Northern Uganda Women and Children Initiatives

Last week I visited yet another very interesting organization here in Kampala.It has a coordination office in Kampala, but most of its activities are in Kitgum. I met Beatrice Aciro at her small office in Kitintale after she emailed me and I contacted her through the phone.Beatrice is the Director of Northern Uganda Women and Children Initiative(NUWECHI)



Beatrice at her Office in kampala

Here in Kampala they have Women of Kireka as one of their activities for income generating. These women are involved in crafts and are planning to start a tailoring workshop as you can see here.www.nuwechi.wordpress.com .This will help them create jobs for themselves and thus help them with the many orphans that they are looking after, and also the girls who did not have the opportunity of attending formal education who then will have the chance to get trained and therefore reducing the rate of immorality that has developed here because of no proper education leading to lack of proper employment and most of these young people get involved in very early relationships due to being idle.A campaign has been put up for this project here;http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/the-women-of-kireka

Meanwhile in kitgum they really have a lot of good things happening, though I am yet to visit this Kitgum program. But according to the reports that I have seen, there is a lot that has taken place there already. They have been sensitizing people in many parts of the district on HIV/AIDS and they alsohave a few income generating activities, Like chicken rearing and piggery. They have given out mosquito nets to the most vulnerable children in the district. More about them can be found here:http://nuwechi.wordpress.co/nuwechi/

I am planning to visit their project in Kitgum next week and will come back with more informations and pictures about them then.meanwhile you can join them in their campaign at the above address.

Rock of Ages center for Hope

Rock of Ages is runned by Lucy Lamunu , for now at her house on Kireka Hill where I visited . A young lady in her early thirties , Lucy is really so caring and kind. She does not have children of her own , but you would think the children around her are really her very own.they keep cuddling her and calling her mummy all the time.

I met Lucy way back in 2007 first on line at Razoo and made friends there and when we were trying to look for an Accountant for the organization, she was one of the applicants. Then we physically met on the interview day where she was the one who was selected. She never took up the job due to some other obligations. But we never lost contact. She even visited me physically at home.

All this time she was working on her project of a children's center (village).She began with about five children living in her house , she sends them to school using her personal funds and now she has registered and has about eight children whom she is thinking of relocating to a permanent place ,possibly in the North with ample space for building a dormitory , possibly a nursery for the younger ones, and somewhere where she can grow some food for the children so that the food problem is partially solved and bringing in more children possibly 20 which is her target for now. Lucy is really so loving to her children.



Lucy joined the children at a school day

Looking at how she has handled this project with very little assistance apart from those that she gets from founder members, she has done a lot and I am sure she can get further if she resettles in a more spacious area where she can grow their own food.Children lovers like me have a chance of giving a hand here because it's really doing a lot for these children who would have otherwise been maybe street kids. I know many more children can benefit from this if we all join hands for it's expansion.

Pikitup( Pito Kic Tek)

I have talked a lot before about our transitions and the offsprings that came out of the communities that we had before. In Kamapla the CBO reorganized as LIA Kireka who have been doing a lot in restructuring themselves and writing new plans for the year 2009, you can see what plans they have here. http://ndeloswwworld.blogspot.com/

The main group that am talking about here is our offspring in Gulu called the Pito kic Tek . An Acholi word meaning "It's really hard to bring up orphans".The last time I visited them, the group in Gulu were trying to get back on track after all the disorganization we had in the middle of last year, that caused the closure of the office we had been helping to rent for them. They were in the process of getting a new operational office at that time they were still working from Lucy's place. Lucy is the secretary to the organization. I had verified them , but could not write anything about them because they had nowhere they were working from, but this week I got a call from them that they already have an office and work had began seriously on planning for the future. I feel I need to give them some attention given their previous relationship with us. I will visit them next week to confirm everything.


Lucy and one of the members at her home

I had also said before that I picked their papers last time I visited them and was reading through and so far from what I read, they are still in line with what we are trying to do and their plans if implemented well, will help them bring change to these many orphans whom they are looking after. They hope to develop small Income Generating Activities to help them with fees for the children, they would also like to reactivate the children programs that was very popular and was helping rehabilitate these traumatized children, they too will continue producing crafts to help them get self-sustained , they hope is that they will get markets for these items that they will be producing.In a bid to try and get these things known, they are putting up a gallery at the office area.All these sound great!

