growing family trees

A matter of terminology

2010-03-26T11:03:00.000+03:00

FSP Coordinator, Anne, was struggling with terminology but has finally found the answers.

Talk of the changing situation in the north. For a long time it was conflict and conflict and conflict. Now it is time for people to re-settle into their original homes. Over 70% of FSP beneficiaries were displaced into the municipality. And the FSP strategy of family strengthening provides for withdrawal of families who gain self reliance.

In the current situation, some families in Gulu are leaving the programme area to go back to their original homes. Will they also be reported to have been withdrawn? That can’t be. How about those who are uncooperative and all efforts to empower them have been received with cold hands?

This has been a battle in the programme and we finally settled for the following words:
Withdrawn for those who are phased off upon gaining self reliance.
Relocated for those who have gone back to their original homes.
Discontinued for those who are uncooperative or unwilling to work hard to gain self reliance as a family.

But that does not end the story; there are also those who have partly relocated but their children continue to study in town. They go to their village for holidays and this we refer to it as partial relocation.

Children’s library opens at the SOS Social Centre Gulu

2010-03-23T13:53:00.006+03:00

A new children’s library recently opened at SOS Social Centre Gulu. It is the only children’s library in Gulu and was opened following donations of books by various organisations including UNICEF, Vision in Action, and the Gulu Rotary Club. The Gulu NGO Forum donated a computer which, it is hoped, funds permitting, is the first of many that will be in the library and will one day be connected to the internet. Another local community-based organisation donated the all-essential book shelves.

The aim of the new children’s library is to allow children access to resources which will enhance their education and create a reading culture. Fittingly, children were involved in the planning process and will be trained by an SOS Social Centre co-worker as volunteers in the library when they are not at school, and particularly during the school holidays. It is intended that the library, which also contains educational toys, will be used by all the children of the Gulu community and by local schools.

The opening ceremony, at which children thanked the donors, was attended by the local community and leaders of the local district council who said that the facility will go a long way to helping local children.

Once the library was declared open several children dived into the book shelves and sat down at the reading tables, totally absorbed in the books. The only noise came from the adults who were being shown around.

The verdict was ten out of ten for five year old Nancy, a local child from the community who commented, “I have seen some good books – I will continue coming here”.

VILLAGE DIRECTORS UNDERGO A LIFE THREATENING EXPERIENCE IN THE NAME OF TEAM-BUILDING

2010-02-08T12:41:00.002+03:00

On 31st January 2010, 14 Village Directors from 10 different countries converged at the SOS Regional Training and Resource Centre (RTRC) in Karen, Nairobi-Kenya to attend the first Continental Village Director Training, from 1st to 12th February 2010. Since our arrival, we have shared a lot of experiences and joys. To some of us it’s really a good opportunity, helping us to refresh our minds and to think outside the box as well.

I would like to share with you one experience, which will never leave our memories. This was a team building activity in which we were tasked to participate in several scary activities. On 2nd February, we boarded a minibus very early in the morning and went to a location about 100km north-east of Nairobi.

On reaching there, we were warmly received by Mr. Savage, the proprietor. At that moment, we could not figure out the kind of team building activities we were going to do. A team of 4 instructors came, divided us into two groups and briefed us on what we were going to do. In the morning we did activities like wall climbing, spider web, trust fall and land mine and in the afternoon we went for water rafting on the River Tana.

The morning activities were really hard. They required a lot of perseverance, planning and collective participation. They inflicted a lot of fear on most of us. We finally had to get out of our comfort zone to accomplish those difficult tasks.

But the morning activities were just an icebreaker. It’s when we were told to board the minibus to go for water rafting that we started getting worried. Although we were given life jackets and helmets to wear for our safety, we felt uncomfortable. Our discomfort grew from time to time, more so for some of us who had never stepped a foot in water to swim. We were all filled with unbearable fear: fear of water, fear of the unknown, fear of waterfalls and above all, fear of drowning in the water.

Yes, there was no way of escaping. As soon as the minibus dropped us to the starting point, it left. The only way to travel back to the camp site was by water, a journey that took us over 3 hours. Each one of us was given a paddle and told to enter the water. All of us had to paddle, following the instructions given by our leaders. We could at times paddle forward or backward, fall on the right or left of the raft and hold on the raft. All these actions had to be done collectively or else the raft could easily capsize.

Mr. Savage, like his name, is a bad-turned-into-good person. When we reached somewhere, he stubbornly and mercilessly sprinkled water with his paddle onto us that made us wet. As if that was not enough, he pushed us with his paddle, one by one, off the raft into the deep water. It was a shocking experience for me. The first time I nervously struggled to come afloat and ended up swallowing several litres of water. He did it to me the second and the third time as if he was only targeting me. But we were all treated alike by Mr. Savage. After rafting half the journey, we got used to it and the fear somehow reduced. We reached our destination and Mr. Savage finally turned out to be a good friend to everyone.
I no longer fear water. The experience has even motivated us to be adventurous and persevering. Just a pity I couldn’t take my camera onto the river!

SOS Kindergarten Gulu End of Year Concert

2009-12-02T11:05:00.011+03:00

Everybody was anxiously waiting for 21st of November 2009 when our concert was held. The day started like any other normal school day. Children and parents arrived in time. As parents took up their seats, children were getting ready to present a play and dances. The concert started at 11.00am with the children leading the national anthem and the school’s anthem.

It was real fun to see KG 1 children confidently reciting their rhymes, accompanied with actions, like “Elephant, Elephant, Mummy in the kitchen and Hello, Hello.”

The children have come a long way. Seeing them alone on stage for the first time in their lives brought tears of joy to their teachers and parents as well. Then KG 2 children also showcased what they had learnt in rhymes and poems. For them rhymes were not only said in English but also in Luo and Luganda.

As the rhymes ended, it was time for the Christmas play. Our children acted well, displaying confidence and independence on the stage. They were articulate and bold enough to face an audience of 180 people. The wedding day dance followed with children dressed like they were really going to a wedding party. Girls wearing their beautiful white frocks and boys clad in their suits, they put on a perfect performance.

The Kwazulu, Akogo and Kipepeo dances were the height of that day. Parents joined in the dance and continuously clapped and cheered. It was at that moment that Santa Claus, alias Father Christmas, emerged to everyone’s surprise and joined the children in the concert. Children, teachers, parents and friends cheered and applauded to receive Santa Claus with a lot of excitement. Santa Claus gave out presents to all children, thanking them for being good to their teachers and parents. He then joined the SOS KG family to cut the Christmas cake. It was a day full of fun and excitement. It was also an eye opener to the community, and at the end of it15 guests took admission forms to book well in advance for their children in 2010.

By Marion Otema, KG Head teacher

Twelve new children move into the village

2009-08-25T14:37:00.001+03:00

Children are like flowers. Whenever I watch them playing, laughing and doing any sorts of things I feel good and motivated. I see the SOS contribution through their eyes when they are happily living like children. It’s indeed satisfying and rewarding to see a child who was once deprived of parental love and care feeling good and well taken care of in an SOS family.

Since the children moved into the new village, there is recognisable evidence that their life has changed. When asked, most of them quickly express their happiness and appreciation. They feel good about the adults around them.

June and July were months of real happiness to the SOS families as 12 new children were ‘reborn’ into the village. Old children eagerly wait at the village car park each time new children are admitted into the village. They help with the children’s belongings and warmly accompany them up to their respective new homes. This gives a feeling of being accepted and a sense of belonging to the new children. Mothers organise the reception of the new children, each in a different style.

Surprisingly all the new children have changed and look very healthy and well taken care of after a period of just one month. When a relative of one of the new children came for a visit, the child felt so uneasy that he tried to avoid being nearby. When asked, the child expressed fear of being taken back by his grandmother, a conception that was only corrected by his SOS mother’s intervention. He is not to blame for the action. It goes without saying that his life had changed for the better. Friends, good food, good care, a feeling of being loved and a hopeful future are what he would miss.

Caught in the vicious cycle of the Poverty Trap

2009-08-14T10:02:00.003+03:00

On 5 August 2009, a Catholic catechist led me to Oke’s home (not real name), located 20 km away from Gulu town. We went to follow up on the case of three children referred to us by the catechist as being in a worrying and pitiful situation. This is the family of Oke and his wife, who live with their four grown up daughters in two old huts in a former Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp. Three of the four daughters have children. The eldest daughter is mentally unstable. She has had three children: two girls and one boy. The boy, the youngest, is now crawling and still living with the mother. The two girls were taken by the catechist, who, on humanitarian grounds offered to temporarily take care of them while she looks for well-wishers to take over, because she also does not have resources. It’s these three children that concerned me enough to make a follow up.

On reaching Oke’s house, we found all the family members at home. What raised my eyebrows was the situation we found them in. The three babies (grandchildren) were naked and as dirty as all the adults taking care of them. I imagined they had spent a month without bathing for lack of soap. They looked sad, apart from the youngest child, who crawled towards me with a big smile, and kept on smiling until we left. Probably he had seen a father. He does not have a known father, like his two siblings. Unknown abusive men take advantage of his mother’s mental disability and she ends up pregnant.

The mental status of Oke’s eldest daughter is seen as a curse to the family. Even the two other daughters, who seem mentally sound, have fallen into the trap of exploitative and abusive men, who impregnate them and deny responsibility, claiming that they cannot have children with mad people.

I stared at them in disbelief, asked myself how a human being can suffer to that extent without help. I later discovered that a certain NGO had built for them a small hut. But a house without any economic empowerment had little impact on their life. The grass on it is disappearing slowly by slowly without being replaced. They hardly eat two meals a day and the World Food Programme has stopped distributing food. They only rely on handouts given by sympathisers.

The family have a piece of land away from where they live. When asked why they cannot relocate to their land and grow crops, Oke expresses fear that this house in the IDP camp would be taken by other people. The house now becomes a roadblock to positive thinking. Some of their neighbours ‘help’ them by giving them handouts, while others use the daughters to till their land for food. I look at Oke forcefully expressing himself with desperation. Although he is happy to see us concerned, his rage is deep rooted in his heart. Tears roll down his fleshless cheeks during the conversation, which made us change the conversation. He sees no reason to continue living. He prefers death to suffering.

I reflect a little bit and deep in my mind I put the blame on the government and civil societies for not coming to the assistance of such extremely needy families. But why blame the government and the civil societies? We are also a civil society that can take care of Oke’s grandchildren to save their lives. I took courage and soon these children will be in a better home and look forward to a promising future.

Photos from the inauguration of the SOS Children's Village Gulu

2009-07-24T12:30:00.009+03:00

Four SOS Mothers Receive SOS Ring of Honour

2009-06-15T14:24:00.006+03:00

Better late than never. This news is coming to you belatedly. The truth is that while we were curious to enter the new village, we also had to work hard to make the occasion a memorable one. Making the new houses habitable and settling in the families required a lot of planning, hard work, and time as well, before and after the opening of the new village.

It is really hard to narrate on paper what actually transpired but a few sentences accompanied with some photos can explain it all. It was real happiness to children, mothers and other co-workers as the days drew nearer to the historical opening. They worked tirelessly and passionately to make the occasion a memorable one.

On Saturday 16^th May 2009, the day before the opening, four mothers were decorated with the prestigious SOS Rings of Honour to acknowledge their ten-year service as mothers. They included Mothers Harriet and Margaret from SOS Children’s Village Entebbe and Rose and Maria from SOS Children's Village Kakiri.

This historical event,which started at around 4.30 pm and two hours after the SOS President, Helmut Kutin arrived at the village, was presided over by Hon. Betty Ocan, female MP for Gulu Municipality and the chief guest. The rings were presented to the mothers by the Mr Helmut Kutin, after being blessed by the Archbishop of Gulu Diocese, Rt. Rev. John Baptist Odama. It was a brief ceremony, accentuated with dances and speeches and blessed with a downpour.

