KACCAD volunteers have been working with students from Kawempe Royal College in Bbira on a second student HIV/AIDS mural project. the design was made by Namazzi Margerene, a senior one student. We have worked with her and other students to enlarge the design using a graphing technique. It has been a really fun project!
The following articles up to the list of thank yous are from our third quarter 2008 newsletter.
Dear KACCAD Friends,
Change is on the horizon. This will be the last newsletter I spearhead as it is my last full quarter with KACCAD. I am finishing up my two years work with KACCAD on November 21st, 2008. Before I finish our staff and I will be training KACCAD’s new Peace Corps volunteer, Caleb Fader, to continue the projects we have started. We will also look to utilize his strengths in other areas in service of our community. As a water resource engineer, I am sure that Caleb will help Wakiso Sub-County and KACCAD grow. All of us at KACCAD are very pleased to welcome him. Caleb will begin working with KACCAD on October 8th.
Looking back I am happy to see all we have accomplished in two years. The great work we have done in health and empowerment education for youth and adults, home based counseling for people living with HIV/AIDS, voluntary community HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, water and sanitation development, student sponsorship, community income generation development and trainings and so much more could not have done without the hard work of our volunteer team and Director, our partnerships and friends. I sincerely thank all of you who have helped us do so much in two years. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the KACCAD staff and volunteers who have made my experience in Uganda one of learning, fun, big challenges and much appreciated successes. I am grateful for the hard work and even the productive debates through which we have grown as an organization and in friendship. Though I will leave in November, I will continue to be a KACCAD member for life.
Take care,
Amanda Milholland
KACCAD Peace Corps Volunteer
Photo of Kat, Alasdair and Eri in the Back of a Public Taxi
We expanded our volunteer program this quarter with a new partnership with A Broader View Volunteer Corps. A Broader View is a US based non-profit organization offering short term placements for volunteers to work with international social projects in many countries. In September we received two volunteers from A Broader View, Alasdair Cross and Genevieve Parker. We are looking forward to growing more as an organization with a greater volunteer base.
Beth Pagan is from Gainesville, Florida, USA. She is a student at Florida State University and is studying International Affairs, Political Science and Leadership. She volunteered with KACCAD for two months, from May 15th – July 15th 2008. She taught about leadership skills, health and life skills at Kikaaya College, Bbira Vocational and Hajji Kiyemba Memorial Institute. She also helped with the second teacher training, creation of a volunteer handbook and assisted with organization of the student mural project.
Eri Tamura is from Nagano, Japan. She studies International Development Studies at the University of East Anglia in the UK. She volunteered with KACCAD for 3 months, from 15th June to 15th September. In her time with KACCAD she taught health and life skills at Kawempe Royal College, Kikaaya College, Bbira Vocational School and Hajji Kiyemba Memorial Institute. She helped paint the student HIV/AIDS mural at Kikaaya College and participated in the home visit program.
Kylie Cherpes is from Lyons, MI, USA. This fall she will be finishing up her final year at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI, where she will complete her degree with a Liberal Studies major. Her emphasis is on Global Social Justice with a Political Science minor. During her two month stay with KACCAD she worked with our Empowerment Education program, helped with the student mural project and participated in home visits to families affected by HIV/AIDS. Kylie, Eri and Beth also helped make bricks at the KACCAD community/volunteer center site.
Fardin Chadorshabchi worked with KACCAD during the month of August. He is Iranian born living in Toronto, Canada. Fardin is currently completing his final year studying Criminology at York University. His previous volunteer work has been with groups including the Economic Club of Toronto (ECOT), Canadian International Council (CIC), Iranian Canadian Network (ICN) and Association in Defense of the Wrongfully Convicted (AIDWYC). Fardin worked with the Empowerment Education program and did home visits to people living with HIV/AIDS during his time with KACCAD. He also helped on the Kikaaya Student HIV/AIDS Mural project.
Kat Gordon is from London, England. She graduated from Oxford University in English Literature. She is preparing to pursue a Masters in creative writing in the fall. She volunteered with KACCAD for one month from 15th August to 15th September. During this time she was involved in home visits to families affected by HIV/AIDS and taught at Bbira Vocational School, Kawempe Royal College and Kikaaya College. She also started a gymnastics program for a local boys’ football team to help build strength, agility, teamwork and confidence.
Joanna Williamson, who is half-Scottish, half New Zealander and lives in Switzerland, stayed with us during the month of September, celebrating her 28th birthday here in Kikaaya. In Geneva, Joanna works for the Corporate Learning EMEA office of the business school Thunderbird School of Global Management (the main campus is in Phoenix, Arizona). Joanna taught Small Business Skills with a focus on Budget Management to vocational students, young women who had dropped out of school early, women’s group members and the general community.
Alasdair Cross, from Scotland, worked with KACCAD for two weeks in August. He is a student at the University of Dundee with a focus on neuroscience. He is also studying to be a pilot. During his time with KACCAD he worked with our education program and helped Kat teach gymnastics.
Genevieve Parker from Washington D.C will be working with KACCAD for 3 months. She started her service at the beginning of September. She is a high school graduate from The Potomac School, a small school just outside of Washington D.C. She plans to attend Hofstra University on Long Island, NY starting the fall of next year. At The Potomac School, she did some African studies which initially excited her for travel and life in Uganda. Her previous volunteer experience is in child tutoring and mentoring with children aged 5-13, work she has been doing for the past four years. This past summer she worked with The Potomac School Summer Day Camp as a counselor for Chorus, Arts and Crafts and Theatre. Gennie is currently working with the KACCAD education and home visit programs. She and Sarah are also working to design water and hygiene programs for the school and communities we work with that we will be carrying out in October.
