THE EXPERIENCE OF SINGAPORE VOLUNTEER

18-24th December:
I spent 3 days in Kamoli-Kibuye village and i have seen and felt things I never had before. Good planning is the key to survival here; always have enough water and food. Water, electricity and food was easily available in my country, here they are none to waste. Definitely, I learnt things about myself and start to appreciate things a little more.
 
I was looking forward to making an impact on the community, but it was the holiday period, for the villagers too so there’s only so much I could do. Nevertheless, how much I want to achieve here is pretty much up to me. I learnt Lusoga and Luganda in order to communicate and teach the villagers more effectively, and it was really helpful when it came to Adult Literacy Project. 
I was glad that Arise and Shine has came up with Wood-Saving Stove Project and a tree-planting initiative to help the environment. It has long-term aim and was sustainable too. We did some weeding; though it was just a few trees, I was pleased to do my part for the environment. 
I genuinely want to do part for Uganda and Africa, but it seems like my duration and period of volunteering is not an ideal one. Looking at how things are going now, I hope I will get an invaluable insight and exposure to different projects and experience such that I have a better idea of making an impact the next time when I come to Africa for volunteering projects.

goodbye babies home.

Yesterday  was our last day in the babieshome. We want to thank all the workers of Arise and Shine, because we had a great time with them. We learned a lot from them and we are very glad that they wanted to learn from us as well. We taught them a lot and we tried to help them with improving the activities and the hygiene in the babieshome. We hope the new volunteers will continue our work, so we all encourage the health and the development of all the children.

We celebrated our last day with a lot of fun. We invited Andrew with his guitar, he played music for the children. We danced a lot and all the children liked it, even the disabled children and the babies. They were all smiling and had a great time. While Andrew was playing, we painted the faces of the children. It was very  funny, they all liked it and wanted to see themselves on the pictures. We also brought drinks and candy for them, so they were enjoying the party. After the music, we started with giving presents. We brought a lot of toys, clothes and other materials from Holland. There were a lot of presents, so every child could open one. We also brought some presents and cake for the workers, because we appreciate all the help, advices and the warm welcome we had.

We are sad to leave all the friendly people and the lovely children of Arise and Shine. We are sure that they are doing a great job and that they can achieve a lot more in the future. We wish them good luck and they have enjoyed our stay as well. Thanks a lot! 
To see the beautiful smiley faces of the children opening their presents, please follow the link below;
https://picasaweb.google.com/102967361898215432541/IdiAndMaartjeSGoodByeParty

Adult literacy test!

Tuesday we told everybody in class that there would be a test (exam) on Wednesday. The women asked me about it in class three weeks ago, so last week I made a test about the ABC.  I discussed it with Juma and he agreed with the test. Juma told Amar to also make a test for the advanced class, so he did.

I printed 15 questions in each each exam and a total of 30 exams . At the end all the exams were gone, so there were over 30  women (and some men). I put on a vey nice green traditional dress for them, and they really liked it! First we practiced the vowels, ABC and  ba, be, bi, bo, bu. This were the things who came back in the test. 

First I thought it would be too easy, if I repeated everything before the test, but I did it because some of them could not even write their own name.

When I handed the paper, the women started laughing and I could see at that time, that it was too difficult. Frank, one of the men in the village helped me with translating but a lot of them did not understand how to fill things in, after a while it went ok, better than in the beginning. I could see clear that they were very good at copying, but they did not know what it meant. Also with the practice I did the pronunciation and some of them could say the alphabet in  English, but a lot didn’t.  I repeated this topics for 6 weeks and I felt very disappointed.

But I focused more on the good thinks which came out of the test: two ladies had a 100 percent good score, all the women were almost present, they are open for making a test, now we know where we stand with classes. So Jukani the next volunteer knows where to go further.

They were very happy with getting the test results back, even when it was a score of 15 percent. So we can use that for making them excited about next semester. The women blamed themselves also for not always being there or not being on time. So at the end I think it was a good thing we did it. We all learned from it and we can start with fresh energy.

HIV testing day for the children at the babies' home.