By 6.00 pm, the ceremony was over. The SOS President had dinner with all the mothers and other invited guests thereafter, before retiring to have sufficient rest in order to wake up early enough the following day for the grand opening of the new village.

New village to be commissioned soon

2009-04-27T11:09:00.006+03:00

Good News! The construction of the new SOS Children’s Village in Gulu that started in September 2007 has finally ended and the Grand Opening is scheduled for 17th May 2009. Yes, what started as a rumour is now turning out to be a reality. The Ugandan President and the SOS President have already confirmed their presence to preside over the opening ceremony of the new sweet home for 120 children.

Preparations and final touches are being made to make the occasion successful. Furnishing of the houses started a month ago by a four-man team from Nairobi. All the household property for all the families is at the site. Three new mother trainees have already been appointed to head three additional family houses, increasing the number of mothers from 9 to 12. There is already a waiting list of 17 new children to be admitted, increasing the capacity from 103 to 120 children with an average of 10 children per house.

All people are happy, eager and look forward with optimism to move to the new village. Children, mothers and co-workers are all seen visiting the project regularly, admiring the nicely built houses and a good environment created around them. Each family already knows the house they will occupy. Our plan is to settle in the families one by one before the opening and, depending on the progress of the craftsmen assigned to furnish the houses. life will no longer be the same for children and for us all as well.

Life at the SOS Kindergarten

2009-03-26T10:01:00.007+03:00

It’s now a month since our SOS Kindergarten opened. There has been a positive change despite some challenges at the beginning, as the beginning of everything is always hard. The kindergarten started with hardly any furniture and an approved running cost budget to meet its operational needs. Despite those challenges KG children have a good life and enjoyable learning, thanks to a lot of innovation and hard work by the KG teachers. Furniture was brought two weeks ago and it’s now being fixed by a four-man team from Nairobi-Kenya, assisted by two SOS youths from SOS Children’s Village Kakiri. Among the many things done at the school, I have personally fallen in love with the way the classes have been decoratively changed and the various children’s activities. What still I find interesting is watching the children playing and learning in class under the guidance of the happy skilled teachers.

This term, the children made a pictorial story entitled “THE THREE LITTLE PIGS”, whose theme is animals and which is the theme of the term. When one looks around, all the teaching aids in the classes are composed of animals. But in this particular story, each child was given a role and they shaded the pictures themselves. They do artwork like painting, modelling and pasting. They role play the story. They dress up like the characters in the story. They are also making Easter cards, which they intend to give to their parents, and to SOS co-workers both in Gulu and other projects. Even without the play equipment, there is already a variety of interesting activities and the school is so far the best one can find in Gulu.

Good news from Gulu - the SOS Kindergarten opens

2009-02-11T11:52:00.006+03:00

I would like to convey my belated but sincere New Year’s greetings to all our readers and the entire SOS fraternity. How do you feel the global financial crunch?

Well in SOS Children’s Village Gulu, in spite of the global financial crisis, 2009 has brought and will continue to bring many good changes. The first good news is that the SOS Kindergarten Gulu finally opened today 10th February 2009 with 15 children, of whom 3 are SOS children. A good number of parents from the community flocked to the Kindergarten to pick up admission forms as soon as they heard a radio announcement last week, which ironed out our fears of not getting enough children.

Although we started with hardly anything apart from some furniture borrowed from the Day Care Centre (the furniture is on the way), many parents expressed satisfaction with the high standard and the beauty of the place. Three qualified teachers were recruited in November/December and have all along been making teaching aids in preparation for the opening.

Most parents raised concerns over the need to construct a primary and secondary school so that their children can go to a good school after finishing three years in the Kindergarten. This is everyone’s wish and a wish that should come sooner rather than later.

Christmas mood among children

2009-01-05T17:10:00.005+03:00

Children are aware of the fact that when the year is coming to an end that is, the festive season, they have two main celebrations. The first which has started coming in their mind is Christmas party and Christmas celebration. Meaning, the do not value New Year celebration. The children therefore prepared themselves ahead of time, when their opinions were sought as to what kind of activities they would wish performed on their party day? Their first answer was miming (dancing) Christmas songs as they did the previous year, they also wanted to sing and perform drama. But on that very day the unexpected event also cropped in which added flavor to the party.

The children’s Christmas party which took place on 22nd December 2008 was a moment of joy and happiness for the kids and it was more like a Christmas celebration. Thus on the 25th itself there was nothing much they could enjoy apart from going for mass, which almost all children went. There were a number of activities that were carried out namely; dancing gospel-Christmas songs, drama-‘The birth of Jesus Christ’, singing songs that reflected the value of SOS to them (children), cutting of the birthday cake for a child in house seven and giving of gifts to the best performing children in the year 2008. The children ate sweets distributed by Father Christmas (Driver), biscuits and took sodas.

Children were so happy to share their sister’s birthday cake and when it reached the moment of presenting a parcel-rapped so attractively for the 17 bright children who passed so well in the next class, the other children were quite and one could see in their faces(eyes) the feeling of jealousy and revenge. This gift was given by a staff from the clinic department as a promise she early on made. The party went on till 9.00 Pm as the children danced and danced.

The challenges included; inadequate fund to cater for other things, no staff suffice apart from the few mothers/ Aunties, poor time management by the children and above all less involvement of some mothers/ Aunties. All these make it so difficult to stand in the frontline in organizing the children’s party since you will have to be there from day 1 till the end in order for it to yield good fruits.

A group of six children also went for the Mega Children’s party following the invitation of one of their staff. The numbers of children were limited to six due to money problem because they were to pay 5000 USH per child. But feed back have it that, they did wanders there since they were the only children who performed before over 400 other children. They gave Christmas welcome songs, danced, and distributed SOS seasonal greeting cards to the district Officials, who unfortunately did not come. The Management and staff of Mega were so pleased to have them and were told to come again next year!. One of the child in person of little Agenorwot Jennifer left the crowd in suspend since they were wandering how a young girl like her would recite a poem (title is “Peace”) without reading it from somewhere.

CHILDREN’S BIRTH DAY CELEBRATIONS

2008-12-11T14:47:00.003+03:00

It’s not a common practice in the Acholi culture to celebrate children’s birth days. Most ordinary people do not know their dates of birth. Surprisingly, one can easily tell his or her age when asked. What again is quite amusing is that one can tell the same age for over a period of 3 to 5 years. This is common with ordinary people who are not educated. But in a few modern families, it’s a different trend.

Some SOS children do not believe that the age on their personal file is their correct age. They always want to be called ‘little ones’ for years. This is common with girls especially when they are approaching adolescence. They always prefer reducing their age so as not be seen as big girls. In view of this, the SOS Mothers have made it a practice to celebrate children’s birth days as a way of encouraging them to accept their dates of birth.

SOS Mothers celebrate children’s birth days each in a different style according to her ability and available resources. For instance mother Julian, who has been very active in celebrating her children’s birth days, sometimes she prepares cakes and other times she chooses to buy sodas, biscuits or sweets. Her children love very much this moment. It’s like Christmas to them in which all the family members participate actively. They prepare poems and sing birth day songs to the celebrants. The children feel happy, excited and loved by their mothers on this occasion.

Story by,
Pamela Atim, Sponsorship Assistant

SOS Gulu commemorates World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse

2008-11-26T18:08:00.008+03:00

On 19th November 2008, SOS Gulu joined the rest of the world to commemo-rate the World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse, whose theme was “To raise visibility, mobilize participation and make prevention a global priority”. Prior to that day, SOS children had about two weeks of rehearsal on several different activities, which included mainly drawings, debating, poem and songs that depicted the rights of children.

On the D-Day, the Village Educator pinned all the children’s drawings to the movable two notice boards and placed them in strategic places for other people to see. These were drawings by very young children about the goods and bad things they see around them. And in the evening, when the children returned from school, they made their presentations of poems, debates and songs to fellow children and SOS staff. The motion of the debate was “The right to Freedom is more harmful to Ugandan children than good”. As each side tried to defend themselves, the audience could not help themselves from laughing. And at the end of day everyone had something to take back home.

SOS Staff and Mothers get trained on fire prevention

2008-11-20T17:58:00.012+03:00

Although fire extinguishers were placed in strategic positions in the village, hardly anyone could use them to extinguish fire in case of any fire outbreak. Consequently, a one-day fire sensitisation session was organised and facilitated by a police officer from the Fire Emergency Department in charge of fire rescue outbreaks in Gulu.
All SOS staff and children participated in the training. They had an opportunity to learn how to use fire extinguishers among other fire fighting techniques the police officer taught them.
The training came at an opportune moment when the SOS families are about to relocate to the new village.

Skill Development in SOS Children’s Village Gulu

2008-11-07T15:25:00.008+03:00

Children need to be exposed to as many skills as possible to enable them to realise their full potential. In SOS Children’s Village Gulu, our holiday programme is made in such a way that we do not only concentrate on academic work but also emphasise extracurricular activities. We take advantage of a diversity of skills our SOS mothers have, coupled with external support to help our children to learn a few things that might be of great benefit to them in future. Besides, such activities help us so much to deal with redundancy amongst them and to indirectly discourage bad behaviour.

Knitting is one such activity for which girls have developed a strong liking. During the second term holidays they made a variety of items ranging from sofa covers to door mats. We organised a small internal exhibition and we invited the fellow co-workers and the Canadian volunteer students to come and appreciate their work. Some ended up buying the items, which made the children feel good and valuable.

SOS Children participate in the annual Gulu Walk

2008-10-30T20:25:00.011+03:00

On Saturday, 25th October 2008 hundreds of people from all walks of life participated in the annual Gulu Walk, an annual event symbolic of the Acholi children of northern Uganda, who used to walk long distances each night to town centres for safety, during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency (LRA) for over 20 years.

Gulu Walk is an annual event that was initiated on 23rd June 2004 by two young Canadians Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward to raise awareness about the desperate plight of the children, whose rights were extremely abused during the insurgency.

Dignitaries, NGO representatives, adults and children participated in the walk. Over 20 SOS children, mothers and other co-workers, donned in orange Gulu Walk T-shirts, also took part in the event, which started at 8.00am at the Gulu District headquarters with several stopovers at various points. After a 12 km walk, all the walkers finally assembled at Kaunda Ground to listen to motivational speeches at about 11.30 am. They were entertained with traditional dances and served with refreshments. The Chief Walker was Archbishop John Baptist Odama.

This year’s theme “Youth and children in Peaceful homes” rhymed very well with the SOS vision that every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security. The war in northern Uganda is almost over with no physical fighting going on, though the LRA rebels are yet to sign a peace agreement to iron out any fears amongst the local people. However the war experiences will continue to have adverse and long-term effects on the Acholi community. For instance trauma is most likely to deprive children of love, respect and security if no quick intervention is made. It was therefore an opportune moment to sound it out clearly to the people the need to create peaceful homes for the children to grow up well.

Can beneficiaries be relieved from the burden of fuel source? FSP Gulu wants it so.

2008-10-17T18:17:00.011+03:00

Displacement, poverty, chronic illness characterizes the nature of families supported by FSP Gulu. Acquisition of firewood, charcoal, and the main source of fuel has always been difficult for these families. The SOS Co-workers read about briquettes from a GTZ manual but had never followed it up. In another attempt to seek knowledge and ideas through exposure, the FSP Programme Coordinator visited the Agricultural Trade Show in Jinja organized in July this year. That was how briquettes was physically discovered at the show ground.

Chris, a student of Agricultural Engineering at Makerere University was more than willing to travel to Gulu and have the people trained. “We want to spread this technology as far as possible”, he says. Chris visited FSP Gulu in October and trained SOS staff, beneficiaries and youth on how to make briquettes, a charcoal like material used as energy for cooking. Briquettes are defined as the compressed biomass or organic waste into fuel source. It is made out of organic waste: banana or potato or cassava peelings, rice husks, saw dust, anthill soil, cow dung etc. Briquettes made out of cow dung and banana peelings burn completely into ashes and are used mostly for cooking light food while briquettes made from anthill soil generate heat for longer hours.