Sarah Beal is from Upper Arlington, Ohio. Sarah graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 2006 and has been working in the areas of nonprofit management and fundraising ever since. She began working for CMT Entertainment in 2006 where she managed the "Music Drives Us" foundation as well as helped with event planning and fundraising efforts for corporate and non-profit partners. Most recently Sarah worked for the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund as a part of the fundraising team. Although, this is her first time traveling to Uganda, Sarah volunteered in Ghana during the summer months of 2005 and has been planning to return to Africa ever since. During her time spent in Ghana she assisted patients in their travel to medical facilities to ensure proper care and treatment were administered, as well as sought out those in need of medical attention. Sarah also worked alongside community volunteers to build a new community center for Abrafo Odumasi. Lastly, she was able to travel to various school sites to observe the classroom setting as well as provide tuition assistance to sponsored students. Sarah will be working with KACCAD for 3 months supporting our Empowerment Education and HIV/AIDS home visit programs.
Photo of Genny and Sarah Teaching at Bbira Vocational School.
By Genevieve Parker
During my first weeks at KACCAD I have been working with six different schools teaching HIV/AIDS prevention, teen pregnancy and its consequences, the immune system, and life skills to lead a healthy, positive lifestyle. I have been very impressed with the methods that KACCAD volunteers and Peace Corps workers have come up with to help the students understand the lessons. These methods include role play for teen pregnancy, fun and interesting games for the immune system, and creative colorful charts for HIV prevention. I was also very lucky to begin teaching at another school, Bbira Primary, in which we will be teaching and talking to the teachers every Wednesday, before we teach their students every Thursday. I am very excited about working with both the teachers and the students so that once we have taught the teachers these new lesson plans and methods they will be able to continue these lessons independently.
In my first couple of weeks I have also had the opportunity to go on a few home visits in which we talk to family members who are living with HIV or AIDS. We are given the time to ask these family members how they are feeling, what their home situation is, if they have proper beddings and mosquito nets. Most importantly, these home visits allow these community members to have voices and know that they are being heard. On my first home visit, where I mostly listened and watched two other volunteers ask the questions, one of the volunteers returned to a woman they had visited about a week ago and gave her a new mosquito net because she had told them that she did not have one during the last home visit. After the questions we also leave food for the family. Thus far, I am very impressed and glad to be apart of the work going on here at KACCAD.
A Note from Nicholas Ssekiranda
On the HIV/AIDS Empowerment and Support Home Visit Program
In this quarter, we managed to visit 60 homes of people living with HIV/AIDS in Lukwanga, Ssumbwe and Nakabago Parishes. At each home we gave families food stuffs like sugar, a bar of soap, beans and rice. We also gave them counseling and taught them how they can clean their surroundings by clearing bushes, to empty all ponds which are around their homes, to wash their hands after and before eating food and also to cover their toilets. All these steps are our way of helping protect client’s health with “positive living” information and strategies.
By Joanna Williamson
On arrival Sam took me around a number of the businesses here in Kikaaya and Bulenga. Conversing with the women running the businesses I found that few, if any, made any attempt to keep books on expenses or sales. Many businesses were selling their products at minimal profit. Few had any idea what their total expenses amounted to. For some of the women, when their business was short of cash flow, their husbands (if they had one) would give them extra cash to cover business expenses. This makes it very difficult to see which businesses are even potentially profitable, let alone which businesses are profitable. For all the women I spoke to there was no differentiation between business and personal expenses and income. When there is no cash, women often take out a loan at a high interest rate putting there businesses and homes at risk. Paying back theses loans puts further strain and increases the running cost of the business. Sometimes these loans are not for business expenses but for personal expenses such as school fees. Production methods are not improved, the low profit margins remain and, with it, poverty.
One example of the above is a woman who is making baskets. When she came to class we looked at the cost of all the materials required to make the baskets. Then we looked at the price she sells the baskets and the number of baskets she is able to produce and sell each week. At maximum production capacity she is making a weekly profit of 850 shillings (just under $.50). This will cover the cost of one meal.
Another example is a woman with chickens who is selling eggs. When looking at all the expenses, the number of eggs produced and sold, the price and, therefore, average monthly income, we found that the woman should be making a profit of 70,000 shillings per month (this is after personal expenses). Yet this same woman is not able to save any money. Either she is being unrealistic about her actual personal and business expenses and/or income… or the lack of budget management is leading to over-expenditure. This same woman has just had to take out a large loan to cover school fees for her children.
Other than basic budgeting, a key area I chose to work on was to try and teach people “how to think”. We take it for granted in our western schools that we learn analytical and creative thinking skills. We are brought up culturally (rightly or wrongly) to question everything. Our minds are trained from a young age to analyze situations and look for better solutions. Here in Uganda the school system appears to still focus on learning through repetition and memorizing “facts.” I apologize for my accusation if this is not the case. I have only been here for one month and can only talk from my impressions during this short time. My impression is that memorizing what the teacher tells you is the most common learning method. In western schools, on the other hand, we will read passages by 2 or more different authors of the same event and are than asked to analyze and form our own opinions giving justification for why we have come to our conclusions. It cannot be underestimated how this affects the students’ ability to set-up and run successful and profitable businesses.
Firstly, finding an idea for a good business requires questioning our surroundings: What is available? What could be? Is there a potential market for a product? Would the potential customers be able to afford and be prepared to pay a price which would give the product a good profit margin? How much competition is there? What would be the product’s unique selling point? There are many more questions an entrepreneur needs to think about even at this early “idea stage.” My early impression here is that most people tend not to attempt to come up with new ideas or even to improve current businesses ideas. People tend to copy the “successful businesses” they see. If someone is doing well selling charcoal, everybody wants to sell charcoal, and to the point that competition eliminates/minimizes the profit margin.
Even if someone does have a great idea, where do they get the money from to make it happen? There is a severe lack of capital. To make matters worst money lenders take advantage, only offering loans at crippling interest rates that make it very difficult to get a new business up and running.