This week we started with the HIV tests for all the children from the babies' home. On Monday morning three women arrived with bags full of equipment. We all helped to get the table outside and make everything ready; like filling in the names of the children on the cards. When everything was prepared, the testing then began. The children who were younger than 1,5 years were too young to be tested so they could keep playing. One by one all the children got tested. Most of them were very brave and didn’t cry at all! What we didn’t expect was,  that we had the results immediately. We are happy because the results were very good. Only one of the children was positive, all the others were negative!

But there was more good news this week. Last week we did a workshop about activities for the workers of the babies' home. When we got to the babies' home last Monday we saw instantly that the children were playing with bottles of water. We were thrilled because this was one of the activities we did as  an example during the workshop. Nice to see that people really liked it and used it right away.

Also in the workshop we made a schedule for every day of the week. In the schedule we wrote down which worker is doing the activity on what day. We also wrote down who takes care of the younger children when the teacher gives lessons to the  older children. The other workers were sitting and playing with the younger children outside so the teacher could give all her attention to the older  children in the lesson. 

On Tuesday, it was Sherifah’s turn to do an activity and she did very well! Sge choose to draw with sidewalk chalk. Lilian and the teacher helped her and it was a great success! The children and the workers had both a lot of fun and a good time. They also involved the disabled children! Josephine, Stellah and even Hussein were also (with a little help) drawing with the sidewalk chalk.

On Wednesday we first thought we had a little problem, because not all the people had time to do the activity; but it was solved fast! The other workers were very enthusiastic when we asked if they wanted to do the activity that day. Nice to see that everybody was very flexible as well!  

Thursday we brought the activity book to the babies-home. It was finally finished! The teacher, Angela and Juma were very happy with it! In the afternoon the teacher and Florence immediately choose one of the activities that we wrote down in the book and they did a ball game with the children.  It was nice to see that it was used right away!

After all, it was a great week with lots of good news! Hopefully it will continue!

Written by; Ildi Hummelink & Maartje Libbers, volunteers from Holland, working in the Arise and Shine babies' home. 

What some of our new volunteers think of the village!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Hi, I am Yukari, a new volunteer from Japan. I have just arrived here and had an introduction week in the Arise and shine Uganda. This is about my first experience of visiting Kibuye village.

                        This Tuesday I went to the village where Arise and Shine conducts several projects. It was a really long way. First we took a taxi from Jinja town to Kamuli town for two hours, and we had to take the motorcycle called boda-boda for around 30minutes from the town to the village. Although we have “villages” in Japan, they can never be the same as Kibuya. There is no electricity, no running water. So it will be a great experience for me to join the projects here!    

The primary school in the village is going to be closed for holiday soon, but we fortunately could meet children of the school before that. They had a sports day on that day and all the students were in the ground. When we got there, children were running toward to welcome us, and they showed us their dance. I was really amazed that how good they could dance for their ages.  

It was just a one-day trip, so there must be a lot to see and many people to meet. I am really looking forward to meeting them and working together as a member of the Arise and shine!!

Candle project

Hello, I'm Kazuo, the volunteer from Japan. I'm doing internship here in AASU from the beginning of  October. I have experienced a lot of new things that I've never in Japan since I came here. The life in Bandali village is one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever experienced.

There are some projects AASU does in the village, such as adult literacy, beads project and HIV session etc. Each volunteer who works in village takes their own project. For me, the project I'm now responsible to is Candle project.

Candle project is one of the community outreach projects. AASU involves people in village and make candles then volunteers/stuff market them. The profit from the sales would compose of income which helps people in village.

In recent weeks I have  got experienced in making candles. The way how to make candles is not so difficult and anybody can master it. But it needs some certain tools and time. It takes around 3hours to make one set of candles from start to end. As candles are very fragile, we have to take much care when we take them from the tube. It is great time to see the vividly colored candle come out of the tube.

 One day, I and the teacher Deo in village came back to Jinja and tried to sell candles. The way we took to market candles is, very plain and simple, that we gave a brief explanation about the product including the background of AASU to mainly the people who are in market along the main street with showing the products. I was worried if they accepted our product at the beginning. But contrary to my negative expectation, we could sell most of candles we had in a day! It was delightful surprise for me. 

