Je Suis un Réfugié.

This past weekend I experienced one of the most influential moments in my life. Ever since the end of my Sophomore year at USF I was interested in doing Refugee studies. I explored different opportunities I could have after I graduate working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, etc...(of course all dream jobs). Recently in the news, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has reached the border of Uganda (North-East Congo, South-West Uganda). People have been crossing the border into a Refugee Camp set up by UNHCR but run by Red Cross. This past weekend I went to the Refugee Camp. It surpassed all expectations I had and actually left me bewildered. I intended for the people to be sad about their refugee status, upset they left home, and overall angry at the circumstance. On the contrary, they were hopeful, happy, and very willing to speak with me. Yes, they were sad they left their homes and jobs, but they were so grateful to have a safe place to live. None of them desired to return home until the fighting was completely over. There are a few exceptions with one boy we spoke to who was alone in the camp. He woke up in the middle of the night at his house to find that his parents had left him. The next morning he walked to the Refugee Camp to see if his parents had gone there (from the DRC border, it is a 25 km walk to the camp). He has not found them yet and decided to return back to the DRC to search for them. He rather risk his life to find family than to stay in a safe place. The people I met were truly remarkable and I will never forget what I saw and experienced that day. I really want to go back to the camp this coming weekend. This is the first time that I felt I really don’t want to go home and wish I could stay at least one more week!! In the end, we didn’t have a lot of money to buy thank you gifts for touring us around but we did manage to buy 3 soccer balls and 4 cases of water. Hopefully I can go back....

A row of tents in the Refugee Camp.

The men mixing the breakfast of porridge fortified with soya.

The people are given two meals a day. Once at 10 which consists of porridge that is fortified with soya. The second is around 5/6 and is a plate of rice and peas or rice and beans (whatever they have left in storage). 

This child is malnourished and has been given Plumpy Nut to regain his weight.

The view from outside the camp.

This is the medical tent where the doctors test for malnutrition and other infections or diseases. If a child is malnourished, they are given two packets of Plumpy Nut. Plumpy Nut is full of carbs, calories, and nutrients that is supposed to jump start a person back to normal weight. 

Food that was just dropped off by UNHCR (they gave rice) and USAID (they gave peas). The six large piles to the left are from UNHCR and the small three piles to the right are from USAID.

The Transit Center that the Ugandan Government donated to UNHCR to hold a Refugee Camp.

Right now they have water but they are expected to have a shortage soon. This is how all the little kids were drinking before they filled up their canteens. 

This is the border where it takes 25 km from here to the camp.

Lily and I in front of one of the tents. Each tent is split in half and holds two families. 

Construction Starts Tomorrow!!

Here are the Students that started the AIDS Challenge Youth Club! I have been working with all of them and will spend this whole week building the water tank and working in the garden!

The entrance into St. Charles Lwanga Butende Technical Institute! 

The Club's sign as soon as you enter the school.

The University donated four spaces in their large pig pen for the pigs to live.

Inside the pig pen.

This is where the four pigs will live that you all helped to buy! 

These are all the seedlings that the club has been growing but will transplant to their garden. It has maize, multiple types of eggplants, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, and I believe one more thing....hmm

This is the building that we are attaching the gutters to catch the rain and carry down a pipe into the underground water tank. We have to add wood side boards to nail the gutters to. 

 This is where we will dig the hole and build the tank. It will be 12x9 feet and 4 feet deep. 

Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the garden yet because I didn't think I would have enough funding to help them.....but thanks to all of you, I DO! Let me tell you, it looks like a pig heap of dirt with trash surrounding it. The soil is not even close to being able to support their seedlings and they really need tools to cultivate the land. I will update you all with a picture soon!


I will be at the school all week helping them start all the projects! I am so excited to see it all come together finally!! Thank you all soooo much again and I will do after pictures. 

Thank You----Weebale!

Weebale, Weebele Nnyo! (Thank you, Thank you Very Much!)

I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated money towards my project! Thanks to all your love and support, I have raised $450!! I am truly amazed by all your generosity and cannot express how much it means to me. I am able to assist the community in more ways than I had originally planned. We will probably be able to build a larger water tank and add more gutters to the sides of the houses to increase the amount of water. In addition, there are about 20+ members in the Aids Youth Challenge Club and they would take turns using their makeshift gardening tools. With this money, you have allowed them to maximize their time in the garden and be able to produce faster and better crops. AND do not forget about the pigs! We originally were going to do 1 male and 2 females but now we can do 2 males. With the addition of more males, it allows for more of the females to become pregnant (by creating two separate families it allows for them to crossbreed). Not only are pigs a great source of income but they also produce fertilizer for the garden. We will also be buying piglets that are a little more expensive because you purchase them and vaccinate them right away so you know they will not get sick. When you buy an older pig, you risk them carrying illnesses or diseases. 

I also want to thank those who have helped me in so many other ways as well. I have only been given words of encouragement and support. They truly help and are appreciated. It does get hard sometimes when you just want to be back home where there are all the comforts your are accustomed to. But everyday, something always happens, when I have this ‘It is all worth it because of...’ moment. Thank you all soo much again! I am sending my love from Masaka!

Here is the link again for more donations, I need only $75 more for this project but all money helps and will just spill over to help me do another project. Each intern only needs to do one, but if you can do more, that is great! 

Here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2PNXHTRVL6WAL

I will upload pictures today!!

HELP!?

Hello Everyone! Sorry I have been M.I.A.- Blog Fail!

