Last day of school

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Today was the last day of school, as the schools in Uganda break up for 8 weeks for the end of the school year. The kids recapped all that they had learnt in the past month and a half in the first few hours and then we had break and moved outside where they sang songs and made paper hats. Just before the school broke up the children started singing this song for Megan and me about being superheroes. The kids usually make their own way home finding their way through the busy narrow paths, crossing sewage streams past homes that all look the same. This time, however, we all walked the kids home together, the now teachers, Afisha and Teddy with Megan and me also. I had been to see a few of their homes before but it was great to see all their homes and to get a picture of them and some of their families in front of their homes. We said our goodbyes, only for a short while as both the volunteer teacher and both of us will still be working in the slum and with the families but not directly teaching them in a school.
There is still a lot of work to be done; our new organisation is not just simply a school for vulnerable children but it is a project that encompasses the whole community. We need to look seriously at the community and think how we are to provide the parents with opportunities to provide for themselves and their families. We will look at training these parents in various work skills; we will be looking at running life skills workshops including how to look after your family’s health by eating, drinking, playing, working and living safely. We are having meetings often within our organisation and getting training, advice and meeting with other organisations to improve the community of Katanga.
That afternoon we made the trip across town to have a meeting with a few people from Oasis. Oasis are a big charity organisation, which run throughout the world but we went to visit this organisation which, like us, does work in slums, with street children and with communities to help them provide for each other. We had a great chat with them, learning from them, finding information about how we can do this successfully in Katanga. We have got contacts of others we should meet to get further information. We met, at a local church, a couple of girls who work for a company in Uganda which overseas and works with huge amounts of Christian NGO’s (non-government organisation), in Kampala. We met these girls when we had just moved back to Kampala, then not knowing that the project we were to undertake would become the organisation it is today.
Now we have bought the building we will look to buy the resources needed to start building and turning this building from a house into a school and community building. This is the building that will hold various activities throughout the week.
All exciting stuff for us to be getting on with for our last 3 and a half weeks in Uganda.

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