I think the colored candles were unusual for people and probably attracted their interest. It is also possibly thought that the background of the product and AASU brought about their sympathy somehow. Generally selling candles to people succeeded.

Then we also went to some hotels and negotiated with them to lend us some space to promote our products. It is integral for our community outreach projects such as beads project and candle project to get the fixed route we market them in order to get continuous profit.

Fortunately one hotel understood our objective and agreed with us to put and sell our products at its lounge. I hope the products made by AASU's project will be exhibited and sold in every hotel in Jinja near future and many visitors to Jinja recognize them as the best souvenirs.

 Prepared by Kazuo

Education and relaxation

Last week I went to the village and took something educative with me: a poster of the  human body and the names of the different body parts stated on it in English.

It was great to see the enthusiasm of the children while we studied the different parts of the body in English. The children liked it a lot and learned something at the same time. The class was interactive and it was nice that I had the opportunity to do this.

During the adult literacy classes I used the same poster to teach adults in the village the names of the different  parts of the body. At a certain moment I noticed a crowd of people standing interested around something in the classroom..... and that something was the poster of the human body with the names of the different body parts stated on it. Great to see how something small can make a crowd gather around it. At the end of the class we practiced the different names of parts of the body in English. After that I asked several students to come to the front and write down the right name in  English  for each part of the body  I pointed at on my own body. This was at the other side of the class, so the poster was not visible for the student in front of the blackboard. This was a funny situation because the practice they had was minimal and thus it was logical that some of the students did try to get a peek of the poster with the correct answers on it. The students that sat behind the tables betrayed the students who wanted to pick and were laughing, the student in front of the class had to laugh and I was also having a great time. The students picked up the names of the different parts of the body very fast and this was nice to see! Next week  we will make a rehearsal and the week after an exam on this and/or other topics would be great in order to take care, and examine to what extent, that the knowledge stays in the head of the students.

Great was also that my buddy brought a soccerball for the kids of the village. It was amazing to see how happy they are with this gift of my buddy. I had the honour to take the ball with me to the kids and they were cheering from excitement and starting running towards me. I had the great privilege to play soccer with the kids from Kibuye Bandali in Uganda. An experience that I will never forget!

This blog was prepared by:

Amar

addition to the Arise and Shine family in Jinja.

Hello everyone,

We are privileged to inform you that we got a new baby boy by the name of Khadil.

He is such a cute baby but so wasted away from malnutrition and by the time we got him he was at the verge of death and thank God we got there on time to save him. But still your prayers are still needed as we walk baby Khadil back to  life.

It was a long Journey to the village where we got baby Khadil. We left the baby home at around 8:00 am in the morning and we got to the village at around 12:43pm.

The stepmother was so happy to see us as she gave us a warm welcome. We didn’t find the father of the baby  at home so we had to give him a call and had to wait  for around 30minutes before he came back home.

On seeing us, he was so very excited. We exchanged greetings and right away started off interviewing him about the baby’s condition.

We discovered that the mother of the baby was very sick before giving birth . She had a terrible cough , was  hospitalised for it but there was not much improvement till the time she had to deliver the child.

She managed to give birth but was still ill. After giving birth,Khadil's mother was then brought back home but the situation just worsened and the relatives had to come and pick her up from her husband's place to her own family. She was taken away to their place for extra care after finding out that the husband had failed to take care of her condition.

After only a period of two weeks the poor lady passed away leaving little Khadil behind with the father and stepmother. It’s so sad but at times life is so very unfair and that’s the sole truth about the little one. He was brought forth in this world in pain. He’s never enjoyed any bit of happiness ever since he arrived.

After the mother’s death Baby Khadil’s life was completely torn apart. He barely had anyone to feed him and most of the time he would be left for along time without feeding.  The little chance he got to feed was fed with warm water because the family could hardly get access to milk and also since the step mother has also got a baby relatively the same age has got no sufficient time to take care of him when she has got a baby of her own to take care of. Thank God we were able to get there on time.