They have asked David who was one of the children program assistant to help them administer their activities since most of them do not know how to read and write and David is a teacher by profession am sure he will be of great help to them. For now he will be working on voluntary basis until they find ways of paying him a salary.I also had time with him at Lucy's place, and he sounds very willing to help these ladies. he will be the one doing all the reporting from that end.


David sitting near Lucy's hut

I am very hopeful that with the fewer and determined members ,things will work out better for them this time .We shall be very grateful to get advices and any form of assistance from all our supporters, to help them move forward.

Child Aid Uganda

Last week I visited Lyantonde , about 200 kms away from Kampala on Mbarara road.I traveled in a Mbarara bound bus.I had initially underestimated the journey.I thought it was just some few miles after Masaka, but the journey turned out to be a very long one.After Masaka, I kept peeping through the window for fear of passing my destination, since It was my second time traveling along that road and was hard to locate places on the way.I got a bit uncertain and had to talk to the driver because I was sitting right behind him and he told me we were still very far away , and now that he had known that I was getting out at Lyantonde,he was just going to stop when we were there. as i said before , with my underestimation, I thought it was something like two hours ,but it ended up being 4 hours.



I reached the town at around 4pm and was picked up by Lauben , the project coordinator on his motor cycle.it was just some three minutes from the town center.The place was well organized and from my look, they might have prepared to receive me , because I had communicated a day or two before that I would be visiting.There was the Chaiperson, the coordinator , the accountant and one other staff, and I was told a few other staffs were in the field.



Lauben gave a very long detailed presentation of what they were doing and which areas at the end , a copy was given to me to come back with. Looking at the setup and the organizational approach , I got convinced at once that they truly were working so hard and have done a lot already.

Amasiko

Back in December , for the second time in my life, I visited Kabale the home to Amasiko one of our network team.The first time I went Southwards was when I was still very young . It was sports that took me ,we travelled at night and so we did not have the time to move so much, this denied me the opportunity to see the beauty of this area.My God there are places that God has really been so artistic.The landscape is just breath taking!


The beautiful landscape

We went in Christina's car and left very early to catch up with the people who were going to the site of the meeting which is about 30 km away from the town at the shores of lake Bunyonyi, said to be the deepest lake in Africa. We left Kampala at around 5.30 am and reached at around 1.30 pm at Kabale town and left for Hamukaaka village ( our destination) at around 4 pm. We spent some time pitching our tents are generally settling down.
That evening , Wilfried and the 4 facilitators went around the village reminding people of the next morning's meeting which was scheduled to beginn at 8 am. While Christina and I remained behind chating.

The following morning ,it took a little while for the meeting to begin, it does not seem very suprising according to African standard time. The meeting started at around 10 am . It all looked very unique the atmosphere was very calm with the lake breeze all around the place.



The youth group


Though there seemed to be a few people at the beginning, when the drum was sounded, many responded and in a few minutes the place was really full.

It was the Appreciacive Inquiry, quite a new term to me and many others.They all got into different groups , the youths, the women and men. All were discussing the good things that has happened to them or rather what they appreciate in themselves and how they can use it to make things better.This unique way of handling things gave them the opportunty to discover what they can do by themselves and drove them away from the traditional way of thinking that they should always be expecting something from somewhere I truly feel that this is very much in line with what we are trying to help people do.it's a good idea to lead people into thinking that there are resources just besides them and with proper planning can be utilized to bring developement,without donations from abroad.



At the major meeting place

At the end of it all, a lot was decided . A school was to be built, a chicken house to be erected,the growing of potatoes to be started and the roads done. And from the report that I got from them later, a school will open in one of the churces and they will use materials that can be locally found to begin erecting the chicken house. This is a lot of accomplishement. I know that with a little help here and there, these people will be able to do a lot towards their developement.They just need a bit of support to help them get onto their feet.More about what has taken place at Hamukaaka village meeting can be found here as reported by Wilfried , the man behind all these :http://amasiko.blogspot.com/

I will get back with photos later, the network here is not so good and I cant upload anything.