Low self-esteem also affects a person’s ability and willingness to take risk and come up with new and exciting ideas. From my short time here my impression is that we need to help teach and encourage creative and analytical thinking to facilitate the ability of people to come up with business ideas, to research the idea’s potential and to ultimately improve the ability to run successful businesses. It is not only a matter of learning how to budget, but demonstrating the advantages of budgeting, the advantages of forward planning, showing people how marketing, improving selling skills, customer service, analyzing production methods etc… can improve profitability. Low self-esteem appeared to hinder my students as they constantly looked to me for all the answers and don’t seem to trust their own opinions and their own ability to analyze their business/idea.
Donations toward teaching materials, books with ideas and exercises to help teach/encourage critical thinking, new business ideas, budgeting, book-keeping, selling skills and marketing would all be a great help to KACCAD. In the future it would be great to have a pool of money that KACCAD could have to give small micro-loans at affordable interest rates to students who have good, well planned business ideas. Essentially this would also require a full-time, long term volunteer/employee to teach business/entrepreneurship and administer the business loans/donations giving continued support to recipients.
Las quarter we reported about the efforts of the beneficiaries from the group chicken rearing project to create small businesses after the theft of over half of the chickens from that project. Though that theft was a major blow to the seven women who were actively involved in the project, most of the beneficiaries have since invested their share from the sale of the remaining chickens into sustainable income generation projects. We are pleased to report the progress of two of these women.
Nakku Benna sells charcoal and is saving to expand her business to sell fire wood as well. With the profits from charcoal sale she has also started pig rearing and is currently raising two pigs. She is planning to bread these pigs for growth of this project.
Nannono Betty is running a fruit and vegetable stand where she sells tomatoes, local greens, green pepper, eggplant, onions, matooke bananas and other produce. She is saving to expand this business to sell other produce. These two women as well as one other beneficiary from the former chicken rearing project have been attending classes taught by Joanna on business management. Both women are looking forward to using some of the budgeting strategies and business assessment skills to strengthen their businesses.
KACCAD will continue to work with all the beneficiaries of the former chicken rearing project to help them build sustainable projects. Thank you Lee Miller, Maheen Merchant and With God’s Little Ones for your donations for the chicken project which are now being put to work to help these women run independent income generation activities.
By Derrick Luwaga and Amanda
It is true. If we believe and work hard to make things change in our societies it can become a reality. We can achieve what we want! KACCAD is proud to be able to announce some great accomplishments as well as our inspiring work in progress. We are soon to start construction of the foundation for our community and volunteer center. At the same time, our orphaned and vulnerable children school sponsorship program has expanded and we are looking forward to a strengthened partnership with Wings of Support which will help improve education in Ssumbwe Village.
To date, 8,643 bricks have been burnt and 22,000 bricks are waiting to be burnt. We are looking forward to starting construction on the community and volunteer center in mid October. So far funds for the construction of the foundation and part of the plinth wall have been raised. As stated in our last newsletter, one of our primary focuses for the community and volunteer center is to create a home through which we can run our projects in the areas of training in business skills and management, reproductive health, farming and agricultural techniques, voluntary HIV counseling and testing and hygiene and sanitation. The center will also provide a permanent home for the KACCAD office, a resource library for the community and housing for our staff and volunteers. To reach our goal of having a home for these programs as well as for our volunteers and office we are still seeking $30,000 to complete the center. Special thanks go to our partners The Real Uganda, Milholland family and Songliness Choir, Linda Russell and Langbale Elementary School of Canada for their kind support to make the foundation work possible.
We are happy to announce that through your help we now are sponsoring 41 students to attend school. We are still remaining with 78 students, including 42 new students in the age range of 5-8 years old, who are seeking sponsors. The last school term of the year started the first and second week of September. Though our sponsored students are now in school, we are still waiting on donation from a few sponsors to keep their children in school for the term. Aside from this, we are looking for sponsors for the remaining 78 students for the first term of next year. Please help us get sponsors for these vulnerable and orphaned children for January 2009.
With donors’ support, KACCAD has provided a total of 3,200 books for schools in the past including Nicaragua Primary School, Kikaaya Collage, Gold Max Primary School and Secondary School, Genesis Primary School and Bulenga Modern Primary School. Now we are working to do the same with the assistance of Wings of Support, a group of flight attendants and KLM and Martinair staff who give grants for projects serving children in many developing countries. In our partnership with Wings of Support, which is still going into negotiation, we hope to finish one of our affiliated schools, Step By Step Nursery and Primary School. We hope to start a school library and stock it with books and to finish the classrooms and toilets for boys and girls. We extend our gratitude and appreciation to our project coordinator from Wings of Support, Anita Kuiper, for the donation of clothes, toys, books and other school supplies to the orphans and vulnerable children at this school. We are looking forward to continue our work with Wings of Support and Step By Step.
We thank all of those who have given support for our many programs and especially for construction of the community and volunteer center and student sponsorship. We are really excited about our new partnership with Wings of Support. Thank you Anita for your visit.
Sincerely,
Derrick Luwaga
KACCAD Director
Photo of Sarah Beal and Musisi Sam
By Musisi Sam
Dear friends, we are proud to introduce to you our third quarter newsletter. As usual, we have been working with 3 secondary schools, 3 vocational schools, and now, with 1 primary school. Like before we have been teaching about HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, teen pregnancy and life skills. The program seems to bring a very big impact in the lives of many every single day. This impact is mainly due to the testimonies and questions given and asked by all classes of people we teach: students, teachers, and parents. For example, many people seem to have been confused by the proper use of condoms and how safe they are. We discovered this based on the type of questions students and teachers ask such as: “They told me that condoms have small holes around its tip so can’t I get HIV when I use it?,” “My friends told me that it is more safer to use 2 condoms at a go,” “Do virgins also get HIV infected?” and so many other questions. So we have been doing a lot of education to help our students get the right information.