The time we got there, baby Khadil was starving to death and on inquiring from the stepmother whether he had fed or not, she told us that they had not been able to get any milk so he had to wait for the milk in order to get him fed.

Poor little thing! He was bowling and gasping for breath at the same time.

Right away, we requested the step mum to boil us some water so we could mix him some baby formula. We had moved well prepared almost knowing the situation. We carried milk, baby clothes and diapers just in case we needed them.

So as she boiled the water we asked for a basin with water so we could have him bathed. One of us bathed him as we waited for the water to boil. We had him dressed in the clothes we had carried and he was refreshed.

Soon after that the water was ready and milk was mixed and the baby fed. His day was made.

Soon after feeding the baby drowned into a resting mood and he was quiet, relaxed and went to sleep. So we prepared to leave for the baby’s home and the children were so happy and excited to have an addition of a baby. They all came and crowded around him and went, “baby baby baby……….. “and didn’t not even want to go to sleep.

More to the news, on the 31^st of October we received a donation from one of our volunteers Christopher . He bought our disabled children a wheel chair! Fahad has never been this happy! He was so excited to have the new wheel chair and each time he’s put in the chair he goes all smiles.Before we had 1 wheel chair which was usually shared between Stella and Fahad. But Stella always fights for it and Fahad usually accommodates her and lets her take it. We are so grateful for the second wheel chair as both Fahad and Stella now have one. Life only gets better!

We are also thankful to all of you who are making donations so we can build a new pit latrine for the Arise and Shine school! Thank you for your support, with out you Arise ans Shine can not live to do it's work.

Am calling upon all of you to donate through the web site or the blog as we can get to deal with the bank charges all at once if we donate online otherwise we are charged for every transfer made to the bank. Thanks again for all your support.Your help will take us a long way!

Thanks for following us!

more activities, raising money for the babies' home!

Last week we went to ‘St. Jude trainings center’ to give information about STD’s, syphilis and the Afri-pads. Our main goal was to sell the Afri-pads, to earn money for the babies’ home. The money from the sanitary towels is spent on the babies in the babies’ home. We think that’s a very good goal, so we’ve tried as best as we can.

To prepare our presentation, we made some posters with keywords. Sometimes it’s difficult for the students to understand us, because of our Dutch accent but with the posters they can also read the information.

We started with general information about sexually transmitted diseases and the A-B-C-D formula. The A means abstinence; keeping away from sex is the safest way to protect one from STD’s. If one can’t abstain, then be faithful to one partner, that’s the B in the formula. The C stands for condom-use. You always have to use a condom; otherwise you can reach the D in the formula. The D stands for Death. When you don’t have safe sex, you can risk sexually transmitted diseases, which can lead to death.

We also talked about syphilis, because it’s a common STD, but most people have a limited knowledge about it. We talked about different stages of the disease, the symptoms, the diagnosis and the treatment.

At the end we talked about the Afri-pads. We showed the menstrual kit and we have explained how it works. The girls were enthusiastic, but a little shy. We asked the girls if they had questions about the subjects. For them, it was hard to ask what they want, they were a little ashamed. We have noticed that it’s not common for the girls to talk about these issues. We tried to make them comfortable with the situation and the subjects. We told them that’s common to talk about and that they could ask anything. It was good to see that some girls raised their hands and asked what they wanted to know.

We already sold one of the Afri-pads. One of the employers of the trainings center asked the girls to repeat what we’ve told about the A-B-C-D formula. If she answered correctly, he would pay the menstrual kit. The girl was a little bit nervous, but she remembered what we told, so she could explain it to the other girls. She was excited when she received the Afri-pads. That was really nice to see. The employer helped us to make the situation comfortable for the girls. We’ve learned from him how to talk about a not common subject with this target group.

A lot of girls wanted to buy the Afri-pads, but they had no money with them. We’ve made a new appointment for next Wednesday, so we hope we can sell a lot more menstrual kits.

Our newest volunteers and their AASU experience so far!

Hello everybody.