Bye- bye 2008

It all went very fast and now it's 2009. For me it was all a jumble of things , I had initially planned to travel to the village for Xmas, but was not feeling very well that week.The week before that , I had visited Amasiko people in kabale and had some great fun there. I had Xmas in Kampala with part of the family while some of the elder children where already in the village.This time while I was resting, I also took sometime doing paper beads with the big girls who have made it part of what they do when they are at home for holidays.



I then travelled to Kitgum for New years day. It was fun though I still wasn't feeling very well. I visited a few relatives who are still living in the camps , some 20 kms away from town towards the Sudan border, it was abit quiet this time though in early December everybody thought that the rebels were trecking their way towards Acholiland again after failing to sign the Peace Agreement in the DRC. We really all dread that day when they will enter into Uganda again.

Well it's time for work again, new year with new beginnings. We shall very soon begin our very new program for the We Network members who will have been visited and verified.So keep watching out for details here and on our discussion board on ned here:http://www.ned.com/group/lia-global/ and also at our transformed website: http://www.lifeinafrica.com/ where we shall from time to time be updating what's new on this particular program.
Till then, Prosperous 2009 to all!

A Totally Different Initiative

Canon Dwe Girls School

It has taken me a bit of time to think of what to write first of the many organizations that I have been visiting. But I have discovered that I needed to sort out in terms of the innovative ideas that each one of them have.

This time in Gulu still, I met a group of people who are setting up a community girls school, this I felt was really very good for the community. The rate of girls education in the north has really been very low and traditionally anyway Acholi girls were not supposed to go to school, so the war was just a catalyst to this idea. So many have been sent off to rich relatives in towns and the city as maids or baby sitters for that matter and had no chance at all to go to school, because they sometimes take them from even as early as seven years . So when I see people coming up with such ideas, I feel that they really need our support in any way possible.

The idea of this school is to help promote quality girl child education in the north and the surrounding districts , since it will be a boarding school. It's supposed of be one of the top private schools in the district with very well selected teaching staff and serving children from very poor backgrounds who are not able to go to good schools because they cannot afford it and a few able ones who would pay some fee to help sustain the project. I will have to work more closely with these group of people to learn more about the program. I have had a long talk with the director Mr. Opira -Otto and the secretary Mrs. Gladys Oyat who is a headmistress at a government aided school in Kitgum and they really have great plans. They are in the process of purchasing land right now, close to Koro camp for the school premises.

I felt that this kind of project is long overdue and if put into practice will really help the north as a way of resettling them into normal life again since they are trying to go back home now from the camps, and more especially a good beginning for the girls in Acholiland. I would love to see that these people see their dreams come true through our collective efforts.

Note: Canon Dwe was one of the famous Anglican Church leaders from Kitgum. He is remembered for his great contribution towards the Church development.

The Unplanned Safari

How nice it is to go home again!

It has really been a very long time since I visited Gulu on official programs. I have traveled about two times after the closure of our center there, but on private matters. It was also the same this time, though it later turned out to be the most interesting visit this year.

During the time I have been working there- the past three years or so, I developed serious friendship with very many of the people who were involved with us in one way or the other. So this time I felt so lonely not having these people around me and decided I needed to get in touch with them and guess what! this turned out to be the most interesting trips I have ever made since we closed the center.

I first gave a call to one of the officials of our members who have regrouped under a new name.This I will talk about later , because they are our true offspring and I know each one of them by name.

The most interesting group that I visited were the Koro people . I started with these people about three years ago as Invisible Children Bracelet makers. Here I had developed very good friends and whenever I meet them in town, they would always wonder why I do not visit them and yet it was me who brought "All these to us". So I decided I needed to call one of them and see what they were up to, he instantly said "Please come and have lunch with us". So I took a "boda boda"to their place about 6 kms away from town towards Kampala.

The "Akwo Ki Lweta Group"


The members getting ready for their weekly meeting.

These people are very organized, after our lunch at the chairperson's house, I was taken by the husband who is now the Executive director of the Akwo Ki Lweta Group (literally " it's my hands that I survive on") to their " office" , his unfinished building . I have really liked the name they have chosen because it shows that they are really focused on doing things by themselves and not so much looking at foreign assistance which really is a very healthy move and very much in line with our vision.