Coupled with our education work in health and empowerment, we are blessed with a volunteer, Joanna, who works for a business school in Switzerland. I have been working with Joanna to teach basic business skills and budgeting at Kikaaya Vocational School, Hajji Kiyembe Vocational School, and to community and women’s groups. In addition to teaching vocational students, community members and women’s group participants, we have been teaching the young girls who are school dropouts around our community who were organized by Mr. Mubiru Charles, the head teacher Kikaaya Secondary and Vocational schools to attend the one month program. Those skills are very vital to all people in the business community to improve their work so as to improve their livelihoods. I hope it will create a big impact on all communities we are serving since it is among the skills needed urgently by our people.
By Amanda Milholland
We have been busy with many projects this quarter, the most exciting one for me being the HIV/AIDS student mural project. In addition to completing a student designed mural at Kikaaya College, we continued our work in education adding one new school, as well as in other sectors. We hosted several special guests and were also happy to be special guests at two schools. Last but not least, we hosted three voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing events this quarter.
The student mural project, which was funded by Daniel Milosivich’s class of Blue Herron Middle School, Port Townsend, WA, involved around 30 secondary students of all levels. Kikaaya College, the recipient school, serves about 600 students. It is one of the first schools I started working with when I joined KACCAD two years ago. Blue Herron Middle School is the middle school I attended for 8th grade, so it was quite special for me that students from this school chose to fund a project at a school where I now work. When Blue Herron Middle School students expressed interest in giving a gift to students in Wakiso, I suggested a mural as a way to give something lasting through which students and the community can learn. We all learn in different ways, but in Uganda students are mostly taught to memorize and repeat. This project was designed to give students a visual reminder of how HIV is passed and prevented. At the same time, students strengthened their art skills and saw that we can accomplish something great with many hands.
The project started with KACCAD volunteers organizing the students and teachers. We went class to class and also spoke in front of a general school assembly. We encouraged students to make designs and submit them. We got many great designs but agreed with Kikaaya College staff that the best design was the one submitted by Okoche Gilbert, a senior 6 student. Once the design was chosen we made an announcement to the students and awarded Gilbert with payment of one term of school fees. The following two weekends we worked with students to first arrange and graph the design on the school walls and then to paint it. Many muralists use the same technique or graphing a design on a wall. This technique is just one of the things participating students learned through the painting process. We were very impressed with the design submitted, the student participation in graphing the design on the wall and painting as well as with the completed mural. Students were really excited to have the opportunity to show their talent and learn new skills like mixing colors and laying out a design on a wall. Many of the students who participated were new to art and thus happy to see that they too are artists and can make something beautiful. KACCAD sincerely thanks Daniel Milosivich’s class for their donation. It was a huge gift to Kikaaya College, one that will give to generations of students.
Photo of Genny and Sarah teaching at Bbira Primary School.
While HIV/AIDS prevention messages were made a permanent fixture at Kikaaya College, we also expanded our HIV/AIDS and Like Skills Education and Empowerment Program in some other ways this quarter. This September we added a seventh school, Bbira Primary School, to the schools our volunteers teach at each week. Our partnership with Bbira was inspired by our HIV/AIDS teacher’s training program from last quarter. Two teachers from Bbira attended the training. When we went to Bbira to check on their progress in HIV/AIDS education since the training, the headmaster asked for more assistance in starting a HIV/AIDS and health program at the school. Bbira Primary School is a universal primary school or UPE school. UPE schools are public schools, but receive very little funding. Without funding, the classrooms are left to decay, teachers go without materials and students fair with meager rations for lunch. Students who attend UPE schools are usually the poorest. Bbira students especially fit this description as the headmaster of this school has started a program to help some students who are orphaned and who do not even have the resources to cover the required uniform and school supplies costs attend, and even receive free lunch. With teachers often working without materials in overcrowded classrooms, students miss out. Bbira Primary School serves several hundred students, yet we are working with older students chosen by their teacher as being most in need of counseling and guidance in HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health and empowerment. We are also training the Bbira teachers in the same subjects. Our aim with Bbira is to give the teachers needed information and help them develop interactive teaching skills for health education, while at the same time demonstrating related lesson to the students. In this way, we hope to both empower the students and teachers.
In addition to continuing this work over the next quarter, we will be doing two other exciting projects: another student HIV/AIDS mural at Royal Kaweempe College and a water and hygiene program for all the schools we work with. These projects will be done with help from our new Peace Corps Volunteer as well as our temporary volunteers. We completed the first mural project with a small amount of money left. My cousin Jessica and her husband Ben Watson made a donation to cover the additional costs of this next mural. The mural project will be done much in the same way as the first student mural project. The students will be invited to compete to design the mural. When a design is chosen, the artist will be awarded with a package of school supplies. All students will be invited to participate in painting the mural.
Jessica and Ben’s donation will also help us with the water and hygiene project we will be carrying out in October. October 15th is International Hand Washing Day. During the second and third weeks of October all our programs with the schools will focus on the benefits of hand washing and good hygiene. We also hope to work with many of the schools we teach at as well as with some of the families we work with through our home visit program to build tippy taps, hands free hand washing stations. Our volunteers are working on a model in our compound now. Thank you Jessica and Ben for your donation.
This quarter we experienced one more great success with our education program. Since completion of the two HIV/AIDS teacher’s trainings last quarter, we have visited or called 22 out of the 30 participating schools to check up on the progress of participants in bringing their skills and information gained back to their students. Of the 23 schools contacted, all but three have been actively involved in student and/or teacher sensitization. Schools contacted reported that the teachers were providing HIV/AIDS sensitization through assemblies, classes, teachers meetings and through clubs. One of the schools, Rahmah Secondary School on Entebbe Road, asked for our assistance training the rest of their teachers at their own expense. Teachers from this newly established school were informed of the teachers training we did through the Wakiso District Deputy Health Director. The headmaster of the school attended the second teacher’s training in Wakiso and then requested our assistance training the rest of his staff. We conducted a training for their teachers, parents and students, about 30 people, at the schools on August 6th. It is clear from the involvement of the majority of participating schools in HIV/AIDS programs and establishment of new programs that teachers valued the training and information presented.
