Amazing Place, Amazing People, Amazing Projects (part 1 & 2)

CCVS

The Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations is located in Lira, a town to the east of Gulu. Speak to those who are working to help the population affected by the war and they will tell you that this area was much harder hit than Gulu during the war but was more difficult to access so the international community set up in Gulu with the intent of "sharing the wealth" with Lira. That never happened.

Lira has few mzungu, narrow streets, and what seems like thousands of people. A new market structure is being built across the street from the current street market and the projected opening is in 2014. Roscoe, the psychologist from Kampala that works with CCVS twice a month, isn't hopeful. At least the population is happy about the move to the new building. Talk to the vendors here in Kampala and they refuse to move from Oweno Market to the new government structure. More on that in a later blog... maybe once I have left Uganda!

CCVS has a small office and a meeting room in a local high school, just past the airstrip. It has two support staff and three counsellors: Patrick, Jennifer and Denis. It officially opened at the end of 2010 but started seeing patients in January 2011. Since then, the three have met over 1000 patients. Each can see five per day but of course some are repeat clients.

While the name implies that they work exclusively with children, they actually counsel children, youth and adults who have been traumatized by the war. They do a variety of therapy programs depending on the situation and attend training that happens in Gulu. This past summer they completed extra training for victims of torture and extra training for family therapy. Some clients require 12 or more sessions and others only one to help the person realize that what is happening is not witchcraft but rather post-traumatic stress. Many clients have been abducted, raped or have witnessed killings. The Mental Health institute in Lira will refer new patients to CCVS if they feel they need counselling more than they need drugs. The three also visit the men’s prison every week to do individual and group counselling sessions. When an inmate is to be released, they work with the inmate to prepare him and they go to the village to prepare the community for the re-integration of the individual.  

Other clients come to the office or Patrick, Jennifer or Denis travel to the villages up to 50km away. They have a boda (motorcycle) that they use to reach the outlying communities. It is in need of repair but still chugging along. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for their computer that has just crashed. It is their hope to move into new communities in 2014.

In the two half days that we spent with them, we learned about their programs, visited the Mental Health institute and toured the prison. These three soft-spoken individuals are also incredibly passionate about their work. They speak of the value of working with these victims of war in order to rebuild the community. They speak proudly about their successes as they well should because the work is great and they are only three. However, the funding from the Belgium government has not been secured for the coming year so the centre is in crisis itself. The Congolese branch is still getting funding but it is still in war. But people don’t just wake up the morning after the war is over, feel all better and move on. These people need someone to talk to.

If they cannot secure funding, they will close their doors in February 2014. Total operating cost for 5 local employees, the psychologist from Kampala, the offices, the boda, the fuel and all other expenses: 100,000,000USh. That’s about $45,000cdn. Crazy.

COHU

Corey and I met Esther and her husband Solomon just over a month ago when they were in Kampala. We have a mutual contact in the local Rotary club and he arranged for us to meet. Esther is the founder of Children of Hope Uganda in Lira and in a short period of time, she has established a lot. Esther and Peace, her “second in command”, met us at our hotel in Lira and travelled with us to the main hub of their work, a vocational school in Barnolyo.

Barlonyo is a small community about 45 minutes’ drive from Lira (which could be just 10km on these roads, who knows.) This community was victim of a large massacre by Kony and the LRA in 2004 when 300 people were rounded up and killed. Kony then cut off their heads and hands then made stew for the rest of the community to eat. After the rebels left, the government collected the bodies and buried them, counting 122 victims but they failed to count the ones who were thrown into the bush. The memorial plaque says 122 but the community is fighting in court to have the real number of 300 on the plaque in order to honour all the dead and bring the reality of the massacre forward.