Surely National Forest Authority will be more than happy to hear this if the people take it up seriously, family income and time spent looking for fuel will be saved, and there will be reduced expense on waste disposal by the authorities

The trainees have made an action plan specifying the time they will personally experiment in the presence of their colleagues and in turn train others.

Story written by
Denis Lyagoba, FSP Program Assistant

New village construction nearing completion

2008-10-06T10:04:00.006+03:00

It’s now one year since the construction of the new village started. What sounded like a myth is becoming a reality. The construction company will be handing over the village to SOS Children’s Village Gulu by the end of October 2008. They are currently working on the final touches. When they handover, it will take maybe one to two months to furnish the houses before we finally relocate. I see ourselves moving into the new village either in December or January next year.

The village really looks so good and a nice home for the children. “The children are lucky”, mentioned one visitor from Austria. Indeed, they are lucky. But it’s not only the children who are lucky, the community as well. When I move around Gulu town, I see nowadays several compounds being planted with grass the same way we have done in the new village. We have set an example for many people in the community to improve their livelihoods.

Besides the construction of the village, several activities are concurrently going on in preparation for the new village. They include recruiting new mother trainees and teachers for the kindergarten and admitting new children among others. The Gulu project is growing bigger and bigger. When we finally relocate to the new village, we shall embark on yet another episode of growing family trees.

SIX SOS GULU CHILDREN VISIT TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

2008-09-29T09:41:00.002+03:00

Six SOS Gulu children were among the lucky few children selected to participate in a student exchange visit programme between Uganda and Trinidad & Tobago. A team of 19 SOS children composed of 6 children from SOS Gulu, 6 from SOS Kakiri and 7 from SOS Entebbe left for Trinidad & Tobago, accompanied by 3 SOS co-workers. They travelled in three groups on 10th, 12th and 14th August for a one month-visit. Prior to their departure, they were involved in a series of trainings especially in music, dance and drama.

While in Trinidad they visited various cultural sites, factories, big government people and many other good places. The small boys and girls were treated like VIPs and they really liked the place. They had the best exposure SOS children in Uganda have ever had. They had a chance to visit big cities and busy airports like Dubai, Brussels and New York. They sat for the first time in very big and aeroplanes. They made friends and each of them came back with small notebooks full of email addresses of their friends, with business cards of responsible people they came across.

The children are changed and will never be the same. Their perception towards life is now quite different. They are so happy and appreciative to us for having selected them. When they returned on 17th September, everybody was so excited to see them especially their mothers and fellow children. They had several days of storytelling to their colleagues. The stories are quite many and I wish to ask them to write them down for our Blog readers to read.

CVAP ACTIVITIES IN PICTURES

2008-09-17T11:56:00.013+03:00

This year two groups of CVAP (Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program) student volunteers came to SOS Children’s Village Gulu. They participated in various activities that included growing crops with the families, malaria awareness campaigns and painting houses for the FSP (Family Strengthening Programme) beneficiaries. Here are some pictures to show what they did.

Using music as therapy at the SOS Children's Village Gulu

2008-09-02T12:09:00.004+03:00

Two music therapists - Bethan Lee, from England and Jantina Bijpost, from Holland - have come to SOS Gulu to offer music therapy sessions for children and training for staff. They have been offering clinical sessions to four small groups of children each week. These sessions offer the children a chance to have individual attention in a small group setting and to control what happens in their group. Music is used as a form of expression, exploring themes such as emotions and communication. Through musical games, the children learn to co-operate, compromise and form creative ideas in a safe, non-judgmental environment. The children are very enthusiastic about their sessions, and have begun to form small group identities, learning to respect each other and their individual offerings. They also enjoy the movement and dance that takes place in the sessions, which incorporates their local culture.

The current groups have been running for seven weeks and will rotate after ten weeks. During the next groups’ sessions, some mothers and aunties will be trained to continue the therapeutic work once the music therapists return home at the end of December.

Thanks go to Bethan and Jantina for their contribution to the SOS children. Thanks also go to Nicky Haire, from Scotland, who helped to set up the work in July but has now returned home.

THE INSEPARABLE TODDLERS

2008-08-11T11:17:00.005+03:00

Denis and Tom (not real names) are children that have discovered happiness in SOS Children’s Village Gulu. Not only are they happy with themselves, but they are also a source of joy to fellow children, mothers and co-workers.

Admitted into the village a few months ago and coming from different backgrounds, they have easily adjusted to the village life. They are always seen together, playing together and doing many things together. It’s still a mystery as to how they communicate and find themselves together, when they still do not talk and are from different families.

Denis is a jolly, lovely and generous boy who shows a lot of enthusiasm about his mother. His love for her is exceptional. He follows the steps of his mother wherever she goes. He is always smiling when he is with her and comfortably interacts freely with others in her presence.

Tom, on the other hand, finds the driver one of his best adult friends. Just seeing him coming, he runs towards the car, babbling some words trying to imitate the sound of the car. He has an ardent love for vehicles.

Much can be said about these two friends, but for now suffice it to say that they have really found a sweet home in SOS Children’s Village Gulu and everybody is proud of them.

SOS DAY CELEBRATIONS IN PHOTOS

2008-07-22T13:07:00.007+03:00

This year’s SOS Day was celebrated in advance on Sunday 22 June 2008. It was a low profile occasion with only the children, co-workers and CVAP volunteer students (Concordia Volunteer Abroad Programme) participating. The children presented a short drama, songs and Acholi dances. The chief guest was an SOS child, who made a prepared speech and gave out certificates of recognition to the CVAP volunteers who have just finished their volunteer work.

Some CVAP students broke down in tears as they were bidding farewell to the children with whom they had interacted so much in various activities.

SOARING FOOD PRICES IN GULU

2008-07-15T12:06:00.003+03:00

Since July 2006 when the peace talks started in Juba in Southern Sudan, northern Uganda has witnessed a return to relative peace. Gulu town is growing fast but the cost of living is incredibly high and unbearable to most local people.

The prices for foodstuffs have more than doubled, making Gulu the most expensive town in Uganda. For instance fuel that was sold at UG Shs 1,350 (USD 0.83) by the end of 2007 is now at UG Shs 2790 (USD 1.70). Beans have increased by 50%, maize flour by 71%, pigeon peas by 233%, simsim by 134%, groundnuts by 73%, cooking oil by 125%, milk by 37% and cowpeas by 433%.

This current situation is attributed to several factors: global warming, the 20-year civil war, the recent floods, the rural-urban influx and the opening up of the Sudan market, to mention but a few. Although close to 80% of the people have returned to their homes and are no longer living in IDP camps (Internally Displaced Persons camps), weather changes still remain a very big challenge to the farmers. Rains are less predictable than they used to be and many people end up harvesting little.

SOS Gulu participates in Day of African Child Celebrations

2008-07-11T11:23:00.003+03:00

On 16th June, SOS Children’s Village Gulu joined other NGOs, schools and Gulu district officials to celebrate the Day of African Child in Kaunda ground. The theme of the day was “Child Participation, Children to be heard and seen”. Indeed it was a day for children to be heard and seen. The chief guest was a child from Trinity College Gulu, whose speech emphasised the need for the children to be heard and taken care of. He raised concern over fellow children who were still in captivity, which has denied them a chance to grow as children.

Twenty SOS children, seven co-workers and 23 Concordia Volunteer Abroad Program (CVAP) student volunteers participated in the walk from the Gulu district headquarters to Kaunda ground. Prior to the celebrations, SOS Gulu took part in a series of preparation meetings together with other stakeholders and also made a contribution to making the occasion successful. The children also entertained the guests with dances and presented their artwork for the day’s exhibition.

New children's village on course to ready by September

2008-06-19T10:51:00.006+03:00

The construction of the new village is nearing completion. According to the site engineer, it will hopefully be handed over to SOS Children’s Village Gulu in September 2008. Workers are busy fixing tiles inside the houses, installing electric fittings, painting both inside and outside and many other things. The planting of grass and hedges around the boundary has also started. There are many and various tasks being performed simultaneously. The village has already taken shape and it is evident that by September it will be ready for occupancy.

We have, on the other hand, embarked on a kindergarten development plan, which will focus more on the staffing pattern and plan, children’s enrolment and budgetary needs. All these have to be done expeditiously to ensure that the SOS Kindergarten becomes operational by January 2009.

On the side of the children, there is burning hope and desire to move into the beautiful spacious houses. Besides, the mothers and other co-workers also feel good about the developments. Indeed it is going to be a nice place to live in, a place that is already being admired by many people.

FAMILY STRENGTHENING PROGRAMME SUPPORTS CHILD RIGHTS CLUBS IN SCHOOLS

2008-06-13T17:48:00.003+03:00

Being a child focused organisation, SOS Children's Villages cannot leave out issues pertaining to children’s rights in its operations. Sensitisation on these issues has always been a policy for co-workers and children within the project. This time round SOS Children's Villages Gulu through the Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) has embarked on a serious programme to sensitise pupils and their teachers on child rights and child protection in all schools where the FSP beneficiaries study. This has been deemed very important particularly in northern Uganda where most children have been most abused during the 20-year civil war and are still vulnerable to more abuse.

Since April, FSP social workers have helped to form child rights clubs in four schools. They gave out t-shirts and posters to the clubs, on top of carrying out sensitisation sessions for the club members. A comprehensive work plan that covers many areas of intervention was made, targeting both teachers and pupils in schools. This intervention will go a long way in helping many innocent children to become aware of their rights.

FSP FAMILY BECOMES SELF-RELIANT

2008-06-05T14:08:00.004+03:00

Luka (not real name) is one of the many people that benefited from the SOS Community Outreach Programme, which started in 2002, when SOS Children's Villages started its operations. He attributes his ability to becoming self-reliant to SOS and talks well of the organisation.

Owing to the twenty-year LRA insurgency (Lord’s Resistance Army), Luka was displaced to Unyama IDP camp (Internally Displaced Persons). As if that was not enough, his daughter passed away when giving birth, leaving him with a baby. He was helpless and confused without any plan on how to continue living with his family. He moved from organisation to organisation looking for assistance in vain. Later, after moving to Pece division, he was advised to come to SOS and his family was registered in 2003 on the VGS program with two children becoming primary beneficiaries: the orphan and his youngest biological child.

The family started receiving every month milk, beans, posho, sugar and soap. SOS also paid school fees for the boy, who is currently in primary two. The orphan now attends the SOS Day Care Centre.

When SOS started realigning VGS to FSP, the family was found to be strong and direct food aid was stopped. But SOS continued to support the family in education, health and strengthening it with entrepreneurial skills. Three high breed goats (a male and two females) were given to the family to begin livestock farming. The family was also advised to diversify and buy piglets. Luka now earns his living from pigs, goats and maize. He recently told SOS that he has been empowered to take care of the family without any external support. He genuinely wants other families to benefit from the same programme like him. He is now a happy man, a man that is full of praises for SOS Children's Villages.

SOS FAMILIES SUPPORT FAMILIES IN THE COMMUNITY

2008-05-15T09:31:00.006+03:00

SOS mothers in SOS Children's Village Gulu have gone an extra mile in embracing the new SOS Integrated Approach by supporting the FSP (Family Strengthening Programme) families in the community. Thanks are also due to the FSP social workers, who have initiated this good practice and linked SOS families to the FSP families in the community.

Mother Christine spearheaded this campaign when she mobilised children in her family and went to a working visit at Rebeka’s home. It was real excitement when the children in Christine’s house learnt that they were going to give a hand to Rebeka’s family. They exhibited a lot of eagerness and determination to help their counterparts in the community.

