Dear KACCAD Volunteers, Friends and Well-Wishers,
From our office in Kikaaya Village we are wrapping up 2007. We are pleased to share our successes from the quarter and year. KACCAD had developed a lot over the year and has assisted with community development that has benefited thousands of people. As a small community based organization we did not envision that we could grow and make such an impact in such a short time. Over the course of the year, KACCAD has supported community development in income generation and water and sanitation. We provided school sponsorship and education support, life skills and HIV/AIDS sensitization, home-based support to people living with/affected by HIV/AIDS and community mobilization for Voluntary HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing (VCT). We have started and strengthened national and international partnerships and developed friendships with volunteers from around the world. Your support and that we get from our volunteer team has made this progress possible.
We started our home visit program in partnership with Bbiira AIDS Community in September 2007. This is the first program that we were able to start as result of support from Real Uganda/Global Volunteer Network volunteers. This program, focused on serving people living with/affected by HIV/AIDS, is lead by KACCAD staff members Sam Musisi and Nicholas Ssekiranda and temporary volunteers from Real Uganda. KACCAD teams with Bbiira AIDS
Community to identify needy families, assess their needs and provide basic assistance as available. Since September we have visited 45 families in Wakiso Sub-County. All these families are affected by HIV/AIDS with one or more family member infected. Presently we are visiting homes to provide basic support: food, clothing, mattresses, and jerry cans, referrals for other assistance and to assess family needs. We have provided 38 families with clothes for children and adults. Mattresses and mosquito nets were provided to 25 families and jerry cans to 17. A total of 50 kilograms each of sugar, posho (corn flower people use for porridge and to make bread), rice and 45 kilograms of beans were distributed. Donations have also allowed us to help with some medication costs, pulling of an infected tooth, purchase of baby formula, provision of protein powder and other donations to needy families. All families receiving support were selected by Bbiira AIDS Community counselors as being most in need. Working with these same counselors and our volunteer team we will continue to do home visits over this next year. We will also work to provide other more sustainable support to the neediest families.
At present we are working on a project to expand this program, a group chicken rearing income generation activity that will support seven families. We received funding for the chicken rearing project from the With God’s Little Ones (an American-based organization that operates internationally), two of our Real Uganda volunteers, Maheen Merchant and Sofia Graflund, and from Lee Miller of Port Townsend, WA in December 2007. With this support we will provide approximate 300 chickens, chicken housing, food and medicine to the seven families that will participate in the project. KACCAD will also facilitate training of beneficiaries in chicken rearing and business management and will oversee the project for the first year.
Over the year we have provided Voluntary HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing (VCT) to 730 people through our partnership with AIDS Information Center (AIC). Attendance at testing events has been on average over 100 people with an estimated total 996 people attending the seven testing events we have hosted since April. Test results from these events indicate an area infection rate of close to 11% (10.7%). The high infection rate in our area as well as the enthusiasm of community members for this program shows how valuable it is. It gives people who don’t have the means to go to Kampala for testing an opportunity to learn their HIV/AIDS status and receive referral for other support if they are found to be infected. This is the only service of its type – community based free HIV/AIDS counseling and testing – being offered in our area. Though we realize the importance of this service, we struggle to provide it on an ongoing basis as AIC asks us to pay for their transportation and counselors time- about $50 an event. In the coming year we look forward to strengthen our partnership with AIC and resuming a regular schedule of VCT events as funding allows.
On December 17th we had a celebration of the completion of the 13 spring wells built by KACCAD in 2007. Our guest of honor was the Swedish Ambassador Mr. Anders Johnson. He and his wife attended along with special guests from Wakiso District and local council members from Wakiso Sub-County. The ambassador cut ribbons at 4 of the 13 spring wells officially 
opening them. He visited wells in Nankuwadde, Kikaaya and Gogonya. These four wells as well as seven others were built in the last four months with donations from Sweden. The Ambassador also gave out 225 mosquito nets to Orphaned and Vulnerable Children at the event. Nets were provided with donations from Sweden. The other two wells build during 2007 we build with support from Port Townsend, WA, USA and Toronto, Canada community members. An estimated 200 adults and numerous children were in attendance at the event. Speeches were given by the KACCAD Director Derrick Luwaga, Mr. Johnson, Local Council Chairman of Bulenga B, Kiwanuka David, and the Honorable Kabandwa, the Wakiso District Secretary for Production. A song and dance performance was provided by Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) of Mercy Home Orphanage in Kajjansi, Wakiso District, a group we started working with this quarter.
