This is Sarah facilitating the SRH session. She is demonstrating how to put on a male condom to local youths.

This is Flavia and Brett talking to the football team about SRH, Great picture as it shows the Restless t-shirt at work!

Busy busy week so far...

It's only Wednesday but it's been a busy week already. The proposals that we have made to Restless Development for funding of a couple of events have been successful so over the last few days we have been buying the necessary resources to enable us to properly facilitate these events. Yesterday afternoon we held the first of these, a civic participation event for the Youth Council which was a resounding success. Chris, the Programme Officer at NGO Forum gave a speech to them about why their Local Government Act is and isn't working. Following on from that Tom and I gave a speech about British politics; how government is formed, what happened in the 2010 election and the processes we have to keep Parliament in check. Afterwards we held a question and answer session and gave out soda to the participants. One thing that is coming apparent is the notion of 'African time'. You need to always set the time of an event to start at least an hour before it actually does because people seem to inevitably always turn up an hour after the allotted start time. Any who here are some pictures from the last week or so.

This is how they buy and sell meat in Uganda. Pretty fresh.

This is the market in Iganga. If we go and buy vegetables and fruit in the market  then the prices get doubled  because of the colour of the skin.

This is a lady making Samosas.

This is Sylvia, a national, holding a huge japfruit. They are a really sweet fruit. 

These are the little kids who live near our compound. They all posed for about 5  mind whilst I tried to sort out my camera. Deadly still.

This is the tarpaulin in the back garden of our office. It will be a space where the youths who use our YRC can come and chill out and play games.

This was lunch yesterday. Rice, cabbage and goats meat. Need I say more.

This is a pamphlet we made for 'The Garage' which is our YRC that we handed out to the youth council. This is also the flyer for the Sports event on Friday that we are having. UDHA designed the flyer. 

Tom and I in the midst of our presentation on British politics to the youth. The one hard part is the language barrier so you have to be precise and clear in what you say.

These are the youths at our Civic Participation event we held yesterday.

These our Tom and I's presentation flip papers that we used to explain British politics.

It was Valentines day last night so as a compound we all did a Secret Valentines  present. Draw a name out of a hat and spend 2500 Ugandan shillings on a present.

This was the love tree where we left the presents. Brett (left) clearly excited!

The good and the bad

When I woke up this morning I had a text from my boy Picnic back home saying that Whitney Houston had died. There were some people who were upset and others shocked. Bad times.

Our friends whose placements are in Kamuli and Kayunga have been here this weekend to visit. So we showed them what Iganga has to offer, which was fun. The beer out here is Nile Special lager. All i'm going to say is that it is strong! This is the first weekend that I have spent in Iganga so far, the other two have been in Jinja. This place is seriously wicked. I want to try and describe it but I don't know how. When we came out of our compund today to walk to town there were lots and lots of people standing on the sides of the streets. There was a bike race going on, it was like the Tour de France with the peleton and the sragglers at the back being cheered on.

This coming week should be busy with our two different events and also the painting of our Youth Resource Center. I will be taking pictures for sure and I will upload them so all can see.

RIP Whitney.
x

Settling into life in Iganga

So Jinja at the weekend was pretty sweet. Was nice to catch up with friends, have a beer and watch Manchester United turn around a seemingly impossible situation and draw with Chelsea. Made me proud to be a Londoner. I'm back home in Iganga now and work is starting to gather pace. We have organised to hold a forum with the local MP so that he can address our local youth council on their democratic rights. Tom and I will also be giving a presentation on the British political system which should be interesting. Then on Friday 17th of February we will be holding a sports day in a local school. It will be a combination of playing netball, volleyball and football alongside sensitizing the youth about Sexual Reproductive Health.We are giving a speech and lesson in front of 300-400 kids so should be fun. Thought I would add some pictures up (none of Jinja yet as I didn't take the camera out unfortunately) .

Lunch for the last couple of days at Masala Cafe. Pretty cheap for scrumptious food. Was going to take a picture of what I had but it was too good and I forgot... 

It had been too long without toast....

Scrambled eggs and ketchup. Nothing else one can ask for more in the morning than.