Rebeka is an HIV/AIDS positive mother of four children on the FSP programme, who at one time was at the verge of dying. She eventually recovered when SOS intervened and put her family on the programme. When Christine’s family visited her, they spent the whole day, together with Rebeka’s children, involved in various activities. They fetched water, washed clothes, cleared the compound, burnt the rubbish and smeared the wattle hut with mud to give it a new facelift. Rebeka could not hide her excitement and praises to the SOS children for their good spirit.

This is just the beginning and in future we intend to bring SOS families closer to the FSP families in the community, to share their knowledge and experiences in areas of child growth and development, child rights and education. A few FSP beneficiaries living nearer to the village are participating in the holiday programme as well.

Rebeka's name has been changed.

Every child can reform, never give up

2008-05-02T12:37:00.000+03:00

Once upon a time, there was an 8-year old delinquent child in Gulu, who habitually committed crime after crime. Everybody hated him, adults, fellow children and teachers because of his abnormal behaviour.

This boy was a habitual truant, who instead of being at school was on many occasions found in town, staring at goods in front of the shops. I cannot count the number of times he left the village and we had to make an announcement over the radio in order to recover him. He could do it like twice in a week.

At home (the temporary SOS Children's Village Gulu) the boy could not settle. He was extremely destructive and a dangerous planner. One day, he picked up a bullet from somewhere and was spotted just as he was about to put it on a cooking stove. When the mother asked him about it, he said he wanted it to hit the cook but he did not give any reason why. On another day, he was again caught with two sticks of burning firewood, trying to put them under a vehicle. On another occasion, he took a frog from the nearby bush, roasted it and invited his fellow children to eat it. He used to fight, steal and speak obscene words. The stories are many and it takes time to narrate them all.

Do not blame this child for what he used to do. He was innocent and a victim of circumstances. He was left parentless upon the death of his mother, who worked as a barmaid in one of the bars in Gulu selling local brew. She used to be with different men everyday to make ends meet. When she died, the boy started roaming in Gulu town and slept on the streets for a period of one month until a 'good samaritan' saw him and took him to the probation office. He finally ended up with SOS Children's Villages.

On realising that this child could bring us more and more trouble, we decided to take him to a psychiatrist in Kampala, where he stayed a week under observation. The psychiatrist made a psychological assessment report in which he advised us to take him to a special school. We did not delay and we took his advice.

Surprisingly, after one term of studying in this school, the boy has shown some change. In the second term, he became a friend to all the teachers. He could speak English well and scored over 80% in all the subjects. He now participates in every game and activity at school. He no longer steals, runs away or speaks obscene words. As we talk now he is one of the best children, a child that we admire and feel proud of because of the way he has transformed in such a short time. Dear parents, care givers, never give up with any child because of their bad behaviour. Children can easily reform if the right solutions are found.

VILLAGE CONSTRUCTION ON TRACK

2008-04-11T13:46:00.004+03:00

The dream of relocating to the new village is becoming bigger and bigger among co-workers and SOS children as the construction progresses from one stage to another. The mothers have on several occasions visited the site and from their talks, it’s really going to be a very big change from sharing two rooms in a dormitory to living in a house. Not just a house, but a house to live in with everything provided.

The construction is currently at roof level. The village has already taken shape and many local people are pleased with the progress and quality of work so far done. Out of the 12 family houses 11 houses have already been roofed with very nice and durable tiles. One family house, the administration block, the village director’s house, the guest house, the service building and the kindergarten remain to be roofed. Plastering, both inside and outside is concurrently being done. According to the site manager all the buildings will be roofed in two weeks time.

Planting of lawn and hedges is soon beginning now that the rainy season has started. By the end of this year the new facility will hopefully be ready for occupancy

SOS PRESIDENT VISITS GULU

2008-03-31T12:38:00.008+03:00

On Easter Sunday 23rd March 2008, SOS Children’s Village Gulu was blessed to host SOS Children's Villages President, Mr. Helmut Kutin for the second time, four years after his first visit to northern Uganda in 2003. When the plane landed at about 10.00am, two SOS children dressed in traditional attire, received him and handed him an “Awula” (an Acholi object made out of goat tail traditionally used by kings with their walking stick). He then proceeded to the Children’s Village and arrived amidst tremendous drumming and dancing by the SOS children and youth from the community. He was welcomed by the excited co-workers and toured the project, led by the village director.

Mr Kutin visited the SOS Day Care Centre where he distributed balloons to the toddlers and had fun with them, before going to the clinic. From the clinic he went to where all SOS beneficiaries had gathered and cut a cake for them. He then met the SOS mothers and co-workers, and the village director briefed him about the current status of the project. He thereafter spoke to the staff and his courageous words and humour will always be remembered by many.

Afterwards Mr Kutin walked the ½ km distance to the construction site of the new village where he planted a memorial tree in the presence of local leaders, among others. He was impressed by the progress. Finally, before leaving Gulu Mr Kutin had lunch with the SOS co-workers.

Lightening Causes Children's Deaths in Gulu

2008-03-18T11:31:00.004+03:00

On Thursday 13th March 2008, at around 4.30pm, a tragedy happened in Pece Stadium when lightening killed two children and left 35 others seriously injured, during an afternoon downpour. The injured were immediately taken to Gulu Independent Hospital, where they are still hospitalized. The dead were buried in their respective ancestral homes on Saturday 15th March 2008.

Pece Stadium is approximately 20 metres away from SOS Children’s Village Gulu. The tragedy struck when children from over 10 Primary Schools in Gulu municipality were participating in the annual Inter-Primary Athletics Competitions. About 10 SOS children, participating in athletics in their respective schools, narrowly escaped.

The day started normally but later in the early afternoon, clouds started forming. This was followed by a heavy downpour, after a long period of dry season. The rainfall was characterized by lightening and thunder. The first time it struck, everybody in our project became uneasy because of the scary sound it made, comparable to nothing else. Two minutes later, it struck again and again. Everyone was in total confusion but having nowhere to run for rescue. We fidgeted to switch off our office equipment and electricity. When it stopped raining, news about the death of two children spread in Gulu.

Stories started unfolding about other similar incidents in which people died in Pece Stadium. Sometime back in the 1970s, the then President, Idi Amin, narrowly escaped death when lightening struck someone not far from where he was seated. Another time a big snake fell from a tree and consequently a lady died in a stampede, when people were running away for their lives. Local people reportedly associate those tragedies with some evil spirit that roams in Pece Stadium. Stories are many but it all reminds us of one thing: installing lightening arrestors in lightening prone areas to prevent such tragic happenings

Today the 17th March 2008, a requiem service was organized by the Gulu district authorities in which religious leaders, local leaders and over 15 schools participated to pray for the deceased children. .

DEFYING ALL ODDS IN THE FSP!

2008-03-13T15:15:00.003+03:00

The struggle to attain self reliance among some of the care-givers (parents/relatives/guardians etc) of the Family Strengthening Program (FSP) Gulu has been remarkable! This is evident by some women defying all odds through engaging themselves in activities like brick making, traditionally taken to be a man’s work. Acayo Florence (not real name), 52years old and a caregiver in Laroo division in Gulu Municipality, is actively engaged in making bricks for sale.

Despite the scorching afternoon heat, Acayo and her sister climb high up to assemble the bricks for burning, while other family members throw them the bricks from below. Every one is sweating but seemingly enjoying their work, expecting to gain from their sweat.

As I approach them in one of my home visits, everyone pauses and I hear the children saying “SOS, SOS’’ while Acayo welcomes me with a contagious smile. I notice that everyone is totally covered with mud, and not to interfere, I ask them to continue with their work so that I can take a few snaps when they are in action. This brings more excitement as everyone apparently becomes so busy outdoing one another.

I later engaged Acayo in a discussion to discover the whole idea behind the brick project. In her explanation she was very certain of the market for bricks, which she attributes to the increased demand in the construction industry and more importantly to the rapid development taking place around Gulu University.

Their plan is to make 40,000 bricks for sale at a rate of 100 to120 Uganda shillings each. She projects to earn between 3.5 and 4 million Uganda shillings. According to her estimation, the total expense of producing the bricks will not exceed 800, 000 Uganda shillings. Acayo asserts that the proceeds from their project will be invested in some other business and the balance will meet the family’s daily basic needs and payment of school fees for her children whose school fees are not paid by SOS. In that family, SOS supports three children with school fees and one family member is a member of the SOS Revolving Fund.

All in all, Acayo has exhibited hard work, determination and patience, which she believes will reward her abundantly. She appreciates the good ideas and support given by SOS that has enabled her to be more focused.

by Okello Jimmy-FSP Program Support Assistant, SOS Gulu

Lawala game takes root in SOS Gulu

2008-03-11T12:02:00.005+03:00

Last year, in one of our stories, I promised to tell you more about the Lawala game, a recently revived and modified traditional Acholi game that has been out of practice within the Acholi community, for more than twenty years, due to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda.

The game derives its name from the piece of playing equipment called Lawala, which simply means a ring. The ring is made of rubber with a diameter of 18cm. The second important tool is the Tii, which is a strong straight stick of 1 ½ m. long with a pointed rubber tail and a flattened head.

Traditionally this game was played using reeds to make both the Lawala and the Tii. The game was played by two teams coming from different locations, clans or local administrations. It had neither established playing fields nor rules. The playing fields were footpaths or overgrazed communal land. It was generally characterized by no planned scores, rudimentary tools, unlimited number of players, absence of well demarcated playing fields and lack of rules and umpires. The gain was only limited to imparting hunting skills by adults to the young ones because hunting then played an important role in the Acholi life style.

A team of Acholi youth, composed of Acholi-Makerere University students, formed an association in 2007 called the Lawala Game Association, with an ultimate aim of reviving the game, modernizing it, formalizing it and promoting it. They contacted SOS Children’s Village Gulu and other schools in Gulu municipality requesting to allow them to train children and youth on the new game, not only as a leisure activity but also for physical fitness and psychosocial therapy. The association also has a wider plan of using the game to promote peace building and reconciliation within the entire war affected Acholi community. As child care givers and advocates of peace, SOS Children’s Village Gulu welcomed the initiative and that’s how our children got to be trained on the Lawala game, which has become a favorite game amongst them. Trainings take place every Sunday in the evening.

How it is played

Unlike the traditional game, the formalized game is played in an organized field with a total length of 100 metres, which makes it possible to be played on a football field. The tools used are modified. There is a referee who stands at the centre line, helped by two assistant referees standing on the sides of the pitch.

There are two teams with six players each. Five team members act as tii men (shooters) while the sixth team member, skilled at throwing the ring, stands at the outer semicircle on the extreme end of the field. The two teams stand at opposite sides, having ample space to avoid injuring themselves while throwing the sticks. The Lawala men on each side alternately throw the ring, which must roll straight, directed to the side of the opponents. The tii men’s work is to aim at throwing the stick through the centre of the ring as it passes past them.

When a throw is made, there are three things which normally happen: a throw with a shot, a throw without a shot, and a no-throw. A throw with a shot means the opposite team endeavours to shoot through the ring and is immediately given a chance to make a throw. A throw without shot is when the Lawala man throws the ring and the opposite team members fail to shoot through it. And a no-throw means the Lawala man has made a mistake. This happens when the ring is thrown out of the pitch before the position of the 3rd tii man of the opposite side. Positions are numbered one to five from the inner circle of the pitch. Throws are associated with a drive to push your opponent to their last position of play, which earns your team a bonus of five marks when you push your opponents to the last position of the pitch. When a team makes a no-throw, it is pushed one position towards the Lawala throwing area.