We were very excited about this event and the number of spring wells built over the year. Towards the beginning of 2007 we made a work plan with the district in which we prioritized developing two spring wells over the year. At the time we made this plan KACCAD had only two full time staff. We were struggling to pay rent. From this background completing two spring wells was a huge dream. Our successful completion of 13 is more than six times what we hoped to do in the year and over what we imagined we could complete in five years! We are so thankful for all the support we have received to make this success possible.
Our partnership with Real Uganda has grown during 2007. We got our first volunteer from Real Uganda, a locally based NGO that partners with Global Volunteer Network (GVN) to provide volunteer opportunities to international volunteers, in July 2007. To date we have had six volunteers from Real Uganda. Sarah Riley and Brittany Walsh of the US, Sofia Graflund of Sweden, Maheen Merchant and Tori Fraser of Canada and Carl Bodenstein of Austria have all helped in the growth of KACCAD and the communities we serve. Volunteers from Real Uganda has helped us start a home based counseling/support program for people living with/affected by HIV/AIDS, they have taught hundreds of students at KACCAD’s four partner school and Mercy Home Orphanage, they assist with HIV/AIDS voluntary counseling and testing days and have done fundraising for the home visit program. They have also fundraised for a chicken rearing income generation project for clients of this program and for construction of 12 spring wells in Wakiso District. We greatly appreciate all the work of our volunteers and Real Uganda’s support in establishing this program and supporting our volunteers.
Our new volunteers for the quarter include Maheen Merchant, Tori Fraser and Carl Bodenstein. Maheen Merchant graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in International Affairs. Her interest in development work brought her to Uganda. She started working with KACCAD in October, 2007. In her two months at KACCAD, she helped with the home visit program, VCT and school life skills projects.
Tori Fraser is a volunteer from Calgary, Canada. She studied physics at the University of Calgary and has a lot of volunteer experience with children. Tori works with children and youth at summer camps in the Calgary area. Here in Uganda she uses these skills and experience with children in her work at Mercy Home Orphanage and her teaching at secondary and vocational schools in the Bulenga area. Tori joined us on November 1st and will be working with us for a total of six months.
Carl Bodenstein from Austria is studying Ethnology (social anthropology). Carl also has experience working with small children which he did for his civil service in Austria. He joined Tori in focusing on providing life skills training for children at Mercy Home Orphanage.
In addition to our new volunteers, we are pleased to still have Sofia Graflund on our team. She has been working with us since September and will finish her service in February. Sofia, a human rights lawyer from Sweden, has assisted with the home visit program, life skills education in secondary and vocational schools and fundraised for the construction of 11 spring wells.
It is a great joy to KACCAD that many of our volunteers have shared with us that they feel that their experience in Uganda has given them more than they could ever return. As we continue partnering with Real Uganda we hope to give volunteers similar opportunities to connect to communities in Wakiso Sub-County providing invaluable support and growing along with us.
As mentioned, KACCAD has a new founded partnership with Mercy Home Orphanage. This group from Kajjansi, Wakiso District approached KACCAD at the beginning of the year requesting partnership in providing life skills training to OVCs in their care. At that time KACCAD was not able to work with this group. With volunteer support and additional funding from Real Uganda for hosting volunteers, we are now excited to be working with them. Though schools are presently on break, we work with two secondary and two vocational schools in addition to Mercy Home. Over the year we have provided life skills/HIV/AIDS training at 
five schools, Mercy Home, for boy and girl scouts, youth groups, women’s groups and people attending Voluntary HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing Events. An estimated total of 600 vocational and secondary students, 130 OVC’s from Mercy Home, 80 women from three women’s groups, and 996 people at VCT events have received sensitization from KACCAD volunteers. In total an estimated 1,806 people have received sensitization for KACCAD volunteers over the year. Topics of focus have included HIV/AIDS, gender roles, early pregnancy and family planning, reproduction, body changes in youth, menstruation, communication and many other topics. In 2008 we will continue working with most of these and other groups providing sensitization.