A lady paying back her loan

That day was a day for collecting money and paying back loans. They have grouped themselves and registered as a CBO and every week they would all put together some amount of money , which they later use as loan capital to be given to the most needy applicant among the members who would have applied earlier and has been approved by a committee. This seemed to be working very well and everyone looked happy during the whole process.

The Executive Director conducting the meeting

So I picked interest in it and thought this could be replicable in many such communities. I then asked them what their other objectives were and I was given a full book of their documents to read through and was even allowed to go with and continue reading whenever I would be free. well I know it's going to be a bit of time before I finish all this , but will let you know what other things they are up to.

The Admin. home oF KJT

Today I had the pleasure to visit the administrative part of KJT which lies along the northern route of Kampala city at their offices which is situated on the compound of the school where most of their children go to ,(Bat Valley Primary School) It was a bit difficult last week since I was just recovering from a serious cough that had almost put me down.

A very interesting set up is this place. At the gate you would only imagine school children and nothing like an outside office set up. We have always related this place to the name (Bat Valley). Long before the place was fully inhabited; it was just a forest where I believe all the bats of the world used to live. The very tall eucalyptus forest which must have been planted during the colonial times, had no other living creature apart from the bats, which were later either destroyed or migrated due to the development in the area.

The school is one of the top government aided institutions and has produced some of the most prominent people in the country; this is one of the thoughts that brought me joy when I heard that these children were studying here. Knowing the town fairly well , I only gave Mansoor a call when I was at the gate and he came and picked me up. He led me to a small office on the third floor of the school building, where I was met by Fred and another man(Mr Wafula) whom I was told is very active with the children’s activities here in school. At one corner of the office, a table covered with trophies was standing and Mansoor didn’t take time to show me where they won all these different cups, one by one he lifted them up to read what was on each one of them. It was so amazing to see more than twenty cups sitting here and won by just children, some even below seven years.

Kabugo showing me the different cups won by the kids, looking on is Mr.Wafula

Later we visited the Headmistress’ office which is on the ground below this building. Here it was very organized and quiet. I sat with all of them for about thirty minutes. She told me she had all along doubted if there was something sensible that these boys were doing. According to her, she has been calling them very often to her office for the school fees issue , “ For the whole of this year they have paid nothing for these boys , and please do understand me, I have people whom I have to account to and they may take me for having some deal with these people” “ They have no promise at all , they just keep telling me to wait, so I have waited and the year has ended and now I cannot allow them to do their exams if their fees is not cleared.” I felt I really had nothing to say in defense neither could I promise anything, so I resorted to begging her to at least let them sit for their exams and retain their results until maybe when they are cleared. Though she never said anything in response to my plea, I thought she had accepted it, because she did not continue complaining. This is always the norm for all the disadvantaged children here; at a time like this nobody seems to care, even the authorities seem not to exist at all. Actually as I am talking now, about ten of them were already sent back home today for the same reason. Whatever will come after my meeting and pleading with her, is yet to be established.

At the Headmistress' office in front of her desk is Kabugo

Now remains the challenge of where this money which totals about UGS 100,000/=(about $60 at the current rate), for each child is going to come from, because she said that even if they are to do their exams , she "will not" accept them back next year if their fees is not cleared .This was the time when my initial joy disappeared and I left with a very heavy heart trying to figure out what the best thing would be to help these children continue with their studies.

Pictures to follow soon, the link is very poor right now and I can't upload any.

Redefining Life in Africa Foundation.

The last time I talked about the rebirth of Life in Africa, I jumbled it up to include all the three arms of LiA. It was talking about what their different functions were supposed to look like. And where each one of them operates from. For the past three years or so, the foundation has been working to set up some few model communities among which is the Kireka community whose Administrator you can get in touch with here; http://ndeloswwworld.blogspot.com/ and now that this is more or less done, then is the time for us to get back to our original vision.

It may be of interest to know that as the different arms developed into autonomous entities, LIA foundation is left with the simple task of getting to know many more local organizations better and help them get connected to the outside world. So many people are trying their best in their simple ways to change the world, but their voices are unheard just because they do not have the means to do so. Thanks to the internet that is making the world one small village. Through the internet we shall help such organizations and other people from around the world who want to help in their own ways, get in touch with them and realize their dreams. There are many resources out there and when people have the opportunity to know one another better, they may be very useful.