How scores are made

Each player in the field has a chance to earn a score for his team when a throw is made. The tii man in the first position from the inner circle earns five points if he is the first player to throw the stick through the ring. The second tii man earns four points, the third three points, the fourth two points and the fifth one point. The Lawala man of the opposite team earns a point if he can run and catch the Lawala thrown without a shot, to save his team from losing all the points and a chance to throw. The work of the assistant referees is to tell the referee the position of the tii man that has made a score. Scores are then recorded by the referee. After each team has had 15 rounds of throwing the Lawala, they then change sides. The team which scores most points at the end of the game emerges the overall winner.

Family strengthening programme helps child to excel in national exams

2008-02-22T10:14:00.003+03:00

James (not real name), 13yrs, an SOS beneficiary on the Family Strengthening Programme (FSP), was one of the best children in the 2007 National Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) in Gulu district. He was studying in Kasubi Central Primary School in Gulu municipality, one of the poorest schools in the district. He is naturally a bright child and talented in many aspects. Despite all the difficulties he goes through, he managed to score distinction two in all the four subjects and a total of 8 points. He was admitted on merit in Layibi College, one of the traditional top secondary schools in northern Uganda. He attributes his success to SOS and talks about his experiences in the following story.

"I lost my father one year after the death of my mother. This left us helpless (in a family of 8) with no one to take care of us. My elder sister had to drop out of school to carry the burden of looking after the family. Through local leaders, we were linked to SOS, who became our parents. SOS meets our basic survival needs and pays for our education.

Previously, my elder sister started a small roadside eating joint near our home to earn some income for the family. She worked for one year and realised too little to sustain the entire family. With some bit of peace she thought of growing crops far off in our village of origin. My aunt, who is very old and weak, took over her role in our daily life. My elder sister keeps checking on us. She brings all the harvest from her garden to maintain us in town.

PLE is an examination set to candidates in all the primary schools in Uganda to allow them to go to secondary schools. I did my Primary Leaving Examination in 2007 and I passed it very well. The following are the reasons for my good performance.

First of all, I am indeed a clever boy. During class time, I always participate in all activities when the teacher is inside the classroom. I also organise class discussions when the teacher in not in class. I was elected head boy in the school because of my ability to speak and convince others.

Secondly, I am an obedient and polite boy. I used not to talk when the teacher was inside the class. And whenever the teacher was not in class, I could instead concentrate on revising my books, but not shouting in class. I used not to dodge classes whenever the teacher was out of class.

I am also an honest person. I do not tell lies to any person. I always tell the truth. I feel like I have cheated myself if I lied to any person. This has made many people including my teachers like me.

Last but not least, I performed well because I was helped by SOS, who paid all my school fees. I was not worried of being chased back home."

SOS Gulu children welcome German President

2008-02-15T10:55:00.002+03:00

It was an exciting moment for the SOS Gulu children and the staff who accompanied them to the Gulu airfield on 5 February 2008 to welcome His Excellency the President of Germany, Horst Koehler. When the plane landed at about 10.00am, 30 SOS children received him while waving both German and Ugandan flags and dancing a traditional royal dance called Bwola. The president came out of the plane and was received by Gulu district officials. One of the SOS girls then presented a bouquet of flowers to the German President. He was led to where the children were performing and stayed there for approximately 3 minutes while waving excitedly to them. He was then led to the official vehicle and proceeded to Bomah Hotel, Gulu University and Coo-pe IDP camp (Internally Displaced Persons Camp), where he presided over several functions.

Later in the day, at about 4.00 pm, the SOS children once again bid farewell to him at the airfield with the same Bwola dance, before his return to Kampala. At that moment, the president joined them and danced to the excitement of all the children and other guests.,

The New Year brings hardships to Gulu

2008-01-31T12:44:00.001+03:00

2008 started with people in Gulu exchanging “Happy New Year” messages with their friends and relatives and expressing their happiness at having completed 2007. Indeed they were right to celebrate because for someone to complete a year in northern Uganda is worth celebrating, having spent over 20 years under absolute fear of losing their life, caused by the LRA insurgency.

However little did they know that the political violence in neighbouring Kenya, brought by irregularities in the recent presidential elections, could lead them to yet another hard life. Consequently fuel scarcity hit the whole of Uganda. Inability to do business and to move led to the suffering of many people, especially in upcountry towns. As fuel became scarcer, its price abnormally shot up, and even then it could only be found on the black market. For instance a litre of petrol rose by over 300%, bus fares from Kampala to Gulu increased by 50%, a bunch of bananas went up by 80% and cement by 45%. This current situation has greatly affected our budgets in SOS Children’s Village Gulu and the construction of the new village as the cost of materials has gone up. Although fuel is now available, its price is still high.

Concerning the weather, we are now in the dry season. The green cover is disappearing slowly by slowly and many trees have completely lost their leaves. The mornings are characterised by cold and dry winds blowing up a lot of dust into the houses. Afternoons are really hot, above 36oC, leading to little output from many workers in northern Uganda because of the unbearable heat. And this is just the beginning; the worst of it is yet to be experienced in February and March when the ground will be left bare and water scarce as the dry season continues.

In SOS Children’s Village Gulu, the children are still on their long holidays, yet to return to school on 4th February. They have been involved in various holiday activities since the beginning of December 2007. We tried to limit their movement in the community for fear of the deadly contagious Ebola disease, which hit the districts of western Uganda. Yellow fever was also prevalent in the neighbouring district of Kitgum.

Christmas Party Time in Gulu

2008-01-21T16:07:00.002+03:00

By Pamela Atim, Sponsorship Assistant

Thursday 20th December 2007 will remain a memorable day to SOS children in Gulu, when they had a Christmas party organized for them to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It was really an exciting day for the children as well as their mothers.

Prior to the long awaited occasion, children actively spent many days practicing a drama entitled “The Birth of Jesus Christ”, and Christmas songs and dances. They also made very beautiful Christmas cards designed from manila and nicely decorated stickers. The cards, with Christmas messages, were addressed to their beloved mothers, other SOS staff and fellow children.

The party started at 4.30 pm with the gathering of all children, mothers, co-workers and 10 other children invited from Karim Child Care Development Centre. While nice Christmas music played in the background, children presented the play of “The Birth of Jesus Christ”, which they acted to their best ability. This was followed by other performances like singing Christmas carols to which they danced in their style and brought smiles to everybody. Meanwhile drinks and eats were given out.

The climax was Father Christmas with the distribution of sweets, biscuits and popcorn to the excited children. He also gave out Christmas cards sent by children in the Netherlands to all the children. The children in turn gave their well decorated cards to the mothers and other staff. Music continued to play, children danced and everybody was happy. The party finally ended at 9.00pm.

Life at the SOS Day Care Centre

2008-01-08T11:20:00.000+03:00

The SOS Day Care Centre in Gulu hosts a total of 48 children who range between the ages of 3 and 7 years old. The children are sifted out from those families in the SOS Family Strengthening Programme (FSP), whereby caregivers are engaged in an income generating activity, yet they are unable to pay for their children either in day care centres or pre-schools within the community. These beneficiaries usually receive a very small wage which makes it impossible for them to afford the high charges that service providers charge to the community at large.This means that the most vulnerable or the most poverty stricken of FSP beneficiaries are unable to afford such services.

The day care centre helps to bridge the gap in that children have a place to stay during the day; instead of remaining redundant at home where they may be vulnerable to all forms of abuse, as there is no one to watch over them during the course of the day.

At the centre children get to interact with one another in a safe and secure environment. They also receive a well balanced diet, gain from the pre-school curriculum that is in place and not forgetting the free medical treatment that they are entitled to from the SOS clinic.

If one visits the centre it is obvious that the children enjoy attending it and that they have a fondness for their teachers. It is also obvious that the children are fed and well cared for, they appear strong, energetic, healthy, and well mannered and are able to grasp a few words in English.

The children spend the whole day in the care of their teachers Noreen, Rose and Mestica, who are passionate about the children in their care. They are a committed and dedicated team and have a real fondness for the children.

Once the whole day’s activities are exhausted, the children take an afternoon nap after which they are woken up in the evening to prepare for departure, when they are collected by their parents who by then would have finalized their day at work.

by Noreen Omony, Day Care Leader

SOS children graduate from kindergarten

2007-12-14T12:46:00.000+03:00

On 24th November 2007, seven SOS children attending kindergarten graduated at Police Primary School in a ceremony attended by parents and other invited guests, which started at 9.00am. Dressed smartly in graduation gowns, the children marched to the rhythm of a brass band to welcome their parents. An SOS child recited a poem entitled ‘being a teacher is not easy, but it is easy when you are able’. She was applauded by parents while photographers hurried to take her photos.

Another child recited a poem entitled ‘welcome to Uganda her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’. Parents burst into laughter before she added ‘Thank you for bringing CHOGM home’ proudly holding the Queen’s photo.

The children also presented songs, cultural dances, and poems on children’s rights and protection, and child labour. They emphasized the right to education as being very crucial in the children’s development. In their messages they also called upon parents to eradicate child labour, abortion, child abandonment, and to practice good parenting skills. They concluded by saying that if they are well cared for among them are future doctors, teachers, nurses, engineers and future mothers.

Brother Santo, who was the guest of honor, in his speech congratulated the graduates and appealed to parents to take the children’s messages conveyed through poems and songs seriously. Refreshments for children and their parents were served, music played and children showed their dancing skills to their parents.

by Quinta Apio, Village Educator

The family tree grows bigger with 11 new children

2007-12-05T10:22:00.000+03:00

It was happiness to the entire SOS Gulu community when seven new children of ages ranging from three months to seven years old came to live in the village. The first group of two children arrived in the village on 16th November, followed by another group of three children from Lira on 17th November 2007. The third group of two baby boys arrived on 27th November 2007. The babies had the warmest reception in the village. Children were so excited that every child struggled to hold them gently in their arms. They were accompanied by three ‘aunties’ from GUSCO, an organisation that temporarily took care of them before referring them to SOS for long term care. Prior to their coming, a small farewell party was organised by the GUSCO staff which was also attended by the children’s SOS mothers-to-be. Four more new children (2 boys and 2 girls) are planned to arrive on 10 December 2007.

BARCLAYS BANK DONATES TO THE CHILDREN

2007-11-13T21:13:00.000+03:00

On 10th November 2007, a team of staff from Barclays Bank Gulu branch visited the village with a donation composed of 100 pairs of children’s slippers, 82 mosquito nets, 10 blankets, 10 mattresses, 2 balls, food items (snacks) and soft drinks.. They came at around 2.45pm clad in t-shirts with the writing “make a difference day”, symbolic of their initiative to give back to people in the community to make a difference in their lives.

Indeed they made a difference in the SOS children’s life. Apart from enjoying the snack and the drinks, the children benefited from the quality time the Barclays bank staff spent with them. They organised a quiz in which gifts were given to individual winners. They also narrated interesting stories to the children and inspired them to read hard so that they might also become bankers in future. I believe that call went deeply in many children’s heart. If they are now asked what they wish to become, a good number of them can say they want to become bankers. It was a joyous and memorable afternoon to the children. Surprisingly the donation came at an opportune moment when we needed bedding for the new children to be admitted late this month. Long live Barclays Bank!

Village construction moving quickly

2007-11-08T21:20:00.000+03:00

Construction of the new village is progressing faster than anticipated. In a period of two months, twelve family houses, a village director’s house and an administration block are all above window level. Six of the family houses have reached beam level pending roofing, which is expected to begin in January 2008 after the importation of the roofing tiles. According to the site engineer, other buildings will also be at beam level by the end of December.

Plumbing work and laying conduits for electricity on the walls are underway. A quotation for connecting to the main sewage line was procured from the Uganda National Water and Sewage Cooperation and digging trenches and laying pipes is soon beginning.

The pace at which the work is moving is satisfactory. The village is already taking shape. Gulu local government authorities in charge of construction were impressed by the quality of the work so far done, during their recent visit to see the progress of the work. It is quite evident that the SOS children, currently living in two dormitories with little breathing space, are soon getting a permanent home.

