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.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Secondary Education Program
Chicken Rearing Update
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.
The Volunteer Beat
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.
Newsletter January-March 2008
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:
- · Real
- · With God’s Little Ones (USA): Purchase of computer equipment, sponsorship of internet for the KACCAD office, sponsorship of four students and a chicken rearing project for an HIV/AIDS affected widow, 2007-present.
- · The Milholland family (
- · Lee Miller, Maheen Merchant and Sofia Graflund: Donations to the group chicken rearing project, December 2007-first quarter.
- · Sofia, the Graflund family and donors from
- · Reverend Rudolph and Carol Kurz, With God’s Little Ones, Telyn Kusalik, Clementine Johnson, Ida Norlin, Christina Dahlberg-Norlin, Sofia Graflund, Helena Graflund Hanna Graflund, Graflund Family, the Lions Club Eskilstuna, Martina Engstrom, Mikael Stahl, Linda Hellqvist, Ann Bokinge, Annette Westoo, Markus Almerud: Student sponsors, 2008.
Water and Sanitation Development
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.
From the Dirrector on Water and Sanitation
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
Student Sponsorship-Part of First Quarter 08 Newsletter
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.
Volunteer Center
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.
Sustainable Health Education
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.