In partnership with ‘With God’s Little Ones’ and Reverend Rudolph and Carol Kurz of the United States KACCAD helped the Makumbi family begin a chicken rearing income generation activity this year. The Kurz family also sponsored the eldest daughter of this family to attend a nursing program at Mengo Hospital close to Kampala. Other school sponsorships have been made by private donors from the US and Europe. KACCAD has received multiple donations of books from Operation Pass Along. Other in-kind donations received over the year include seeds, clothing, mattresses, beading, jerry cans and food for the home visit program provided by donors from Sweden, our volunteer Brittany Walsh and Organic Valley Dairy Company of the US. A laptop computer was donated by Doug and Nancy Milholland of Port Townsend, WA and funds for internet insulation were donated by ‘With God’s Little Ones’. Aaron Wotrham, a Peace Corps volunteer from Hoima District, also helped with our tech development repairing our computer and installing useful programs. In total this year KACCAD has received:
· $19,500 for spring well development
· Just over $3,400 for income generation activities (starting two chicken rearing projects)
· $8,059 for OVC school sponsorship (50 students)
· $500 for a New Years event and food give away for OVCs
· $500 for home repairs of a needy family in Bulenga
· $300 for the home visit program + in-kind donations mentioned above.
· $100 for the Life Skills/HIV/AIDS Awareness Program
· $2,193 for administrative support (rent, office supplies and internet set up)
Donations to KACCAD and KACCAD projects over the year amount to $106,552. In-kind donations can not easily be estimated. These contributions continue to enrich our community and enable KACCAD to both sustain and expand our programs. Thanks goes out to all those from the US, Canada and Sweden who have contributed to spring well development this year, those who have sponsored families to start income generations projects and students to attend school. We thank those who made donations for the home visit program, OVC support and for administrative support. We are very grateful for the donations we got this quarter for internet set up from ‘With Gods Little Ones’ and of a laptop from the Milholland family of Port Townsend, WA. THANK YOU!
KACCAD hosted many important visitors over the year. These include the director of ‘With God’s Little Ones’, Rudy Schaser; a board member of Global Volunteer Network (GVN), Chris Bryan and family; the deputy director of USAID, Elzadia Washington; the director of Real Uganda, Leslie Weighill; the Peace Corps Uganda and the US Peace Corps directors, McGrath Jean Thomas and Ron Schetter as well as other Peace Corps staff members; and many Wakiso District and Sub-County representatives. These special visitors have toured our projects, some have provided donations or recommendations and all have given us a lot of hope and encouragement. View the photo to the left of our visit with the Director of Peace Corps. The Peace Corps Director, Ron Schetter visited our office on December 9th along with other Peace Corps staff members. He toured our pig farm and one of the spring wells constructed in Kikaaya, Wakiso.
Also in line with the chicken rearing projects we helped start this year, we had another exciting animal advancement. Our pig, Nora, gave birth to ten piglets! They are really cute and bring 
new hope to the pig project. This is one of the projects that we are prioritizing for further developing in 2008. KACCAD is currently renting most of the pig farm but looks forward to repairing the stalls, getting more pigs and starting our own chicken rearing project for income generation to build organization sustainability. Other things we plan on working on over this next year include strengthening partnerships and establishment of an income generation project, improving our office technology with new equipment and tech support, building more spring wells and strengthening our volunteer program.
We are so thankful for all the support we have received over the year and hope for your continued support in 2008. Thanks goes to those who have made donations, our visitors and national and international volunteer team. With you we have exceeded our dreams for community development, provision of sensitization and care and support to OVCs and people living with HIV/AIDS. Thank you! We wish you and yours a happy and a healthy New Year.
Sincerely,
KACCAD Team
No comments:
Post a Comment