Small things make big changes in children's life

2007-10-29T21:55:00.000+03:00

The recent soccer trip to SOS Children’s Village Kakiri and to the zoo in Entebbe made great impact on the lives of the majority of the SOS Gulu children. I have since then received tens of well decorated and nicely written letters from children, expressing their strong desire to go and study in Kakiri. Each time I travel to Kampala I am given several letters to carry to their colleagues in SOS Kakiri. Not only do they write letters, but they have also changed in many aspects. They can greet me several times a day and show signs of caring. Many children come to me to say hello immediately after returning from school.

As a good parent, I respond to their wishes positively. But not without a stringent attached. Many times I set for them stretching objectives. For instance a child whose position in class ranges between 20 and 30 out of 80 children, I tell her to be among the first five if she wants me to take her to SOS Kakiri next year. This has in one way yielded good results. Many children now are more serious with their studies. Some can also sustain a conversation in English, which was a myth previously. Small things make big changes in life.

SOS GULU SOCCER TEAM VISITS WILD GAME CENTRE AT ENTEBBE

2007-10-08T20:01:00.000+03:00

Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, located on the shores of Lake Victoria in Entebbe, is undoubtedly a house to many exciting wild animals. Recently, as part of the second term holiday programme, SOS children in the soccer team toured the wildlife conservation centre with the aim of seeing various wild animals and birds.

The guide, who led the team during the tour, revealed to the children that the Uganda crane is a unique monogamous bird which sticks to only one partner for a life time. “Even when the partner dies, this bird (Uganda crane) will never engage or be engaged by another one until it dies. It’s very monogamous!” he emphasized.

A week after celebrating his 43rd birthday, Zakayo (oldest chimpanzee in the zoo) looked energetic, caring and bossy when we visited his territory. Minutes after hearing different styles of shouting, the huge but friendly animal became inquisitive to know the intruders that were disturbing its peace. It sent part of its advance team to monitor the situation before reluctantly emerging from its hide-out in a thick bush to greet the visitors. It wasn’t long before the guests were treated to a rear jungle play by the family of ‘Zakayo’ while Zakayo looked on in approval. Occasionally, the animal looked uncomfortable. Little did we know he never liked the presence of another male chimpanzee around his wives! “It normally makes sharp noise whenever it sees the male chimp around its wives,” explained the guide.

The children saw a lion, a hyena, bush riders, water divers, calabash monkeys, a buffalo, a warthog, wild pigs, tortoise, parrots and other rear water birds. The team came out of the jungle with lots of stories to narrate about lifestyles of the wild game they saw.

by: Frederick William Odoch, Administrative Assistant.

Construction of the new village in pictures

2007-10-01T16:23:00.000+03:00

Construction of the new village is progressing well. Everyone on the site is busy performing an activity ranging from making blocks to laying them.

The site agent asserts that by end of 2007 five buildings will have been roofed.

Floods worry everyone in eastern and northern Uganda

2007-09-18T21:01:00.001+03:00

The onset of the rain season in April was warmly welcome, following a long drought. However this happiness became short-lived as the rains continued without any break to allow for the harvest of crops. Since then, northern Uganda has received prolonged heavy rains that have started raising worries among the people. Normally Uganda receives rainfall from March to June and from mid-August to November, but this year, it has been abnormally raining since April. Although the most hit region is eastern Uganda, where floods have claimed some lives and affected greatly both agricultural and economic activities, northern Uganda has also started experiencing adverse effects of the torrential rains.

Crops rotting in the garden, limited movement, soil erosion and lightning striking people to death are some of the problems currently suffered as a result the rains. But the long-term affects, such as famine and diseases, are yet to claim more lives if no quick intervention is made. Eastern and northern regions being flat areas, water movement is slow.

Luckily Gulu district has not yet had the kind of flooding that is being experienced in eastern Uganda. However, during one of our recent family visits in the neighbouring districts, to investigate on children referred to us for admission into the village, we came across bridges that were washed away, making many areas inaccessible. We courageously took longer routes of over 100km to travel a distance of less than 30km. Worse still, the roads we took were so muddy, so potholed and so flooded with running water that we drove through with difficulty at a snail pace, thanks to our four-wheel Land Cruiser. Even the only tarmac road from Kampala to northern Uganda has been so terribly damaged that it now takes 6 hours instead of 3 ½ hours. Depressing is the news that experts have predicted heavier rains to continue up to end of November. If this turns out to be true, then we shall be faced with the worst ever floods, something that has only been heard of happening in Asia.

The SOS soccer team goes on tour

2007-09-16T15:13:00.000+03:00

There was excitement and anxiety on 26 August when a soccer team composed of 16 SOS Gulu children took their seats in the project vehicle for a 5-day soccer gala in SOS Children’s Village Kakiri, in which five teams participated. The over 350km journey was interesting though tiresome to most children who were traveling for the first time in their lives Soon they were at SOS Children’s Village Kakiri, where they were warmly received by the happy children, mothers and administration staff. Later the children were received in different family houses.

On the first day of the soccer gala, SOS Gulu soccer team played two matches before a capacity crowd, beating SOS Kakiri girls 4-1 and was held to a 1-1 draw by Kakiri Academy. In the games played on the second day, SOS Gulu lost to the host SOS Kakiri by 2-0 but fought tooth and nail not to lose the match with SOS Kakiri B, which ended in a 1-1 draw. The greatest surprise for the Gulu team came on the third day, when the participating teams had to tussle it out in unconventional games like tug of war, egg and spoon, sack race, oranges squabble and skipping. The SOS Gulu team was drawn against the exciting SOS Kakiri girls in the tug of war game. This brought smiles to the SOS Gulu boys hoping to have an easy ride, going by the natural supremacy boys enjoy over girls when it comes to strength. They were disproved when the girls dragged the boys passed the score line, leaving the boys in total confusion and blaming one another for lack of commitment and concentration.

On the fourth day the SOS Gulu team beat Kakiri Community team by 5-3 on penalty shoot-out. The occasion was crowned by awarding of trophies to the participating teams. SOS Gulu soccer team received a trophy for being the most upcoming soccer team in 2007. Later the participants and the entire SOS village settled for a goat roasting while dancing to bid farewell to the Gulu team.

On Friday 31 August 2007, the team set off for Gulu and the birds felt relieved after 5 days of unrest caused by the adventurous Gulu boys, who were practicing their unique bird hunting and causing disarray in their community. It was also a surprise and happiness to the Kakiri children to see the Gulu boys enjoying the roasted birds, which are not edible in their community.

The trip was very successful. The team was exposed to the environment outside Gulu in an attempt to build their confidence. The team greatly benefited from many good practices learnt while in Kakiri. They made friends and had many stories to narrate to their colleagues back home.

by Frederick Odoch

Happiness is a home

2007-08-28T21:26:00.000+03:00

20th August 2007 was a memorable day for one of the families (part of the SOS family strengthening programme) that benefited from the housing project, initiated by Concordia University Abroad Programme volunteer students. The nicely built house was handed over to the family in a ceremony officiated by the area local leader in the presence of both CVAP volunteers and SOS co-workers. It was a promise fulfilled to the CVAP volunteers and an occasion full of praise and appreciation by local people to SOS Children’s Village Gulu.

Gardening, a favourite activity for the children

2007-08-17T10:03:00.001+03:00

What started as a family pastime between Mother Julian with her children, is now a favourite activity for all children. They like it. They willingly get hoes and run to the garden so easily.

The Concordia Volunteers Abroad Programme (CVAP) students have also supported Mother Julian’s initiative and are helping to expand the garden. They have now planted a variety of crops, in addition to the beans and maize Mother Julian and her family started with. They have small well organised plots of onions, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and vegetables. The garden is becoming bigger and bigger. What formerly was bush, only harbouring snakes and insects, is now getting cleared slowly by slowly.

Today evening, the children were all smiles when they made their first harvest of maize. Mother Julian has really interested the children to do gardening and she has ensured that it is included in the children’s holiday programme.

Supporting children’s learning

2007-08-09T13:18:00.000+03:00

Children in northern Uganda have suffered most in the twenty-year insurgency here. They have for a long time been denied a chance to grow up as children and have consequently lagged behind in all aspects of development, compared to children from other regions.

There is currently relative peace prevailing in the region mainly because of the peace talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Uganda government. Many parts of the region are once again accessible. However, the effects of the war continue to have an impact on the growth and development of the children. They are facing many challenges amongst which education is major. The schools are overcrowded and poorly facilitated, making it difficult for children to learn effectively. Children can hardly understand English. And not only do they learn English but they also learn “IN” it, which also leads to their poor performance, even in other key subjects.

SOS Children’s Village Gulu has come up with some initiatives and welcomes all good ideas intended to help the children. One child with learning difficulties was taken to a Special Needs School (SEN) in Kampala in May 2007, upon the recommendation of a psychiatrist. Surprisingly, when we visited him on the occasion of their sports day in July 2007, he could understand and speak confidently in English. He had a very high score in mathematics and enthusiastically participated in most of the sporting activities, in which he was given presents for his good performance. He is loved by the teachers because of his good progress, all that in less than three months. This was encouraging to his SOS mother and other co-workers as well.

Another intervention was to initiate an evening study programme, in which two external teachers were contracted to support the individual children with homework during daily evening prep. To further strengthen this area, we intend to increase the number of teachers to four next year.

There are also other programmes intended to expose the children to the outside world. For instance, through family outings organised by their respective SOS mothers, (such as a recent one to view crocodiles) children not only enjoy an adventure but they also learn spontaneously. They return home when they have a lot to narrate to their colleagues.

Good news! The long-awaited construction of new village finally begins

2007-08-02T20:23:00.000+03:00

It was good news to the SOS community in Gulu on 21 July 2007 when the company contracted to build the new village finally arrived to begin the construction. The three-man advance team are currently busy mobilising resources to start the construction. Within one week, they contracted casual workers to clear the area where 13 family houses and village offices are to be built. Only eucalyptus trees were left standing. They are now busy measuring and marking where the houses are to be located.

What do we do at the weekend?

2007-07-27T11:09:00.000+03:00

Children in SOS Children’s Village Gulu are always kept busy on weekends. They do various routine household activities such as cleaning inside their rooms and washing their clothes. Older children help the young ones to wash their clothes. There are other planned educational and recreational activities as well in which children get involved.

Fourteen children between 10 and 13, participate in the Gulu Kids League, a soccer tournament for children in Gulu municipality. Every Saturday afternoon, they go to a nearby school football pitch for training. The village boasts a good football team that plays entertaining football worth watching. A tour to Kampala is being organised and the team will play three friendly matches with Kampala Kids League teams and the SOS Children’s Village Kakiri soccer team, during their second term holidays. The tour will also be a good occasion for the children to see the world outside Gulu.

Apart from football, weekends include music dance and drama lessons with the help of an external trainer and two interested SOS mothers. Children are mainly taught songs and Acholi cultural dances on Saturday afternoons and, as a result, there is a village choir.

One family is interested in gardening thanks to Mother Julian who initiated this activity to help the children learn some agricultural skills. They have taken advantage of the ongoing rainy season to grow beans and maize on a sizeable plot within the village, which the family tends on selected weekdays and Saturdays. Their crops look impressive and other families will be inspired to follow their example. Julian and her family want all the children in the village to benefit from their efforts when the crops are harvested and become part of the menu.

In northern Uganda, local TV stations are not accessible apart from two international TV stations only accessed by subscribers. To fill this gap, a video programme was put in place to help the children learn spontaneously and to involve them in meaningful activities.