Many people always try to give assistance to the people they support here, but end up failing because sometimes the said organizations are brief cased or are non existent and that marks the end of the road to the otherwise very well intentioned assistance. We would really like to help the people who have had such problems and those who may be intending to start doing something here, but are some how scared that it may not work because of the same reason. We are very well versed with the local communities here and have been traveling in different parts of the country, thus easy access to any kind of information that may be useful. We can also be able to help disbursed any funds when necessary, and if there’s any need for a 501(c) 3 status, we have our LIA USA arm which will be in a position to assist you in this field. When this is fully developed, we are very sure it will make work a lot easier for all of us.

This exciting development is just the tip of the iceberg. LIA Foundation has really a lot in store to help with connecting people in this internet world, and a lot of other activities found here on our website. http://lifeinafrica.com/.

Let's continue meeting in this small global village.

The Kireka Community

It's very interesting that you can live in a place and may not know many things that take place around you.
I have lived in Kampala for the past almost 20 years or more , because i had part of my education in this city, but it looks like i still know very little of it. This last month gave me a new idea of what my environment looks like. I moved from one village to the other and visited many places that I have never known before.

The last bit of my visit showed me to a small community called St. Theresa Women's group. This is a small community of women who live in an area called Kyebando in Kawempe division . In a swampy area lives some sisters of our lady of charity, they have helped these women get organized and one of their activities exists in the compound where the sisters live. They are so keen on everything . It's actually out of their little earnings that they have set up this community. They have a very good income generating activity(Poultry), They also train women in crafts , like paper beads making, needle work, baskets and many others. One challenge here though is the market for all their items. It has always anyway been the market problem for everything that people try to make here.It's always been the same question, "Is there a way you can help us sell our items ?"

Well my main area of activity has been the Kireka community which I may say has been my home from the very beginning of my life with LIA. I spent at least three days with them.A lot has changed here, not so many people are here as it used to be, but this did not blow off my sense of attachment with them. They still have a gallery though a bit small in size than what they had before.



The LIA Kireka gallery

At least a few activities have started again but this time with fewer people. The Ned beads program is the main one here with five ladies doing the beads. these will be shipped to the USA where Mark Grimes will try and look for market for them.



These are the Ned beaders

This seems promising, because the ladies had gone back to their stone quarrying which really is so hectic and when we began our program with them , most of them where relieved of this, but now they have no option but to go back to it.



A member of the Kireka community working at the stone quarry

There's also one new very interesting program. The hammocks sewing which is a program for Stitch Uganda together. Both these are trying to slowly raise the program to something that will become sustainable. there's hope that if the markets are up, more and more people will be employed for both . This has been an initiative of Corry Richardson after visiting our center in Gulu at the beginning of this year. So the first batch of the hammocks are being sewn and will later be shipped to Canada where Corry is trying to find markets for them.



Ladies at the kireka center sewing the hammocks

I feel that the major challenge that brought about all these disruption, is what Christina has described in her post here. but i am very optimistic that soon there will be the communty that she had thought of when she started all these and am very sure that it will bear some fruits one day if not very soon. http://christinaswwworld.blogspot.com/2008/10/cry-when-cutting-edge-bleeds.html

However as a comment to Christina, I would say please do take courage, it was not all in vain after all, you created Peter,me and many others who are doing very well elsewhere to try and change the world. just stand by and watch as the works of your hands bear fruits. Great thank you and Thumbs up for you in a special way ! I know that very many will agree with me on this.

The great Fundraising

Sometimes what one thinks is fun can turn out to be very productive.
Last weekend was surely a great day for us , the Acholi community in Kampala and those from abroad who were here on holidays or for some kind business. I have heard a lot over the years about this function that every once a month there's such a gathering , but never bothered. This time a friend thought I should be pulled , because he thought it's kind of related to my field of work.