We are Maartje and Ildi, we live in Holland and we study social work, specialized in children.  We both always really wanted an internship abroad to learn about ourselves, the people in Uganda, and the culture. When we read the information about Arise and Shine Uganda, we were instantly thrilled about the organization. They achieved so much in only one year, that’s great! So, we are very glad to work for this organization. We already met a lot of great people and feel very welcome.

We are going to stay in the babies home to help the teacher with the lessons and the activities. We are also going to give workshops to the mothers of the babies' home, so we can share our knowledge. But we hope we can also learn from them.

This week we started making a work plan and goals for all the children. We made 4 groups, namely the older children, the younger children, the babies, and the disabled children. Each group has a different goal. Every day we want to do an activity with all the groups but the goals for the children are different.

One of the activities from last week was ‘bubble blowing’. It was amazing! The children liked it so much and they were very creative in catching the bubbles. They all wanted to blow and they had a lot of fun. Even the disabled children and the babies participated in the activity. They couldn’t blow by themselves but they really enjoyed watching and catching the bubbles. It’s good to see that the older children care about the younger ones and also the disabled children. The older children blew bubbles in their way, so they could try to catch them. It was a great experience for us to see the children work on their goals in a playful way. It was nice to see that all the children had so much fun, even the disabled ones.

Photos of the bubble session will be posted on the AASU facebook, enjoy!

Greetings from Arise and Shine Uganda!

To all our friends and well wishers, we know it has been long since you last heard from us! A lot has been going on down here and we would like to tell you about what we have been up to regardless of the silence.

The director and founder of Arise and shine Uganda is on a fundraising trip in Europe, trying to sell some of the products that our ladies make in the community outreach project of AASU.We will be hearing more about it as she sends us the updates on her progress and when we do, we will surely keep everyone posted on it.

Other than that, a lot has been happening at the organization at the moment. We are welcoming four different volunteers from the Netherlands. They will be helping on the income generating activities in the village as most of the volunteers we had in the last month are leaving. Some of the volunteers are more interested in helping at the children’s care home as they have expert knowledge in that but we will be able to talk about their responsibilities in detail in a couple of weeks from now.For more photos of Arise and shine please follow the picasa link below:   https://picasaweb.google.com/home

 Alex Cabon who came in as a consultant for AASU also on a voluntary basis has finished his work with us. It was so sad to see him leave, but on the other hand he has done so much good for us that we will only leave to be thankful for his work. We will surely miss him but again, we will cherish the knowledge he has instilled in us. Without him, AASU wouldn’t have been the same.

More on the update, Friday 21/Oct/2011 was a day out for the children at the Arise and Shine children’s care home as well as a general cleaning for the workers in the home.

After breakfast, children were prepared and went together with the new volunteers at St Nicholas field a primary school nearby the babies’ home.

The children were so very excited to learn that they were having a day out! On their way to the field, they saw monkeys and on reaching the field, they spent half of their day merrymaking. It was such a fun day! Kids flew kites, played football and lots of other various games.

At around mid-day, some of the children were already exhausted from the too much running around and playing so they were brought back home and had their lunch.

As soon as children finished eating, Uncle Alex (consultant volunteer) gave them candies as a way of saying good bye. They received them with a lot of excitement and soon after that they had a nap. What a surprise! As candy usually makes them hyper. After nap time, they were up playing football with Uncle Alex and by the end of the day they were all very tired from the tedious day.

On the other hand, the cleaning went well at the baby house. First, we had all mattresses taken outside under the sun before cleaning commenced. At the home, we had three volunteers stay behind to help with the cleaning.

The cleaning commenced at around 10:00am and went on till mid-day. We had all beds scrubbed clean plus all the toilets and walls. And after that, we had all baby chairs taken out and were as well cleaned.

After we had children back at the home and were so excited to get home everything so clean.

Good bye baby puke…..good bye little dirty fingure prints on walls….good bye food stains on dinner tables….Hello clean house!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you know we have a you tube account now? You can watch all our cool videos on there now! Just follow the link below to see some of the work we have been doing!