On Sundays all children go for prayers to their respective churches in the morning hours. Grownup children go alone but young children move with their mothers. It is a day children like, because apart from going to church, nice meals are prepared for them. In the afternoon children are trained on the Lawala Game, an Acholi cultural activity (more about this in future blogs), by the Lawala Game Association, an association formed to use Acholi cultural activities in northern Uganda. The children have taken a lot of interest in this game and a competition tournament is being planned in which SOS children will compete with other teams. This competition will also be used to advocate against HIV/AIDS, which is a social problem in the north.

Plans are underway to introduce as many other games to the children as our resources can allow in supporting them to develop their skills and to make their weekends and holidays enjoyable.

Empowering families in the community

2007-07-11T20:46:00.000+03:00

Denis Lyagoba is a social worker at the village and works on the family strengthening programmes. He wants to empower families to look after themselves:

"SOS Children’s Village Gulu, through its Family Strengthening Programme (FSP), has empowered many families in the local community in many ways, and most people in Gulu talk good of the organisation because of this programme, which is intended to stop child abandonment.

Julius (not real name) aged seven, is one of the beneficiaries on the FSP programme. He is currently attending SOS Day Care Centre. His mother died of HIV/AIDS and left him with his grandmother, who takes care of him. Recently they received one cock from the FSP programme, for crossbreeding with their local chicken to get an improved breed, which in turn will be a source of income to the family. At his age, Julius has amusingly taken a lot of interest in caring for the chicken more than anything else at home. The chicken looks healthy and well looked after.

Innocent (not real name) is another interesting and enterprising boy, who lost both parents and is currently living with his grandmother. He has devotedly, together with his best friend from the neighborhood, taken advantage of the ongoing rainy season and planted maize on a sizable plot of land, using seeds distributed by the programme. According to his caregiver, he intends to sell the harvest to raise some little additional money for buying scholastic materials and clothes. Innocent has a hearing impairment and SOS Children's Villages is going to facilitate his operation in Kampala.

SOS Children's Villages is committed to empower the 86 FSP families with over 400 beneficiaries already on the programme, thanks to the continued support given by development partners and local leaders. The number of children in need of such support in northern Uganda is still overwhelming. "

The suffering of women and children in northern Uganda

2007-07-05T09:44:00.000+03:00

The endless war in northern Uganda has affected mostly women and children. Many women have become widows as a result of the rebels killing their husbands. Consequently, they are overloaded with the heavy responsibility of looking after orphans.

And women do not have time to rest. They wake up early in the morning to find ways of feeding their children, with whom they have to move long distances in search of food. At the end of the day, they come back very tired, and so stressed and frustrated that they cannot sleep at night.

The majority of women are suffering due to the loss of their husbands and relatives. They look for money to take their children to school yet they have no proper source of income, nobody to give them a hand, because almost everybody finds herself in the same situation.

Socially, most women have low self-esteem as a result of this war that has left with them lifelong bad memories. Either they have been sexually abused by the rebels and other people taking advantage of war, or they have been abducted from their families and taken to the bush,

where they have seen their loved ones being slaughtered, including their own children.

They find themselves lonely and isolated leading to low self-esteem and inability to cope in the society.

Many young ladies are child mothers who bore children after being forced into marriage by the rebels at a young age. This has affected their own mothers so much on seeing their daughters returning home, at the age of 20, with several children. And the social life of the Acholi women has greatly changed. Some women have become unfaithful while others have unwanted pregnancies and end up either aborting or abandoning the babies on failing to be supported.

Children, on the other hand, have been so much abused. They return home from the bush when they are mentally traumatised and unable to live with other normal children. They display inappropriate behaviours to the extent that handling them requires specialists, who are lacking in our community. Men have abandoned their families and children have suffered most. This explains why there is an increasing number of street children in Gulu town and other towns in northern Uganda.

However, despite the overwhelming numbers of needy children, organisations such as SOS Children's Villages are playing a very important role in preventing child abandonment and catering for the orphaned and abandoned children of northern Uganda.

by Harriet Acan Moro, SOS Aunt Gulu

FAMILY BENEFITS FROM HOUSING PROJECT

2007-06-22T10:01:00.000+03:00

Shelter is an indispensable basic need in the upbringing of children. It’s upon this realisation that the CVAP-student volunteers from Canada came up with a plan to support the families participating in the SOS Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) by building them low-cost houses.

Margaret (not her real name), 70 yrs, a widow and heading a family of five grandchildren, is among the first four lucky families to benefit from this housing project. Three weeks ago, she signed a contract in the presence of SOS co-workers, CVAP representatives and the local leaders, in which the student volunteers offered to construct a permanent two roomed house with a pit latrine on her land, located in Laroo, Gulu municipality. The construction of the house, estimated at US 5,000 dollars, is already in progress and will be completed in a few weeks from now.

Margaret is currently living in a hut with three total orphans left by her son who died of HIV/AIDS and two other children of her second son who is mentally disabled. All five children benefit from the SOS Family Strengthening Programme. They receive educational support, monthly food distributions, materials (e. g. blankets, mosquito nets etc…), medical care and counselling.

Despite her age and seemingly little energy, Margaret is a committed responsible person. She accompanies, everyday, one the youngest children under her care, to the SOS Day Care Centre and picks her up in the evening. She undoubtedly deserves the kind of support SOS Children's Villages and CVAP are giving to enable her to bring up this big family.

Creating awareness of HIV/AIDS in Gulu

2007-06-12T09:57:00.001+03:00

Living in confinement in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps due to the threat of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has changed the social behaviour of the majority of the people in northern Uganda, contributing greatly to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

SOS Children’s Village Gulu is among several organisations intervening to stop the spread of the HIV/AIDS scourge through the services provided at the SOS Medical Centre and the Family Strengthening Programme (FSP), a community-based outreach programme. Hundreds of people from the community have voluntarily turned up for HIV/AIDS testing since the inception of the testing and counselling services in 2005, the majority women. Eighty six families in the community under the FSP programme receive regular HIV/AIDS sensitisation given by the SOS social workers. Additionally, twelve FSP families with HIV positive children receive additional nutritional support, medical care and counselling.

The Concordia Volunteer Abroad Programme (CVAP - student volunteers from Canada) in partnership with SOS Children’s Village Gulu and Health Alert, a local community-based organisation, organised a joint HIV/AIDS awareness week, during which radio announcements and talk shows took place. The activity-packed week had its climax with a three-day soccer gala in nearby Pece Stadium, intended to create HIV awareness among youth, as well as to encourage them to have an HIV test.

The soccer gala attracted thousands of youths and adults. (SOS staff played a morale-boosting match with the CVAP student volunteers in which CVAP emerged winners, three-nil.) While football matches were going on during the three days, SOS medical staff and Health Alert staff, assisted by the CVAP student volunteers were busy testing and counselling youths in two tents beside the football pitch. The number of youths that turned up for the HIV testing was overwhelming thanks to the CVAP student volunteers’ initiative to spearhead the awareness campaign and to contribute both financially and in kind. The CVAP students had designed an incentive program, in which t-shirts were given as a reward for taking an HIV/AIDS test. All the 268 testing kits that the SOS Medical Centre had in stock, and 200 more donated by CVAP, were used, leaving many other youth untested and eagerly in need of the service. A handful of the tested youth received their results while the majority of whom were asked to obtain their results from the medical centre after having a one-to-one counselling session. CVAP volunteers are planning to throw a party in the village for all the youth who were tested and received their results.

The campaign to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in northern Uganda is just beginning. With the current prevalence rate of 8%, youth are most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, yet the future lies in the hands of this young generation. There is therefore a need for a concerted effort to fight against this deadly disease among the youth, and SOS Children's Villages Gulu will play its part.

GOOD NEWS! A FUNDRAISING TEAM FROM THE NETHERLANDS VISITS SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE GULU

2007-06-04T13:54:00.000+03:00

Our plan for the construction of the new SOS Children’s Village Gulu was enhanced by the news of the coming of a fundraising team from the Netherlands a week before their visit. On 21 May 2007, the four-man team from SOS Netherlands arrived in Gulu on a seven-day working visit with the aim of shooting a film and taking photos for a promotional campaign to raise funds for SOS Children’s Village Gulu. The materials will be used for publicity in magazines and on the internet and also to run TV commercials in Netherlands.

The team spent seven days casting and filming children in the village and on the streets of Gulu town. It sounds simple but in reality it was a demanding exercise that had to be carefully done. On several occasions they had to redo the filming to produce the quality of work needed, which ended up attracting passers-by, even a local leader who intervened on seeing a crowd of onlookers in the town. Fortunately the mayor of Gulu town had earlier given the team a go-ahead. Besides, the visitors were so lively and lovely that they amused whoever dared to question them. They came with children’s clothes which they donated to the SOS children. They also gave presents to two key staff in appreciation of their contribution towards humanity.

The team left for Netherlands on 27 May 2007 promising to return in 2008 on the occasion of the opening of the new village. Until then the destiny of SOS Children’s Village Gulu was made

clearer with their pledge and commitment to raise the much needed funds.

DISCOVERING FOOTBALL TALENTS AT THE SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGE GULU

2007-05-30T13:54:00.000+03:00

It is barely three months before the SOS Children’s Village Gulu soccer team make their first ever football tour outside Gulu district, having played a host of local teams, registering many victories.

Preparations are already in high gear in the small playground in the village with many of the first team players struggling for fitness through daily rigorous evening training presided over by “Uncle Keo” (children’s favorite for Uncle Fred, the Admin Asst) as volunteer team coach. The training involves light jogging and some ball work.
Beaming with lots of confidence, the team looks set for the historic visit to Kampala where they will play three friendly matches with their counter parts in Kampala Kids’ League.

According to Uncle ‘Keo,’ the boys are showing a lot of progress in ball control, passing of the ball and working together as a team. They are ready to win all the matches they will play in Kampala, come August.

14 SOS CHILDREN GET BAPTISED

2007-05-25T10:00:00.000+03:00

The civil war between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the Uganda government has had unfavourable consequences on the spiritual development of the people of northern Uganda, especially children. Before the war, children used to be baptised in their respective churches of worship immediately after birth. Unfortunately, most of the children born during the twenty-year civil war did not get that chance of being baptised at an early age.

On 20th May 2007, 14 Catholic SOS children were among hundreds of children who were massively baptised in Holy Rosary Catholic Church thanks to Mother Julian’s initiative to have the children baptised. At the end of the Mass, all the baptised children were invited to a reception organised by the church, where they were plentifully served with food and drinks. It was really a special occasion to the children who had been deprived of the right to worship during the insurgency. The event was one of the outcomes of the relative peace prevailing in the region ever since the peace talks began in 2006.

SOS/CVAP Partnership launched in Gulu

2007-05-15T20:38:00.000+03:00

On 10 May 2007, SOS Children’s Villages Uganda and Concordia Volunteer Abroad Programme (CVAP of Concordia University Canada) partnership was officially launched in Gulu. The occasion was witnessed by many guests from various NGOs operating in northern Uganda, 22 CVAP volunteer students, local leaders, SOS staff and children and other people from the community. The chief guest was the Gulu District Local government chairman, Nobert Mao.

The guests were also entertained by SOS Children and youth from the community. While refreshments were served there were thrilling speeches by several speakers including the chief guest.

SOS Children's Villages Uganda was represented by the Board of Trustees Chairman and two board members while CVAP was represented by the Concordia University Dean of Studies from Canada and two Directors of Operations.

The partnership, which is aimed at alleviating the effects of HIV/AIDS and poverty and promoting education in northern Uganda, will go a long way in enhancing the SOS contribution to both SOS and community children and youth in northern Uganda.

Holiday boosted with volunteers' arrival

2007-05-09T18:18:00.000+03:00

SOS children in Gulu are on their one-month first term school holiday which started on 20th April and will end on 20th May. Prior to the beginning of the holiday, SOS mothers and co-workers had a holiday planning meeting. They came up with a comprehensive holiday programme aimed at engaging the children in meaningful activities, including music, dance and drama, art, sports,

indoor games and guided reading. Everyday children get involved in various activities under the guidance of their SOS mothers and other co-workers.