Over five hundred people or more could be seen already dancing or slowly sipping their beers, when I came in. This occasion was organized by a Canadian NGO called CPAR(Canadian Physicians Aids), it was in conjunction with one of the telecommunications companies Warid). More than 20 local musicians from the North performed and that was great , It was promoting their talents and fund raising at the same time. CPAR is trying to raise fund to resettle the people of Acholiland who have for the past fifteen years or so been living in the camps . This was so interesting, with very many Canadians I supposed so. You can see a Mzungu here and there trying to make every bit of the day interesting. All the local dishes from northern Uganda was available and many traditional dances were performed at least to the satisfaction of everyone present.

This, I am sure fetched a very good sum of money for the organizers, and I strongly feel that more of such functions can help bring change to our communities, what seems difficult here is the organization, I really wish all like minded people could come up and set up such functions. There are surely many wealthy people from this war torn area but can never take any initiative. I have seen that when they are invited for such things, they all come and with lots of enthusiasm for for such things , this could become a very strong fund raising tool for people who are trying to help bring change in Africa . I have mentioned Africa here because it's really them who are still a bit behind with the idea of giving to others, but they love their culture very much and would do anything to get closer to it. So this could be a very good bait for our tycoons.

I just enjoyed every moment of the function and I was left yearning for the next one.

INSIDE THE TUNNEL

After another tour of the town last week, I still feel that nothing was more interesting than my little tunnel at Kisenyi. I would have taken time off to say a little about the other places that I visited, but I have a temptation to give my full account of the plight at the Kisenyi house, lest I forget some very important information.

In my previous post, I described how tiny the room was, this was my greatest concern because I cannot imagine 21 souls living in such a congested place, with almost no ventilation at all, without contracting any contiguous sickness. What if there was a malaria attack, then obviously the whole house will be sick, and talk about the treatment cost; you begin wondering where this money will come from, try and give it a guess!

As we already know, this place is runned by the two young men, Fred kayiwa and Mansoor kabugo. Fred is a University student, with a lot of needs for himself and one wonders where they get what to feed these children. Mansoor told me that, the children are very understanding, because when they are told there was no food for that day they just go to bed. He feels happy though that when their fees is paid in full, they are able to eat their lunch at school, but this is yet another story, because two boys who should have done their Primary leaving Exams in a week’s time , are not going to do it because they never paid the school dues and exams fee. Now they have to do the same class again next year yet this would have taken them to another level (secondary).So there’s serious need for them to deal with these two very urgent issues. There’s this pressing one which is feeding, I feel that they really need a very big hand to help them achieve this. These boys to begin with were mainly from the streets and I have fear that when they do not have what to eat, they may go back to the streets and this may pose a bigger problem., then the accommodation issue, this too is an urgent need to be addressed, because this type of set up can cause so many dangers to these youths, they have lived in the streets and know a lot, there's is a lot of immorality these days and they can easily be strapped into that due to the set up, let alone their health situation.

One other big problem is that these children need to go to school and attain some formal education though they have very good training in sports. This needs fees and there’s no way the two young men have been able to raise this money. Thanks though to a few individuals who have funded one or two children recently. In a situation like this, hands need to be joined so that there’s some cure to such problems. We can join discussions about their developments here:
http://www.ned.com/group/kjt/news/2/

The good side of it though, is that these people are achievers. Looking at the bigger picture of the organization, they have about 350 children who are being coached into becoming serious sports people.3/4 of these are either orphans or street children. They have won so many cups both from within and without, and they are planning to visit Norway in July 2009, we pray for them to get the funds to get them there.

A big thank you to the people who have been helping them in one way or the other. I know there's is still a lot that needs to be addressed, but whenever there's will there's always a way.

A little light in the shadows

"This Way madam Grace", said Kabugo showing me a very tiny corridor which I thought was a door to somone's house and I had halted a bit, so he he knew what I was thinking and immediately I followed him.

Through the shadowy and very low roofed corridor, I was led by Mansoor Kabugo to yet another tiny outlet but this time with some little light. Kabugo and Kayiwa Fred are the ones who run the Kampala Junior team which engulfs many other activities, like the computer club, music, dance and drama and many others. These boys are a few of the very wonderful people I have ever met.

Today I only had Mansoor because Fred was out for his lectures. The corridor was so tiny that once in a while a running child would bump into us , but finally we came to our destination. This is home to twenty young boys in the age range of 8 to 13 years, being orphans or former street kids,solely catered for by these two young men.