You can also read more about us through our website, just follow the link below:

www.ariseandshineug.org

 We also have a facebook page where you can follow us, again just follow the link below:

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arise-and-shine-Uganda/133109643399722

And you like tweeting? we also like the tweets, just follow us on the link below:

http://twitter.com/#!/AriseandShine_U

We will be coming up with more updates at the end of the week. Keep

           

Arise and Shine Uganda- Some of the work we do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jwahoZKU40&feature=autoshare

Greetings from Uganda!

We currently have five (5) volunteers helping with the Arise and Shine projects ie, Husna (working on the candle project), Hilary (working on the literacy project), Edna (working on the beads project), Christoph  (working as a public relations officer for Arise and Shine Uganda) and Alex who is helping more with the organizational strategies. Kazuo a volunteer from Japan just arrived and his going through the Arise and shine project to understand it more. He will also join in with the others by next week. We are so thankful for our volunteers and we would like to update you about what we have been up to the past week.
All projects have been going on smoothly and the returns are showing. Husna and her ladies have been able to make more beautiful candles in all kinds of shapes. Edna’s ladies are producing more and more beads with less faulty beads which is shows progress in the bead rolling skills. Hilary and Christoph are also working hard in the literacy project, currently teaching a group of fifteen people who attend lessons twice a week.
Christoph a volunteer from Belgium confessed he had never seen an older person who didn’t know how to read and write.  In his words he said, ''I saw what we mean by illiteracy, if an adult aged 30 years cannot read and write or even spell out his own name. I think there is need for action and that is why i decided to help in the Adult literacy sessions.''  To us the nationals we see it everywhere especially in the rural areas which are the biggest parts of Uganda. We are still fighting the illiteracy levels of our community and our volunteers are determined to recruit more community members into the literacy program. They are advertising for literacy sessions in the Kibuye area and all neighboring villages. With our program, we are hoping to raise the number of people who can read and right by at least 15% by the end of this year.For more information about illiteracy in Uganda please follow this link. http://www.ifad.org/gender/learning/sector/extension/52.htm

 The volunteers have also been moving around the nearest villages to Kibuye village and to their surprise, in this village were many people are affected or infected with HIV/AIDS, members are still lacking information and skills on HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. This puts them at a higher risk of infection with the fact that they are in a country highly affected by the Disease. For information on the HIV/AIDS prevalence ratein different parts of Uganda, please follow this link. http://www.who.int/inf-new/aids2.htm

Arise and Shine is soon launching a campaign in the nearest villages and schools to create awareness on HIV/AIDS. In this campaign,community members will be matching and publicizing the event.At the end of the day,AASU volunteers and staff will be delivering a session on HIV/AIDS and raising awareness among the community members on the disease.


AASU is also looking into introducing a new livelihood project that will be focused on energy and protecting the environment. More information will be communicated as soon as the plans are made.

 The babies' home is doing well since all the children are showing great health and we have not experienced frequent sicknesses.
Thank you for following our blog! We are so glad to have you reading about us every week. And remember we also have a web site, facebook fan page you can like, you can also follow us on twitter!  Always read about us by checking out on the links below!

http://ariseandshineug.org/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arise-and-shine-Uganda/133109643399722  like us!

the thought of the day

Arise and Shine Uganda is surely changing people's lives! Who knew that any one can make such a big difference with so little? I am surely humbled at how much the volunteers have contributed to the projects. People in Kibuye have started harvesting vegetables,having a balanced diet! The candle project is growing and beads project is doing amazing, most of the ladies have perfected.Adults in the rural communities have a chance learn how to read and write, the babies in the care home are doing well and looking healthier like never before.The school has registered one more teacher and enrolled more students.How great are those who have devoted their efforts time and again just so to help those in need? Thanks for walking with us on this journey.The journey leading rural communities to self reliance and self sustainability. You will surely be remember in each foot step we make ahead. And this is because you left more than foot prints in our lives! We call upon all of you to continue walking with us each day as we strive to reach our furthest goals. We love you all and we call you our family but above all, you are our friends. And this goes to all our volunteers, past and present.


Just wanted to share a blog that one of our ex volunteers wrote to the Arise and Shine family.She devoted all her time and energy to the Arise and Shine Uganda activities,made a link between Arise and Shine with a chinese organisation so we can have a more sustainable market for the beads the ladies make in the village.She wrote a blog to all of us and I think it is so special!