Another indicator of the program’s success was that I was invited to be the guest of honor on July 11th at a parent’s HIV/AIDS sensitization music, dance and drama event hosted by Oasis Francee Secondary School in Ntinda, Kampala. This event was organized by one of the participants of the Wakiso District teachers training. Students who were coached in part by this teacher, a biology teacher who works at three schools in Wakiso District, performed dramas and dances of their own creation about HIV/AIDS as well as some traditional songs and modern dancing performed to pop-music. The dramas they created featured students getting infected with HIV/AIDS by having sex with older men, people having sex for things or money, and also people choosing to avoid sex and go for HIV testing. The original songs and dances were especially well done and showed good student HIV/AIDS awareness. The invitation to the event as well as the quality of the performances and their content gave a great example of how one teacher has used skills he gained at the teacher’s training to reach hundreds of students as well as parents and community members.
Our work in HIV/AIDS prevention this quarter also reached the general community. We received a donation from Songliness Choir of Port Townsend, WA at the end of last quarter. We used this to provide three voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing (VCT) events in Wakiso District. Through these events we were able to test 227 people for HIV. Of the people tested 17 tested HIV positive. We continue to see a lot of community interest in our VCT program. We have received requests from several of the schools as well as villages for VCT services. At the same time, this program requires money for space rental, transportation and payment of AIDS Information Center counselors and technicians. Costs for space rental and transportation would be eliminated with the construction of our proposed community/volunteer center. As we are preparing to lay the foundation bricks for the center this next quarter, we hope to expand this program in the future.
In other news, Peace Corps recommended KACCAD to USAID as an organization to visit as an example of water and sanitation work being done in Uganda. We were much honored to host water and sanitation development expert Mary Renwick and Uganda USAID staff members in August. We took our guests to two of the spring wells developed by KACCAD in and around Kikaaya Village. Mary was impressed with the wells and community participation that made them possible. After her visit to the wells we picked her brain for ideas on strengthening our well development and repair program. Specifically we asked about how to get funding and how other communities from around the world do similar projects. We are hoping that with Caleb’s help we can put some more of her suggestions for networking with larger NGOs and donors to use.
We also hosted all of the newest Peace Corps training group at our site. Peace Corps asked us to introduce the trainees to our water projects and talk about the process of development and community mobilization. It was an exciting visit for us as well as the entire village. With over 20 Bazungu (foreigners, white people) walking around in Kikaaya Village the children were mad with excitement. The Peace Corps trainees also seemed to be excited over our work.
Last, but certainly not least, we hosted Caleb Fader, KACCAD’s Peace Corps Volunteer in training. Though he was just with us for a few days, we know already that he is a great fit for KACCAD. He is committed to continuing the work we have started since I joined KACCAD, as well as to strengthening other projects. Caleb is a water resource engineer, a graduate from the University of Illinois and a Master’s International student at Michigan Technical University who grew up in Kenya. Both his experience living in Kenya and with water and sanitation will help him adapt to work with KACCAD and will make him a great asset for our community and organization. You will be introduced more to Caleb in the next newsletter.
At the same time that we have had a strong quarter with lots of exciting projects, I am stepping back and wrapping up. I am looking forward to working with Caleb on some new projects during October and November and to introducing him to the work I have been doing over the past two years. I have truly learned a lot from my service with KACCAD. Though I will leave KACCAD in November, I will continue work with KACCAD in whatever ways I can from the States.
In this photo Sarah Beal and Genevieve Parker, two KACCAD volunteers who are working with us for three months from September to the end of November stand with the model tippy tap they made in the KACCAD compound.
We encourage people 18 years and older to come work with us in Kikaaya Village and surrounding areas of Wakiso Sub-County. There are many opportunities for sharing your skills. We invite you to come live and work with us in Kikaaya Village, Wakiso District. We invite volunteers during any part of the year. Volunteers will be involved with projects including: health/HIV/AIDS sensitization; home visits to families living with/affected by HIV/AIDS; youth and child education; teacher’s training; animal rearing training; water and sanitation development (including well construction) support; vocational skills development, business skills and marketing skills; and other work that can help us transform our community. Our fee for volunteers is $650 USD for the first month and $550 USD per each additional month. The fee covers support while you prepare for Uganda, airport pickup, transport to Kikaaya, food and accommodation while volunteering, supervision, and a donation to KACCAD. For more information about volunteering with us see our website, www.volunteerkaccad.org or e-mail us or visit www.therealuganda.com for information about volunteering with us through The Real Uganda.
Students at Kikaaya College decided we should impersonate people in the mural we were painting on the school wall. Here we are doing the "abstinence jump." Check out Amanda's fliker account for more photos.
On August 3rd, 2008 KACCAD and Kikaaya College finished an HIV/AIDS focused mural at the Kikaaya College in Kikaaya Village. The project was sponsored by students from Blue Herron Middle School in Port Townsend, WA, USA. The mural, which focuses on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, was designed by Okoche Gilbert, a senior six student from Kikaaya College. Students from Kikaaya worked with KACCAD volunteers to graph the design on the wall and than paint it. About 20 students representing all classes worked with us to finish the drawing and painting in just three days. It was a really fun project through which students learned how to enlarge an image using graphing techniques, mix colors, choose colors that complement each other and more. It was an empowering project for both experienced artists and novices alike. KACCAD sincerely thanks Blue Heron Middle School and Kikaaya College students for making this beautiful project happen. Thank you for your work!
We hosted two HIV/AIDS education teachers trainings this quarter, one in April and one in May. This photo is of some of the people who completed the second training. Through our two trainings we exceeded our goal of training 54 teachers instead training just over 60. We are very pleased to send these teachers trained in HIV/AIDS education back to their schools to carry on a message of HIV/AIDS prevention and support for infected and affected people. Congratulations to all the teachers who completed the training! Thank you for your hard work!