In the small muddy room , I was welcomed by a lady, possibly the one who helps cook for the children, she then took leave after greeting me to give room for our discussion. After a while two of the boys came in, these seem not to have attended school today , because they were not in uniforms. They were introduced to me and they too like the lady, left the two of us alone.

The whole place look very pathetic. An office-come-sitting and bedroom. It's not really a big room to begin with, and it took me some time to get fully settled. A computer occupies the "sitting room" area and a chair or two very close to one another that you hardly find space to move freely. Separated by two wide curtains are what are meant to be the ' bedrooms" At one end, is the triple decor that supposedly nine boys are supposed to sleep on , three on each bed ! Then the other end has one large bed and Mansoor told me it was for him and three other boys. This makes 12 of them and I was wondering where the other 8 would sleep( because he had earlier on told me that they were 20 boys living with him) , then he told me that at night they remove whatever is in the "sitting room" and put down some mattresses for the rest.

Anyway this is Kisenyi, one of the most congested and dirty slums in the city center, thousands of crimes are reported daily here. But more surprisingly almost all local metal fabrications are also done here , interesting isn't it? It must have taken these young men lots of efforts to make something come out of here.

Soon you will read about what actually lives behind this shadowy corridor!

The Renaisance

"Talk of the Devil and he's right here."

Many people might have been wondering WHAT and WHO Life In Africa is, and WHAT they are up to and WHY they are on and off. I am sure a lot must have been said about the unpredictable LIA.

This of course is obvious of any growing child. When a child is born, everyone would want to know their gender and what names they have been given. then there's a stage whereby they are kind of forgotten by the outside people save for the very close relatives , then sometimes when they do something bad or good that's when they begin talking about them again. But here anyway we have not done anything bad , we have been going through many stages of life and at times it has really been very slow that one would think we are no more. This in fact has been one of such moments , We were born and everyone heard about us, sometimes we were very sick , almost reaching dying point but of course we recovered. This time we are coming back in a very unique way.

To me I feel it's a rebirth of LIA and this time with a lot of many different ideas. I know we have been quiet for so long but now we are up and no more silence. The "metamorphosis" is over, a lot of lessons have been learned, we feel matured now and ready to walk on confidently!

After all our restructuring which began in Jan this year , Life in Africa now has three bodies. We have the Life in Africa Foundation who is the mother of all the others. Based in Uganda, it's the one that will be overseeing all activities of Life in Africa in Uganda. We have the Life in Africa USA based in the USA that is responsible for the Fund raising and where all our funds will be directed from which ever source , then for now the Life in Africa Kireka/ Kampala, a Community Based Organization which will be one of the beneficiaries around Africa, because many more are being looked at right now.

I will not forget to give our acknowledgment to our Dear Christina Jordan who is the master mind behind all these and until now she has been our silent adviser both for the foundation and the CBO. You can look at all the great work that she is doing here: http://christinaswwworld.blogspot.com/

New Developements

Life in Africa Foundation will be identifying and doing some needs assessments to some similar NGOs/CBOs in Kampala and other parts of the country. This actually is ongoing right now and I will soon come up with details about them. Part of last week saw me visiting a few local organizations , it's just so interesting to have a chance of being part of all these.

Just keep watching this blog to see how some of the unknown unveils themselves.

Our first step towards reducing POVERTY

"Poverty" as described in the dictionary, is a state of being poor, existing in very small amounts , scarcity and lack.

This seems to be a better situation though compared to the "below the poverty line" which most people in Africa are living in, and it's this and their cause that should be tackled first , so that everyone gets to the 'normal' Poverty situation then we can join hands to look at how to eradicate it.

Whether it's because of cultural background or ignorance, Africa has so much been left behind in terms of development and when people talk of poverty, it's Africa that is first on the list and maybe the likes of Asia, Latin America and so on, fall after. They must have been taking everything for granted and thought that their way of life was the best , because when you take for example one particular tribe in my country who feel that putting on clothes is bad enough, and have to be forced into it, then when will they look at any other good development as benefiting to them?