          This post is particularly important today because it is the reason I am in Masaka and what I have been doing this summer. Part of my program is to develop a sustainable project with a community or village that I have been working with. Working at The Aids Support Organization (TASO), there are many communities that seek the assistance and support from the people working here to help create an income generating project or to be supported on a solution for a problem they have been facing. I was introduced to a group of University students whose parents are HIV positive but TASO has funded them with school fees. They told me that they created a club on campus (The Aids Challenge Youth Club) to sensitize their community about HIV/AIDS and also to grow crops to sell and donate that money to struggling families affected by HIV/AIDS. They saw how TASO helped them go through school and they want to give back. They told me the biggest problem they are facing would be access to water. They have to walk 45 minutes, one way, to grab water and then do the same walk back. I am working with them to build a water harvesting tank that catches rain water and preserves it underground. I have almost enough to pay for one water harvesting tank, but they also lack garden tools (they use makeshift items), fertilizer for their soil, and another way to generate money if the crops fail. So with that said, I want to help them get all of the necessary items to make sure that their club is working to the best of its ability. The best way to solve most of those problems would be to create a piggery for them where they provide a source of income as well as a means to gain fertilizer. That is why I require your assistance at this point in my internship. I have started a fundraising campaign to see if I can help the club fulfill all the goals they have setup and reach out to the most families affected and infected. In addition, if I get enough funding, I can build another water harvesting tank for an individual family living with HIV/AIDS. 

I really hate doing this to you in the middle of summer, especially when vacations are starting as well as preparations for back to school shopping. Just $5 would make a huge difference, and that is about the price of a Starbucks cup of coffee, a large iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, a tip for the pizza delivery guy, an after dinner dessert, one beer at the bar (lets be honest, how many do you REALLY need?), you get the point. In Masaka, a pig costs $20, to build the water harvesting tank would cost $180, to provide 15 people with all the gardening tools would cost $40-50. Any amount helps me reach the goal that I am setting for myself. I told them I would build the tank with them but I would love to surprise them with more items, it would really make such a huge difference. If anyone needs a budget sheet to show all the costs and expenses, I am willing to provide that. Unfortunately the only way to make your donation tax deductible is if you write a check and mail it to me in Masaka (which might get expensive), but if that is what you want to do, I am willing to provide an address as well. If you can make a donation, please use the paypal that I have set up. If you are unable to make a donation, I am still grateful that you took time to read about what I am doing here. Thank you so much and feel free to forward this to anyone that you think could help. I hope you are having a great summer!

The Link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2PNXHTRVL6WAL

Thank you all and I love you all soo much! Only 24 days left here in Masaka!

Uganda Empowers

Over the past week I met a Ugandan counselor named John Bosco. I told him all about my research and he invited me to join him in his village to see what he was doing in regard to HIV/AIDS. He started an organization called Uganda Empowers (http://www.ugandaempowers.org/) but it is still at its starting point. He invited me to show me how he educates his members about HIV/AIDS, but there was also a hidden agenda. Like most situations you can find yourself in as an outsider, you are seen as money and therefore a benefactor. I live my life in a way that you cannot give someone a one time donation, it will soon run out. You have to build something that creates an income (a sustainable income generating project, if you will). So I told him that I would not be making a donation but I will help with research and resources to work with the community to create a sustainable source of income. It is very important to end the perpetual cycle of aid dependency. With all that aside, I had an amazing time and enjoyed the company of a new friend. 

 John invited me to his Mother's home and these are four of the five orphans that she takes care of because their parents died of HIV/AIDS.

 Reading a lecture at Uganda Empowers while the girl, Peace, translated.

 The counselors and expert clients who helped start Uganda Empowers. They are all HIV positive and have been living with HIV for over 15 years.

 This is the Uganda Empowers Music Group who sang a song about the importance of knowing your status before it is too late.

 This was after a boy proposed to me and everyone wanted to know why I was not married already. I actually get that question way too much!

Pictures!

 Front Row at the Uganda Cranes Football game vs. Senegal. They tied 1-1 from a penalty shot. We got there at 11 to get good seats, first come first serve, so we were surrounded by crazy fans!

 Horse riding on the Nile! So Beautiful.

 With the other interns about to walk in the stadium, Nelson Mandela National Stadium.

At the end of our horse ride!

My Final Project Idea

Ok, so I am here to not only create a sustainable development project for a specific community that works with TASO but I am also doing research on HIV/AIDS education methods and determining which one seems to be the most effective. I have met with a woman here named Agnes who is the director of outreach. She gave me the name of 36 schools that TASO works with and their contact information. So what I am going to do is pick 5 primary schools (7th and 8th grade) and 5 secondary schools (high school) and conduct my research there. I will use one school per each method of teaching about HIV/AIDS. The methods are drama/acting, singing/dancing/songs, lecturing with a Q&A after, pictures and art, or peer groups driven by questions of the students. I will give surveys prior to beginning my program and then immediately after. I want to know what they know before and what they retained immediately after. I will then return to the schools in 3 or 4 weeks and give the same questions again. I want to determine which way was most effective for long term retention and if it differs between age groups and school levels. I may find that a combination of all of them would be most effective but it is not efficient for an organization to put all their resources for just one school at a time-not very sustainable and very expensive for them. I have yet to determine my sustainability project but I am hoping that while conducting my research, I will think of an educational method that TASO could use to help the schools with HIV/AIDS education. 

With all that said, I have had issues with this. I wish I could think of a way to educate children that can’t afford to go to school. There is just no way I can reach all the children that stay at home. Another intern told me that I can’t do everything and have to be happy with what I can accomplish. It is very true and I must tell myself that over and over again. I am very excited and I hope that everything goes to plan but I am sure there will be some adjustments with cultural sensitivity and age sensitivity. I will let everyone know how it goes, wish me luck. Anyone have any suggestions as well, I’m very open to ideas and critiques.