Nvule Kennedy and 7 other students were recently sponsored by Dixon Church of Christ. We are pleased to have found sponsors for about 30 students in Primary and secondary school. Nvule and so many other have lost parents to HIV/AIDS. He has lost both of his parents. Thank you Dixon Church, USA!
Doug Milholland worked with two contractors while in Uganda to repair 4 hand-pump wells in Waksio Sub-County. Some of these wells needed major repairs but other were fixed with basic maintenance such as removal of a stone from a well shaft. Community members who has been without clean water for as much as several year, were eager to help with repairs. This photo is of children gathered at the site of one well. Our thanks goes out to Doug Milholland and Blue Heron Construction of Port Townsend, WA for support of this work. With your help hundreds of people have safe water.
Doug Milholland, Amanda's father is staying with us from April 18th to May 11th. He came not just to visit but with a mission. His carpentry co-operative in Port Townsend, WA gave funds to repair pump wells in Wakiso District. Here he is working with two engineers from Wakiso to identify problems with a well that had been out of commission for 6 months. What they found was that four about $4 they were able to repair the well. So many communities do not know what to do when their water source stops working. They turn to using shallow pools to collect water as the district does not have funds for repairs and the community doesn't know who to call. Wells that can cost upwards of $10,000 can be abandoned for contaminated sources when the cost of repairing them is usually no more than $500. During his time in Uganda Doug has prioritized fixing 3-4 wells. Thousands of people will benefit from these repairs.
The teachers to complete the April 28-May 1st HIV/AIDS teachers training pose with their certificates. They were really excited to complete the training and bring their new skills back to their schools.
We hosted a teachers HIV/AIDS education training for secondary, vocational and some primary teachers at Bbira Primary School from April 28-May 1st. The training, which is one out of two that we will host in the district , was a great success. Our target goal was to train 25 teachers but we trained over 30. Here a group of teachers works to plan the lesson they will be leading .
By Sam Musisi
Sam Musisi has been working with KACCAD since the beginning of 2007. He works closely with Amanda co-directing the Health Education and Volunteer programs. He partners with Nicholas to manage the HIV/AIDS Outreach and Support Program.
This quarter we have been working with three schools, Hajji Kiyemba Memorial Vocational Institute, Bbira Vocational School and Kikaaya College. This term we are teaching 59 students at Hajji Kiyemba Memorial Vocational Institute, a women’s school with a focus on tailoring and catering. At Bbira Vocational we work with between 50 and 60 students a week. This school teaches both males and females and has many subjects. Kikaaya College is a secondary school with some vocational studies. This term we are only working with senior 5. Previously we taught once a week at the school rotating through senior 1-6 classes. Working with one class we are focusing on providing more consistent support and health education to students. We teach over 90 students at Kikaaya.
At all the mentioned schools so far we have taught life skills lessons that help the students to cope up with life challenges for a better future. For example: Getting to know each other, HIV/AIDS lessons like Who is having HIV (a lesson designed to help students see that you can’t tell if someone has HIV by looking at them), the human immune system and sexually transmitted diseases/infections and their symptoms. Apart from teaching health information we play games and do role plays that demonstrate how HIV affects the immune system and the fluids that pass. We include drama, movement and student participation in our lessons.
By Nicholas Ssekiranda and Amanda
Nicholas Ssekiranda has been working with KACCAD since September 2007. He, and his cousin Sam who also works with KACCAD, are members of Bbiira AIDS Community, the councilors group we work with to provide support to people and families living with/affected by HIV/AIDS. He directs our work with this group. In addition, he helps manage the group chick rearing project led by clients from our HIV/AIDS Outreach and Support Program.
For this quarter we are privileged to inform you that we opened up a chicken project for a group of seven HIV/AIDS affected families. Participants of this project share the responsibilities of caring for the 250 layer birds. The chickens have just started to lay eggs this month. This project has given great inspiration to the members who previously did not have a reliable source of income.
At the same time, the project has been facing a major challenge, limited funding. As result of the conflicts raging in Kenya, the price of fuel has escalated in Uganda. This has caused the cost of chicken food to rise. We would like to sincerely thank ‘With God’s Little One’s’ for lending additional support to this project, and helping us to overcome these challenges and maintain the operation of the farm.
Another challenge with this project has been that our beneficiaries sometimes struggle with sickness, as we have focused this project on people living with HIV/AIDS. Sadly, one of our core members passed away just this week. Yusuf Kawooya was a very active member of the project. He will be greatly missed by everyone in the Kikaaya community. Yusuf leaves behind his wife Hadijah, and a one year old child. Our hearts go out to his family at this difficult time.
Courtney Campbell and Tori Fraser
We, the temporary volunteers, have been teaching at 6 different local schools every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. We have continued our Life Skills curriculum with Bbira Vocational School, Hajji Kiyemba Memorial Tailoring Institute and Kikaaya College, and this quarter started working with All Saints Primary School, Nicaragua Primary School and Goldrocks Kindergarten teaching English, Social studies and most importantly critical thinking. This addition of primary schools has been a difficult task as primary classes are much larger than secondary classes and there is a substantially larger language barrier. Regardless, we have found the experience rewarding, and are always encouraged when we see the students posing questions and thinking independently. [Students in Uganda are generally taught to repeat and memorize. Obedience is valued over critical thought. These values can damage a child’s ability to make smart decisions independent of direction. For this reason we encourage questioning and independent thought in all our teaching.
With our home visit program we have visited approximately 72 families this quarter. In each case we are attempting to visit an incredibly vulnerable family living on the margins of society. We talk to these families about their situation so we can see if there are ways that we here at KACCAD can help them. Generally these families consist of HIV positive parents, many of whom are widowed; or orphaned siblings being looked after by the eldest sibling.