Well then when I look at Africa, most of its land is fertile and very good for any kind of agriculture , but they are the people who are going hungry and have to live on handouts, it puzzles me a lot. So I feel that the agricultural sector should be the most looked at area. lots and lots of food should be grown by a family to feed themselves and then the surplus sold . During this production period, the developed world may help with a few things like education for the children and other sectors like Micro finance and maybe markets for their production and others, because with more and more free things, people get lazy to work hard enough to sustain themselves, lets look at hoes and other agricultural tools to supply and sensitize people on the benefits of their hard work.

With Children as the beginning of life for everyone, more attention should be paid into their education and welfare, because it's them who will come up already knowing what has to be done to eradicate poverty, since they will have gone through better education, and have technical and social knowledge of how things can be done. The adults too can go through some adult literacy programs so that they are sensitized on how they can work hard themselves to elevate poverty. Thus having everyone on the globe go through some kind of learning or EDUCATION for that matter, will be a very big step forward. If some kind of Global campaign for something like EDUCATION FOR ALL or LET'S GET EVERY CHILD EDUCATED, could be set, then this could possibly be one way forward.

Mothering : Is this really the same everywhere ?

Children seem to be and is indeed the joy of every mom in the whole universe, the only thing that may differ is the way children are handled in different parts of the world. In some parts of the world and more so in the developed ones, a lot of care is taken that children are never left alone while in my world, a child as old as 4 years is left with her baby sibling strapped on her back while mom is doing her gardening work sometimes a mile a way from home. The "babysitter" will remain with the baby on her back for as long as she is asleep, then when she wakes up, she has to follow the mom for the baby to get fed. Though a lot do happen during this time of moms absence, not so much attention has been paid to this kind of set up. Sometime the babies fall very badly in the process of unstrapping it from the back cause the baby sitter is tired and wants some relieve , sometimes they get burnt because she is trying to cook something or just playing with fire and there's no one to stop her. Well looking at all these mishaps, I really admire the way the more developed world treat their young ones, a child is a real child until after 18 years , while here we feel that children need to be trained early to fend for themselves in future since sometime at the age of 13 they cease to be children and are already mothers or fathers themselves. This I think is traumatizing and wish there was some kind of force that would change this immediately.

Ididn't know: laura bush killing a man in texas,

Digg 1 : Religion: Why do People Really Believe in God?

Digg 2 :Talk2Me: paul newman cancer updat

I didn't know that almost everyone attached to the White House has to have some kind of background, if you look at laura bush killing a man in texas, this is not very far from the would be new president MCain's background of having done this and that and all the mess created by the two Bushes. Hope the next time America will have some cleaner people in their top chair. I didn't also know that many more deadly disease whose origins and cure are never known would become so rampant like it'is now, when you look at stills disease, ischemia, and to name a few more like Ebola, AIDS, Hepatitis and many others, will there be any proper prevention and cure for such diseases ?

I WONDER :xbox live update september 29, stock market crash 1929

Digg 1: I DIDN'T KNOW: ephelides, mabon

Digg 2 : Bamboo Bike Maker Grows His Frames, Bonsai Style

I WONDER if the 29th day has some kind of bad omen or is attached to some misfortune, look at what is taking place xbox live update september 29, stock market crash 1929, and this bailout rejected . As for the stock market issue, looks like the great depression is where we are heading to again. This is sending really very bad signal to the world. This is so ridiculous, I really wonder if it was also a Bush family regime in 1929? If so , then we need to be very careful the next time a person from the Bush family is standing for any election, seems they have a recurring unlucky events during their time of rule. Look at what happened during his father's rule in Iraq and Kuwait,( the desert storm operation) and now the unending wars here and there and then the stock market thing during the son's rule. Well care needs to be taken here !

Ididn't know : phalloplasty, model behavior,four brothers

Digg 1: I WONDER: when in the course of human events; declaration of

Digg 2 : The push to "Otherize" Obama (Nicholas Kristof)

I really didn't know that people could go to this extend , phalloplasty, model behavior, to achieve what they think was meant for them and by mistake not given . why really can't we appreciate what nature has bestowed unto us, isn't this undermining who/whatever has tried their best to make us what we are? I didn't also know that a family can give up a whole set of sons like the one in the four brothers, to join just the navy and no other carrier at all. Well it's nice and fun to talk about it, but here where I live it sounds very scary , because should something go wrong somewhere, you would have lost all of them, we never always hope for the worse though, good luck boys !