After a quick lunch Steve, Tanya, Jon & John, together with David & Emma from ACET, headed to Tumaine home in Kakira on the outskirts of a large sugar plantation. Rianna's Fund has been contributing to the food costs for the 80 children for the past 3 years.
We were greeted by the children singing outside the front of the Home. Inside the hall we were entertained by more of their amazing singing after which Pastor Nicholas & his wife Maria greeted us and introduced us to the workers in the Home. After some short speeches Tanya spent time with Brenda, age 16, Jessica & Ivan, both 8 years, Sheila, age 12 & Natasha 11, talking about their life at the home and their aspirations for the future. Meanwhile Steve, Jon & John produced a new football (surprise surprise) & promptly arranged an England v Uganda game. Jon is still talking about his masterful strike in the first half (scoring past the 6 year old Uganda goalie).
Afterwards we went around the site with pastor Nicholas hearing about his plans for a new school for nursery and primary age children from the home and surrounding community. We said goodbye to the children and went with pastor Nicholas to see the nearby Kakira slum village. The community is extremely poor with many women and children who have been abandoned by their husbands/fathers when they have completed their contracts at the sugar factory. In the middle of the slum we saw the youth centre run by pastor Nicholas & Maria. The children are able to go here to receive food and some counselling. Most of the families have no income and survive by brewing Waragi, a rough spirit distilled from cheap molasses from the sugar plant, whose distinctive smell permeates throughout the slum.
It was a pretty gruelling end to the day which provoked much thought and discussion that evening.
The following day we had an early start and headed 20kms east to Iganga. We spent the day with pastor Paul of CFE, first heading to Mawagala village. Rianna's Fund have supported over 30 children's school fees in this area, including a number of child headed families. Some of these children were there to meet us, including Afan, Mohammed, Fred, Brenda & Saad. We have met Afan twice before, he is now 17 and in his second year of teacher training college (whilst looking after his 4 younger brothers). Most of the young people we met are now at secondary school & Mohammed has just completed his studies.
Pastor Paul then took us to a very rural area near Lake Victoria to visit a potential new project in Malongo. We travelled for 2 and a half hours along a murram road in a thunderstorm. The community is made up of many tribes and fishing was the main source of income, until it was recently made illegal. Most of the families are very poor and survive by cultivating the land which is fortunately fertile.
We were greeted in the pouring rain by 185 children (all under 9 years of age) who were gathered in their temporaray school shelter. This was a corrugated iron roof supported by simple wooden poles. The noise of the rain made it impossible to hear anything for the first 15 minutes! Still the children continued to sing and crowd round us while we all tried to keep dry. We discussed with pastor Patrick & Fred, the Community Development Centre officer, their plans to build a permanent school on the site. This school is much needed as there are only 3 schools in the entire parish & classes can be as many as 800 children to 1 teacher. The community are very keen to have their own school and raised the necessary funds for the temporary structure between themselves.
After a return journey to Jinja (fuelled by the bananas given to us by the Malongo community) we headed to the hotel for a cup of tea and a lively de-brief & discussion with David & Emma on the projects seen so far.
Link to details of Tumaine Home & 'child headed' families on the website;
http://www.riannasfund.org/Child%20Headed%20Families%20and%20Tumani.htm
Rianna's Fund
No comments:
Post a Comment