AASU BLOG NO.1

LOVE IS ALL AROUND

By Mary Zhang

26. Agu. 2011

Despite of different colors, languages, values or even beliefs, after the whole

week with the African babies in the AASU Baby's Home, I have firm belief that

 love is universal---Do unto others as you would have them do unto you---

Even to the babies: smile, soft touches, hugs, time spent with them, talks 

between us, never lose words......Trust is built time by time.

Put your heart, your passion and love into everything you do and every person

you meet with. Because LOVE IS ALL AROUND.

PS: True appreciation for Sharon, Travis and everyone around, who brought 

me the most amazing experiences, gave me company and made me feel at

home. Most importantly, those who helped me get through the hardest time 

to be stronger.

volunteer update!

Last week we took pictures of all the children at the Arise and Shine Nursery and Care Home. So that everybody can soon be able to have a look at the smiling face of each child on our website. A week ago we had a big party for Sharif and Ruth. It was their very first birthday, both are 1 year old now !!!! We organized a game (the children had to find candies in the garden), played with baloons and also had a nice lunch with Pilau, meet and fruit. On the same day we also received lots of rice, flour,a big package of cloths and some toys.We would like to send on our thanks to the Stewarts for all their support. For the Cloths, a big thank you to Auntie Rosanna Tuffo! One of our past volunteers.We thank her for Keeping involved in the Arise and shine Uganda activities even though her time here in Uganda ended.We also want to thank her family and friends for the support they are giving towards the babies at the children's care home.The babies all looked smart during the birthday event! And the candies were a super treat.                

In the village, both projects are successfully being continued. For the beads project, we finished separating the good beads from the bad ones and counted them to make packages with money to pay the women after one and a half months. The women were so happy to get some payment again!!! We also managed to collect a big box of papers for making the beads so that the project can be continued. 3 weeks ago, we started a new beads session in Kibuye village. We are looking forward to the next meeting this week, when the women from both villages, Kibuye and Bandali, will all come together.

The candle project is doing well too. We have started making candles with different shapes, sizes and colours, But we have to still search for a good market, so we can give a payment to the women making candles too. Otherwise, the projects are all going on well, ladies are so happy to be involved in the income generating projects.Good news is that we sold alot of beads these past weeks again, a big thank you to the stewarts for all this support. They purchased alot of beads for themselves and for their friends as well.This will enable us to pay the beads ladies these coming weeks!Furthermore, we are happy to tell you all that the school received more school uniforms . It is so exciting  now that every child has their uniform! The kids all look like little flowers in the school compound.They sure love their orange uniforms and are always excited to wear their uniforms to school each morning.School should be exciting at all times. At Arise and Shine Nursery and primary school we try to make an exciting school environment for the children.More photos on the school will be coming up soon.
We are still working on our website, but we encourage everyone to check it out as there is lots of information on the ongoing projects as well.We also like to hear from you, you can send us feed back through commenting on the sites or emailing us directly through the web site if you go to the "contact us section".
http://ariseandshineug.org/

 compiled by: Mary, Husna, Anke and Ida

party time!!!!!!!

Baby Sharif and Ruth have a birthday on sunday the 25th! first birthday party at the care home........ cake = excitement!!!!!!!!! come join us everyone, only fun times...

The Transition!

First of all, we want to thank each one of you out there for your unfailing love and support for Arise and Shine Uganda. A lot has been happening in AASU the past week; we would like to tell you about how your support is helping us grow every other day.

My heart  sings with joy, anxiousness and excitement   as I watch some of our children in transition!

Peninah and Joan got a sponsor from the Netherlands; they are now in Kibuye village attending school in the Arise and Shine Nursery and Primary school.  Education is such an important aspect of life, and while everyone else in the western world can have access to free education, In Uganda education is an opportunity!

 Many children go to bed at night praying to God for the opportunity to go to school. What an honor and privilege it is for Bulungi Uganda to be part of that far greater plan and be an answer to some children’s prayers. Peninah and Joan can now get an education and enjoy the benefits that come with it in the future.

