Four SOS Mothers Receive SOS Ring of Honour

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

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

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.