The holiday programme was boosted with the coming of the second group of 22 Concordia Volunteer Abroad Programme (CVAP) students, who arrived in Gulu a few days ago. They interact with the children so well. They teach them new games and their intervention has helped the children to relax their minds from academic work.

SOS CHRISTMAS IN APRIL

2007-05-02T18:21:00.000+03:00

Village administrative assistant Frederick William Odoch tells all:

Today has been a cool Friday evening with patches of clouds hanging in the sky. The atmosphere in the village was filled with anxiety, joy and excitement as SOS children rushed to their wardrobes to change their attire in anticipation of receiving

special gifts from Samaritan Purse.

It was not actually Christmas, but a day organized to distribute shoe boxes received from Samaritan Purse through Operation Christmas Child Uganda (OCC) to 100 SOS children and 70 community children who are part of the SOS Family Strengthening Programme (FSP) in the village. Graced by the presence of the village director, mothers

and other development co-workers, the distribution event was full of amusing stories given by the children and punctuated by cool sounds of music in the background.

Each child received a nicely packed box consisting of a variety of items that included sandals, underwear, colouring pencils, torches, sunglasses, sweets, toys, necklaces, small radios and many others. The items were selectively packed according to different age brackets of 0-5yrs, 6-9yrs and 10-14yrs. It was so exciting when the boxes were opened.

What a lively congregation! It was joy and fun for whoever was present for this special gathering as some children took to the floor shaking and twisting their bodies the Kalipso style (famous Ugandan dancing style among the children and youth)

Rain at last in northern Uganda

2007-04-25T22:36:00.000+03:00

This year the dry season hit northern Uganda so hard that life became difficult from December 2006 to mid-April 2007. All trees and other plants withered and lost their green colour. The ground became bare. The heat was unbearable, coupled with strong dry winds blowing endlessly, day and night, carrying with it a lot of dust into the houses. We needed a lot of water to maintain cleanliness in offices and family houses. But to make matters worse, water became scarce when most of the water sources dried up. Luckily, we remained with only one water source: the manual borehole. It became our only saviour and the most valuable asset in the village. It provided all the water for cooking, bathing, washing, drinking and cleaning purposes. Not only did it supply water to the SOS population of over 120 people, but also to the community in the neighbourhood although its water yield was insufficient. It would take over 10 minutes to fill a twenty-litre container.

On Friday, 13 April 2007, at about 5.00pm, (unlucky for some, but not us) everybody was extremely happy when the weather changed unexpectedly and it rained heavily up to the following day, which indicated the onset of the rain season. Now life has changed for the better. The vegetation is green everywhere and people are busy preparing their land for planting.

SOS Mother finds a new home

2007-04-16T19:59:00.000+03:00

It's not only children who find a new home with SOS Children's Villages. Mary, a former aunt in SOS Children’s Village Entebbe, was transferred to SOS Children's Village Gulu and appointed an SOS mother effective 1st April 2007.

"My name is Mary, a newly appointed mother in SOS Children's Village Gulu. I was an auntie in the SOS Children’s Village Entebbe where I served since March 2003. Before joining SOS, I thought SOS children had unique behaviours and characters which appeared to me as challenging. But to my surprise, I found out that SOS children were like any other children. They were very welcoming, friendly and helpful. I also became kind, patient and helpful to them.

When I was in SOS Children’s Village Entebbe, I had a chance of learning a lot of good things from my fellow co-workers and children as well. I also had a chance to meet many other SOS workers from within and outside Uganda. I went to Nairobi for three-months training where I leant leadership and many other skills. I have gained a lot of confidence. I now speak and do my work with confidence.

When I was promoted to a mother position and transferred to SOS Children’s Village Gulu, it met my interest of becoming a mother. It again appeared to me as another challenge as I was coming to care for different children with different behaviours in a different environment. And when I moved in to Gulu, I was received warmly by the children. They helped me with my luggage up to the house. I found them lovely because they showed me acceptance right from my arrival.

I am now a mother of 9 children: five boys and four girls. We live in two small rooms in a relatively big building that we share with other families. We have limited space but we hope that when the new village is constructed, we shall enjoy being in a good spacious house. I am committed to helping my children to acquire values like working independently and having confidence, which I have not yet seen in them. I want to build my family into a good family by helping the children to acquire life skills and encouraging them to read so hard that they can become achievers in life."

Sugarcane, a delicacy to children that needs great concentration

2007-04-10T09:38:00.000+03:00

Sugarcane is so liked by young children and youth because of its sweetness. It is sold in almost every corner of Gulu municipality and is a source of income to many small vendors in markets and along the roads.

Once a week, after returning from school, children sit in their dining hall to eat sugarcane. Normally the mother of the week, the one responsible for shopping for foodstuff during the week, buys the sugarcane. Assisted by other mothers, they distribute it, cut in lengths of one foot (about 35 cm), to the children in their respective families.

Each family has a specific place in the dining hall with a table and chairs, where the family members sit at meal times. The children sit around the table and enjoy the sugarcane. The small children, and the big ones as well, quietly chew the sugarcane so almost nothing is left for the bees to feed on.

Amusingly, the concentration observed here is rarely noticed in any other activity, not even when they are having their favourite meal. There is no talking or whispering at that time. Heard are only varied sounds produced as each child sucks out the sugarcane juice. Do not make the mistake of removing a cane from any child, or you may regret it. Sugarcane to children is a real delicacy and a source of joy when children are eating them.

SOS STAFF GET TRAINING ON CHILD PROTECTION

2007-03-26T13:32:00.000+03:00

Children’s rights have been greatly violated due to the ongoing 20 year civil war between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government forces in northern Uganda. Stressed or traumatised adults pay little attention to the need to protect children. As a result many children suffer, which makes it hard for the people working closely with them to offer quality service without good knowledge on child protection.

From 12 to 23 March, four SOS Children's Villages staff participated in a ten-day Child Protection Training organised by Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) which attracted over 10 child welfare agencies operating in northern Uganda. The four SOS participants comprised mainly child protection contact persons from the three SOS Children's Villages of Kakiri, Entebbe and Gulu.

The training packages were designed in 5 modular training courses which included communication skills with children and youth and legal aspects, amongst others. Each module comprised one day of theoretical participatory learning of child protection concepts and another day of applied practice or field application.

The trainings were timely and of great benefit to all participants and most importantly to the SOS staff as they got excellent knowledge, skills and best practices needed to provide better services.

There is a plan to organise trainings in which the four participants will share the knowledge, skills and best practices acquired during the trainings, with SOS mothers and other co-workers in their respective projects.

Let's hear it for girls' football in Gulu

2007-03-22T09:31:00.000+03:00

The 17th and 18th March weekend was exciting for the Gulu community when students from Concordia University of Montreal Canada (CVAP), in partnership with SOS Children's Village Gulu, organised a two-day girls' soccer gala that attracted thousands of youth. The event, the first of its kind in the region, was held in Pece Stadium, in which 12 teams from Gulu municipality competed for a trophy. The theme of the gala was 'Equality for all'.

On 18th March, before the final match, SOS mothers from Gulu played a morale boosting match with the female students from Concordia University. The match ended in a goalless draw but was really full of fun and excitement.

After the catalysing game between the SOS mothers and the students the final match started between Red Cross and Anaka Pope Paul 11 Secondary School which emerged the best teams. There was a lot of non-stop chanting and clapping as the match progressed. The Red Cross players were wonderfully skilled and played tirelessly to take the trophy. They emerged the winners after walloping Anaka Pope Paul 11 Secondary School nine goals to nil.

During the prize-giving, all speakers appreciated the initiative by CVAP and SOS to promote women in sports. They urged that the event becomes an annual tournament not only to help the youth grow up as youth, but also to advocate for peace, unity and equality in northern Uganda.

CANADIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARRIVE

2007-03-19T14:34:00.000+03:00

The first group of 10 Concordia University students from Montreal Canada arrived in SOS Children’s Village Gulu on Thursday 8th February, following the signing of the Partnership Agreement between SOS Children’s Villages Uganda and Concordia Volunteer Abroad Programme (CVAP) in Kampala.

CVAP is a non-profit organisation by students and teaching staff at Concordia University that creates avenues for students to give volunteer services to disadvantaged communities in the developing world. It is aimed at alleviating the effects of HIV/AIDS and poverty and promoting education.

On 9th February, the group, composed of 10 students, was warmly received by SOS Children's Villages staff. As soon as they arrived at the village, they toured the project and met various staff at their workplaces. After the tour, they gathered in the main administration building, where we gave a brief presentation on 'Who we are', the background of the project and the activities that SOS Children's Villages Gulu is involved in. The visitors kindly gave a donation, mainly of sports equipment, to the children.

After lunch the students were entertained by a youth group and SOS children. Some students became so stimulated by the Acholi cultural dances that they could not remain seated. They danced to the rhythm of the drums as the spectators enjoyed watching young whites jumping high and higher.

Developing the Culture of Reading

2007-03-02T12:09:00.000+03:00

Owing to the twenty-year LRA insurgency (Lord’s Resistance Army), the children’s academic performance in most of the schools in northern Uganda has significantly deteriorated. Overcrowded classes, lack of homework, poor facilities and poor teaching methods are some of the hindrances to good academic performance in Gulu district.

Faced with the above challenges, SOS Children’s Village Gulu came up with the idea of employing external teachers to mainly help to supervise evening prep and give homework to the children. We also created space for a small library in one of the two dormitories and stocked it with a few textbooks and readers.

At the beginning of February 2007, we engaged two teachers and assigned them with the responsibility of helping SOS mothers to supervise prep every week from Monday to Saturday. Evening prep begins at 8.00pm and ends at 10.00pm. Immediately after supper, children clean the dining hall, collect their books and get ready to begin evening prep. Due to lack of space, some children in upper primary classes carry out their evening prep in the administration block. SOS mothers do the supervision while the teachers give homework and move around helping individual children.

With this programme, SOS children have started developing the culture of reading, the first step on the road to a good education.

Graduating from kindergarten to primary school

2007-01-22T18:15:00.001+03:00

On 31 December 2006, the Holy Rosary Kindergarten in Gulu held a graduation ceremony for over 200 children, of whom seven were SOS children. Children participated in different activities including songs, dances, poems, rhymes, conversations and drama.

One SOS child who danced to the rhythm of “Yesu we kemakemako”, a musical church song, left all the parents amused and surprised to see such a young and talented kid performing like that. The audience clapped and shouted at every step she made. Parents and SOS mothers excitedly joined in the dance to give her courage.

The day was made colourful as other children participated in various group activities. The headmistress gave out certificates promoting them to primary one. The headmistress thanked all the parents for caring for their children. She particularly appreciated the SOS mothers for grooming the children to participate actively in organised activities and promised to send a video tape on the coverage of the ceremony to SOS. The occasion ended with parents taking photos of their smartly dressed children.

By

Quinta Apio, Village Educator Gulu

SOS Children in Gulu take on the adults at football

2007-01-22T17:55:00.000+03:00

Shortly before Christmas a memorable occasion took place at the SOS Children's Village Gulu when the SOS Gulu co-workers, including mothers, played a 60-minute football match with the SOS children. The match, organised as a warm up activity for the Christmas party, kicked off at 3.45pm.

The children were very excited to see SOS Mothers and other staff in jerseys ready to play with them. The morale boosters among the children cheered their lightweight colleagues as they dribbled the ball past heavier mothers and staff. They jumped so high each time a goal was scored, in a match which ended in a 3-2 win in favour of the SOS Children’s soccer team.

The occasion was so special to the children of all ages. Even after the match one could see the children surrounding the staff looking at them and shaking their hands with happiness. The children were happy, the mothers were happy, everyone was happy.