We had a party last Friday night at the grand opening of Club Neanderthal (our living room). We did it with no power, so just torches and small portable speakers. Was sweet. 

Been eating so many Chapatis out here that we thought we should attempt to make some. Yeah we did and they were tasty!

Sarah, Flavia and Wanji. Sarah and Wanji work near us so we walk with them to work sometimes.

This is a flower shop at its earliest stages. I walk past it each morning. Beautiful.

This sums up Uganda for me. Kids collecting water from the well whilst cows are grazing besides them.

This is Iganga centre. These are the boda bodas that people get transported around on. We don't use them in Iganga as they are too dangerous with all the half built roads.

Spending the weekend in Jinja.

So today I have moved from Iganga to Jinja. It's about an hours journey on the bus. Some of the other volunteers in the project are based here so I thought I would come and see how they are doing and have a nice catch up with a cold Nile special lager. Jinja is totally different to Iganga, it is full of vegetation and a bit more modern. There are lots of bars here which show the football especially the 3pm kick off games that aren't on television in England. The streets are big and empty to the north of the city, which is where I am based for today and tomorrow which means the best method of transport is Boda-bodas. They are motorcycles and for 1000 shillings (30p) they will transport you around. They are really fun to just ride around town on.

I am going to attempt to watch the Superbowl on Sunday evening although because of time differences it doesn't start till 4am! I will try though. I will post on Monday more about my placement and put some more pictures up for y'all to see.

Aram.

More pictures!

 So I thought I would add some pictures so that people can see what I have been up to for the last two weeks. These pictures are from when I moved to Iganga up until now.

This is the t-shirts that we got given to wear to work. They said its very relaxed dress code but they are good for going into the field when representing the CSO. People think we look like holiday reps or chicken shop workers. I

This was moving in day. These are the apertments where we are staying and as you can see we are in the process of moving furniture and matresses into them.

This is where we do our cooking near the entrance to the compound. There are some national and international volunteers here.

This is how we cook. On a charcoal stove with a couple of pans. Its basic but it does produce yummy food.

This is me and Flavia at work in the office of our CSO. I'm at work and she is reading a newspaper!

This is an amazing restaurant near our office. It does rice and goat for aroun 75p. I just love the simplicity of it. No fancy dining here.

This is what the town of Iganga looks like. Very little vegetation and very dusty. All along the sides of the road is shops and stools.

This is Theo (left) and Tom (right) during cooking. Good guys.

This is the first meal that me and Tom cooked. You can see inside our living room. I got mash in my hand. We cooked, mash, rice and a side of cabbage and onions. Mmmmm.

Muzungu..

One of the few words that I have picked up from the local language is MUZUNGU. It means white person. Everywhere I go at the moment there are excited kids screaming Muzungu at me, jumping up and down in excitement. Even when I have left them and am on my way I can hear the distant screams of 'Muzungu Bye'.

I thought I would make sure I shared that because it is really funny. I don't know how long it will remain being funny before it starts to grate but for the moment I am enjoying it. I have now moved to my permanent home for the next 2 months in Iganga, Eastern Uganda. It is so much hotter here then where I was before (In between Jinja and Kampala) and I think that it is down to a lack of vegetation. There is no green but just the orange dust from the roads covering everything. It is a gateway town therefore it is built on to the main road that runs from Kenya to Kampala. Everything stretches out from that. I have taken some pictures so will upload them of the area when I get a chance.

I started work on Monday for my CSO known as Inganga District NGO Forum. We are the hub for all the CSOs in the district and organise meetings and networking events between them all once a month. It is a very well run and organised organisation. The work that I will be doing is very varied. It ranges from training new community leaders to become the spokesperson of their community to running human rights sessions in schools.A big focus of theirs which I enjoy is the civic participation angle. They are advocates for democracy so a lot of the work we will be undertaking in the community will be to encourage people to understand their rights and take part in democracy. On top of this we might attend a conference at a higher level where all the districts across Uganda come together to discuss important issues.

I will try to get back on before the end of the week but I don't know how easy it will be. If I can I will upload pictures of Iganga and my new workplace.

This is the website if you want to read more about my CSO:
http://www.dnetiganga.org/about_us_iganga_district_forum.htm

Chow, Muzungu out