Uganda Experience

20/08/26 – Uganda Experience - Jane, Adrian and Karen

Firstly, Jane explained how it all began with her volunteering 19 years ago for a project in Uganda for a month working with families affected by Aids; at which time she ‘adopted’ her ‘surrogate daughter’ Annette (who was a similar age to Jane’s own daughter). On her return to the UK, she presented to various organisations including the Vale of Belvoir Rotary Club, who asked her to become a member. Having passed around a very professional photo album, Adrian then described how in early April 3 Rotarians plus Keith and Jenifer (Adrian’s daughter) flew Ugandan Airways to Entebbe Airport, having negotiated double baggage allowance to cover the D4L books and clothing. It was Jen’s 40^th birthday whilst on the flight and suitable celebrations took place. CHAU had organised a taxi (God’s Bus!’) to drive them to Lyantonde, a 4-hour journey. Bonny and Lauben of CHAU had visited VoB RC in 2013 and they organised a ‘gift Ceremony’ at CHAU HQ, supplying them with T shirts with CHAU and VoB RC logos on the front and “dignity in every drop” on the back, referring to respect to girls when having their menstrual cycles begin. We gave them some D4L’s, which they loved and larger modern solar lamps and clothing. Karen then spoke about Ugandan roads, suggesting ‘pot holes’ in the UK is insignificant compared to some of their ‘dirt tracks’. She explained that it was ‘normal’ for Grandmothers to bring up their grandchildren, because many parents had died through Aids. Another lady had 10 children to bring up without the help of a husband. Their homes really benefitted from the light from the solar panels. As they visited various schools she commented on how green the landscape is.  Each school had prepared a ‘welcome’ song or dance, which made them feel like ‘Royal’ visitors. This was all demonstrated with various videos that Adrian had taken. At Kayakakala Primary school they were presented with a “certificate of Appreciation” for the latrine block that we had funded 2 years ago. They were fed with the standard school meal of maize and goat, produced alongside the 300 meals for the children cooked in a small kitchen with 4 open fires and 4 stoves. At Nyakayaga Child and Youth Development organisation they presented menstruation packs and saw projects where basket weaving, offcuts of cloth were sewn into clothing and flip flops were produced from tyres. A Health Centre and Maternity Unit was visited, 20 miles from the nearest settlement, where they met Bishop Andrew, from Lyantode RC, who explained that it is difficult to fund raise relying basically on Rotarians, plus USA and the UK governments are cutting back on foreign aid. They attended the Rotary Club meeting and Jane gave a speech in Ugandan, for which they were very impressed.

Looking at ‘local life’, transport is mainly by foot, although mopeds and motorbikes are quite common. There are less Jerry cans present as there is more access to clean drinking water now, although one school is dependant on a water tank, but would like to get a second tank as the first one runs out after 2 months.

They then took a 4-hour journey to Queen Elizabeth National Park, where they saw elephants, Water Buffalo and Hippos, with a lake and Tea plantation, close to the Congo border. They moved on to Kampala en-route to Entebbe, where they had a meal with Annette, her children and husband, who is a Brigadier General, then off to the airport and home. Various questions were raised such as finance, matching grants, cost of the toilet block (£1800), not forgetting that many donations came from friends as well as both Karen and Jen raising around £400 each

Sarah did the Vote of Thanks saying how impressed she was with our club’s commitment and support and hoping that when the current ‘administration ends it will see the return of foreign aid as Uganda needs as much support as we can offer as a Country. She asked the members to join her in a warm round of applause.        AR