COHU’s vocational school currently offers 6 month tailoring classes for women from the community who want to develop a skill that can help lift their family out of poverty. They have fewer machines than participants but the women work in shifts. The goal is to provide the graduates with their own machine so that they can start their own business. The first set of graduates received a machine but the most recent graduates did not. COHU does not have the funding to buy them at the moment. Bree and I brainstormed with Esther and Peace about ways to make the donated machines sustainable for COHU. Apparently some of the women from the first group just sold the machine. We have learned that those who do not invest in a project don’t value it so that is disappointing but not surprising. The women make animals, dolls and clothes and one suggestion was that they could make these to sell to pay for their machine as they earned their own money as well. Once the machine was paid for, they could keep it.

Another program at Barnolyo is a nursery school. They have 3 rooms on the land of the vocational school and employ 3 teachers who share the 280 three to seven year olds. Did you get that? Let me repeat: 3 rooms, 3 teachers, 280 kids under the age of 7.

Esther has also established a sustainability program that helps provide funds for children to attend school. COHU does not believe in school sponsorship because it only supports one child and maybe it’s not the right child or maybe that child will leave the family when they have finished their schooling. So they provide a sustainable project (chickens, pigs, goats) to the caregiver and then the money earned goes toward educating all the children. “No mother is going to favour only one child. She will share the resources between them so that they all have the same opportunities.” It’s hugely successful because all the families who are involved in this program are paying school fees for all their children.

Peace also runs a savings program with small groups of in a variety of communities. Each week, the members must make a contribution to their savings. She trains one member to be the accountant and the funds grow weekly. The minimum donation is 1,000USh a week. For the amount you save in the first 2 months, you get a 15% interest rate. It is also possible to borrow from the account as long as the others are willing to be your guarantors. Depending on the amount of time it takes you to repay, the interest rate goes up. This covers the 15% interest that is promised.  The three women in this photo are part of the Barnolyo savings program. The woman on the left is the accountant for the group.

COHU works in 5 other communities as well but trains tailors without having a big vocational school like in Barnolyo. It is Esther’s hope that one day there will be other programs such as culinary arts/catering. At the moment there is tailoring, brick making/laying and a couple others that slip my mind. They also run health workshops and sanitation groups that monitor the cleanliness of each other’s houses.

We had planned to present to two groups at Barnolyo but only had one day and they had intended us to come for two. Our presentation was very dynamic and there was one older woman name Eunice who added comments and got all the women laughing. It was great because everyone relaxed and we had a lot of fun speaking with them. Esther and Peace were great and we left the second batch of kits with them so that they could do the presentation the following day. “Are you going to teach us how to make the kits?” What a common refrain. We do really need to find PUL.

Esther has an interesting history. She was orphaned in her mid-teens and her brother and his wife died when she was 18, leaving her to raise 3 children. She had the opportunity to train to be a teacher so her other brother cared for the children for those 2 years but once she was done, he married and moved away. She was left to raise these children as she began her teaching career. When she married Solomon, he understood that the three children were part of the package deal and now they have three children of their own. She no longer teaches but focusses full-time on COHU and its projects. She is 36. Peace will be 30 early next year. Incredible women who have accomplished amazing things.

As all groups, funds are hard to come by. The vocational school has poultry, pigs, pineapples, and fish ponds to help pay for the programs. Unfortunately there is no fence around the school so theft and visiting grazing animals do affect their profits. “No-one wants to donate to a fence,” Esther declares.

COHU does have an amazing champion in Toronto, Lorna, who is working hard to get funding for them. Visit Danier Leather anywhere in Canada and you will find small animals made by these women in Lira. Lorna has managed to get their product into these stores. Mr. Danier even donates $2200 per month to the organization and will send all the money raised by the sale of these animals back to the organization. Go buy them! I know the women who will benefit from those purchases. They are using ISEE’s sanitary kits! These women here are stuffing elephants and zebras and rhinos that will be in a Danier Leather shop near you!

Two more amazing projects and groups of people. Being in the north always re-inspires me and makes so thankful to be in Uganda working with these amazing people! Lucky me!