One case which describes this perfectly is a family of 15 children, whose parents had passed away in 2001. The eldest sibling, Fred, is the lone income earner, while the second oldest, Chantelle, is the only one in school – and that is only because she has a sponsor. They all live together in a one room house, none of them has mattresses, and all seldom ate enough. Our visit brought them hope. It showed that someone cared and there was reason to carry on.
One woman who was an exception to this rule was a 70 year old woman we visited in Bulenga. She had lost her husband and all six of her children to AIDS, she herself was not positive, but was diabetic. She had no income, and the house she lived in was her neighbors. She paid no rent because of his good graces, and was also fed by him. She was so genuinely ecstatic to have us in her house, she would not let go of my [Courtney] hands our whole time we were there. And, when we gave her a food package, she looked about ready to cry. This incredibly old woman got down on her knees and held our hands and began to pray. She was thanking God for bringing us to her and for the food we had brought. The sheer joy she felt still resonates with me.
Letter from the Editor
Dear KACCAD Friends,
All the following entries dated April 3rd are from the first quarter 2008 newsletter January-March. There are introductions to many of the authors by the piece written by them.
We changed the format of our newsletter. There are multiple reasons for the change, the primary one is group empowerment and skill building. As many of you know, I will be in
Take care,
Amanda Milholland
KACCAD Peace Corps Volunteer
(Tori, Sofia, Courtney and Amanda)
Meet Our Real
Clementine Johnson of Sydney, Australia (not pictures) is a double master’s student in international trade/commerce law and international relations. She worked with KACCAD through the month of January. She most enjoyed her work with Mercy Home Orphanage where she worked teaching youth of all ages about health and wellbeing.
Courtney Campbell is from Vancouver, Canada. She graduated from the
Sofia Graflund of Sweden and Tori Fraser from Calgary, Canada also worked with us this quarter.
Tori Fraser has done a lot of work with youth in her time with KACCAD. She worked with Mercy Home Orphanage and now with
Donating made Simple
Through our partnership with Global Volunteer Network (GVN) we are now able to offer a secure way for you to make donations to KACCAD over the internet. You can do this from GVN’s website: http://www.gvnfoundation.org/programs/projects/uganda/real/. Your donations will go direct to our in-country partner, Real Uganda. Real
We do ask you to remember that we receive donations on a quarterly basis. If you need to get a donation to us in a certain time period you will ether have to plan in advance and make sure it is to use by the closest quarter mark before it is needed or you can send your donations through our bank account or
Thank you!
We have received a lot of support this quarter for school sponsorship, our group chicken rearing project and basic operations. We sincerely thank all those who have chosen to sponsor a child, who have invested in the group chicken rearing project that is benefiting seven HIV/AIDS affected families in Bulenga and those who have given funds for operation costs. Our special thank yous for this quarter go out to:
We invite you and/or your group to help us meet the goal of providing ten wells in Wakiso District by December of 2008. Water is the source of life yet so many people living in our district don’t have access to clean water. Your donation for construction of a spring well or hand dug well will help us bring safe water to an estimated 845 families per well. In 2007 we were able to construct 13 spring wells in Wakiso District with support from people like you. Your help can keep us on track with our goal of providing safe water sources for all residents in Wakiso District. Just this year we have already developed 6 springs in addition to the 13 built in 2007. With funds promised for an additional spring well, we are already approaching our goal of developing 10 wells over the course of the year. Your help can enable us to meet or ever surpass our dreams.
According to Wakiso District data from March 2004, it is estimated that almost 50% of the population does not have access to safe drinking water. Wakiso District data further indicates that people may travel as far as 3 km to reach a water source. In Wakiso Sub-County there are only 100 functioning wells for an estimated 101,567 people (Wakiso District Data 2006). To put this in real terms, there are over 1,000 people per functioning well. Contaminants such as cholera, schistosomiasis, amoebic dysentery, other water borne diseases and animal and environmental waste products are known to pollute many unprotected water sources. These infections especially pillage sub-county and district residents during the rainy season when flooding causes severe contamination. Due to the lack of prohibitive barriers, people share these undeveloped water sources with animals. Animal waste mixes with the water further reducing its quality. Human waste similarly mixes with the water due to the fact that most depend on undeveloped water sources and that few families living in the villages have toilets in good repair. For community members who are generally very poor it is not an option to hire transportation to travel to the few developed wells in their area or to miss an entire day of work to walk to fetch water from the nearest developed well.
The High percentage of HIV/AIDS and other disease in Uganda makes the importance of safe water even greater for our residents. At voluntary HIV counseling and testing events conducted by KACCAD in Wakiso Sub-County almost 11% of people tested receive HIV positive results. As is true for children, the elderly and other people with weak immune systems, water borne disease pose a serious threat to those living with HIV/AIDS. Even the healthy suffer from preventable water borne disease yet these vulnerable populations are at severe risk from contaminated water. Many people in our community, especially those living with AIDS, can not afford to go into Uganda’s capital, Kampala, for testing let alone to buy fuel to boil their water or to purchase safe water. As result, sickness is often a vicious cycle limiting resident’s ability to farm and do other work for food and to cover living expenses and resulting from resident’s inability to buy what is not freely available - clean water. People in our communities are dying of preventable water borne diseases.
Wakiso District is blessed with many natural springs. These bubble up from the ground and feed small ponds. Due to their abundance, reliability and high water quality, spring wells are common in Wakiso District. They have proven to be economical, sustainable and long lasting. At the same time, some areas of Wakiso District can not benefit from natural spring development as they lack springs. In Naluvule, Kasngejje, Namusera, Bukasa and Mende parishes’ residents rely on water from pools, streams and water catchments in the rainy season. When these sources are not available woman, children and men travel 4 or more kilometers to collect water at developed wells or watering holes. During the dry season people are forced to travel further and further from home to collect water. Water collection can be most of a days work. In these areas hand dug wells are the least expensive yet reliable alternative to spring wells.
Since July 2007 KACCAD has developed 19 spring wells in Wakiso District. Community members have show tremendous support for well development through their participation in all of these projects. Women, children and men work together to completer wells and do maintenance. Community support both makes these projects possible and shows that they are sustainable as beneficiaries demonstrate their commitment through their work.
KACCAD will work with community members and our team of technical builders to complete manual labor for each well. We will be the intermediaries between your group and the community providing you with photos and a final report of completion. The community receiving the well will be responsible for maintenance. Residents will receive training from Wakiso District on how to maintain their well and will form comities to do this upkeep. KACCAD will work with communities and the district to cover major repairs.
Spring well construction costs $2,722 dollars. Hand dug wells construction costs $3,831. To break this down, we can build a spring well that will serve approximately 845 people with approximately 54 donations of $50 or 27 donations of $100. With 38 donations of $100 we can build a hand dug well that will serve people in areas where water availability is other wise unreliable. In the United States you can easily spend $50 on a good dinner for two or $100 on a new pair of shoes. Think about it.
By KACCAD Director Derrick Luwaga
Derrick Luwaga is one of the core founders and present director of KACCAD. He helped start KACCAD in 1994. Since that time he has been diligently committed to serving Wakiso and Mpigi District residents through his work with KACCAD.
I wish on behalf of KACCAD to extend our sincere thanks for this quite enormous work of construction of 20 spring wells since 2007-2008. It could not have been a success without the input and support of our volunteers Sofia Graflund and family, Amanda Nakalema Milholland and family, Maheen, Tori, Brittany, Clementine, Courtney, Musisi Samuel and Nicholas Ssekilanda. At this juncture I would like to take this opportunity to extend sincere thanks on behalf of the people of Wakiso Sub-County, the main beneficiaries of this project, and the KACCAD community to the Swedish, Canadian and American partners whose support was giver for these projects. I would also like to thank our partner organizations The Real Uganda and Global Volunteer Network for providing us with international volunteers without which this work would not have been possible.
The construction of these 20 spring wells has cost us 64,260,000 Ugandan Shillings, which is equivalent to $37,800US dollars. We sincerely thank all of the donors who have contributed to the development of these springs! And this is serving a large populace of the parishes of Ssumbwe, Nakabugo, Mende, Kaliti, Banda and Naluvule of Wakiso Sub-County. Its estimated that the construction of 20 spring wells will benefit over 27,560 families. We thank each and every one who has contributed for your help to make this gift to the community possible.
Sincerely,
Derrick Luwaga
KACCAD Director
Out of the students identified by KACCAD for sponsorship, 21 received sponsors this and last quarter! We are still looking for sponsor for 50 students this year.
In Wakiso District, Uganda, approximately 50,000 children are living in single parent homes and 20,000 children are orphans due to HIV/AIDS or other sickness. The KACCAD Student Sponsorship Program was started to connect some of these needy children to international sponsors- individuals, families or group. We are presently looking for sponsorship for 50 students who we have identified as being at high need. Many of these students have lost one or more parents to HIV/AIDS and other sickness, are being raised by single mother or are living with siblings. Sponsorship is their only opportunity to attend school.
There is no such thing as free education in Uganda. Public education in Uganda is limited to primary school yet even primary students struggle to get a spot in school and to pay the fees for uniforms and books. Most schools are private requiring higher tuition then the public schools but offering smaller class size and better educational materials. As result of school fees many children are unable to go to school. Even the fees for public education are simply out of reach for many households.
Students we sponsor attend two different kinds of school, day school and boarding school. Day school requires tuition payment only. Boarding school includes lodging and food during the term and thus is a bit more expensive. Boarding school has many advantages for children who have lost both parents providing them a stable place to live, food security and a good environment for study. There are opportunities to sponsor students who wish to attend both day and boarding school and who are in levels from primary to university. We encourage you to contact KACCAD promptly if you wish to sponsor a child. The first term of school has started but it’s not too late to keep a child in school who will be kicked out without your donation or to help a student start school second term. For more information about sponsoring a student please check out KACCAD’s blog: http://kyosiganews.blogspot.com/ or email us at: kyosigacommunity@gmail.com.
KACCAD is looking towards the future of the organization by making plans for construction of a volunteer center in Kikaaya Village, Bulenga. We ask for your help in making this dream a reality. Presently, we have received donations for the foundation of the center from Denise Kamya of the US and Real Uganda. A plot of land was given by Mis. Nanziri, our Executive Director, Derrick Luwaga's mother. The center will be a duplex that will house the KACCAD office, staff and international volunteers. We hope to lay the foundation for the center, and God willing, the walls over the next two quarters. We are going to build it one half at a time so we can move our staff and office in and cut our costs as soon as possible. To build one half we need $13,000 in addition to the $4,000 that has been so far raised. Any contributions to this project will have a tremendous impact on the future of KACCAD. This more than any other project we have done will give KACCAD a secure stage for our future and that of the communities we serve.
Amanda Nakalema Milholland has been working with KACCAD since December 2006. She is a Peace Corps health volunteer with a focus on HIV/AIDS. Her work with KACCAD has included provision of HIV/AIDS and life skills education to secondary and vocational students at six schools in
We received a grant for training of 54 teachers from 27 secondary and vocational schools this quarter! We will be carrying out most of this project over the next quarter and a half. In our excitement we have started a bit of the preliminary work now. We are working with Wakiso District to identify schools to work with. The district will also be donating condoms for the four voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing events we will be doing along side the trainings. The Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) events that are to be held in conjunction with the teachers training will target teachers, students and community members. My counterpart Sam Musisi and I will be leading between two and four trainings for four days each. Trainings will be held in April and May. At the end of the trainings teachers will have a through knowledge of HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention and will have practices teaching about HIV/AIDS. We hope to facilitate discussion of how this information can be presented in the classroom and to fellow teachers. Through this program we will give 27 schools resource persons who are knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS. We are really excited about this grant and the work ahead of us.