Last Monday they were taken to the village and reunited with their family. It was such a special moment. Very happy to see their older siblings, their mom and of course after telling them about the plan for their stay in the village, I got a question.

new friends!

 “Shall we then be able to wear our uniforms and shoes and a back pack to go to school every day? “Joan asked. It was cute! She needed reassurance.

Am excited for them, looking forward to see how they do in school, even with the widest vision what they will be in life. I just wish them all the best.

Niina and Sari are also in transition, their adopting parents are here and living with them at the moment. Getting used to a new family has never been such an easy thing especially for a two year old. But God is faithful; I trust that they are well. This is our first adoption and I have to say adoptions are not easy and of course no one said it would be a rollercoaster. Especially doing it for the first time, under the guidance of many people, rushing you to do many different things in such a short time and finding out they are  driving you in the wrong direction and such things are not even necessary after so much hard work! We have met our challenges and still pray for the best. God is faithful. We are looking forward to spending more time with the adopting parents here at the children’s care home and we are praying that all goes well with the adoption. What an honor and privilege it is for this family to be God’s answer to a child’s prayer! Niina and Sari will have a home with a loving mother and father! 

MEET THE BABIES AT THE ARISE AND SHINE CHILDREN’S CARE HOME

 I know we have written a lot about the project in the previous blogs but we have never actually introduced to you our babies at the AASU children‘s care home. We currently have 20 babies both able bodied and disabled children. We take on babies that are orphaned, abandoned or any other children in vulnerable situations. Some children will have parents but due to the financial situations at home, we take such children in our care with the aim of restoring them back to health and then later reuniting them with their families. Other children get adopted while others are put in foster care homes in the kibuye village to attend the Arise and Shine Nursery and primary school. Other than the children with disability, most of the children we take on are 4 years and below. We take care of them to the age of 5 and later send them to their foster families in Kibuye village. The disabled children stay with us at the Arise and Shine care home depending on the degree of disability. For some that have minor disability and can attend school with ease, we send them to the village for school at 5 years of age. But if the degree of disability severe then they stay with us and attend preschool at the care home.

At the moment we have 20 babies under our care. Most of them were malnourished and they have blossomed under our care. Meet our babies!

Joviah was 18months when she joined us. She is originally from Masindi district, her mother and father died from HIV/AIDS at the beginning of this year. They had 2 children who were left behind as orphans. Jovia and Phiona were then brought to Jinja district to live with their grandmother who leaved close to the baby home. The grandmother was always struggling to feed the children .she works in a small restaurant which pays her 3000 shillings a day not enough to sustain the needs of both children and herself. Joviah is on daily medication for her health condition. The drugs require to eat well before taking them. Her grandmother could not afford all this and joviah’s health was being compromised. When she learned about the AASU children’s care home, she sought our help in taking care of Joviah. We took her in when she was 18months and now she is 2 yrs old, a healthy child.

                   Phiona    Is 4 years old her and her sister are happily blossoming under our care. She is a very smart caring girl. At her age , she is interested in helping out holding little babies! She is always asking if she can hold a baby if they were crying .Am always amazed by her. Am so sure she will make such a good mama one day! She is still finding her real self, very quick in switching from grumpiness to happiness and that is our major concern about her. But again, she is 4 and she has gone through a lot more than some of us have seen. She was older than Joviah when the parents died, taking care of them when they were sick and also looking after her little sister Joviah while her mom was sick. And the last blow of seeing her loved ones die, then moving into new homes one after another. She is adjusting well to the environment.

 Pross  is a twin sister to Rose and also sister to Joan and Peninah. Their mother is Faith Nakisuyi from kibuye village. Her husband separated with her after getting her disability. Faith has 8 children and she is a stay home mom who solely depends on subsistence farming. She had been struggling with feeding children the past few years and always living by the mercy of other people who brought food for her so she could have a meal during harder times. Finally AASU took over the care 4 of her twins and also supporting the rest of the other children who are currently attending school in the AASU Nursery and Primary school. AASU has found a job for faith; she makes paper beads and now hoping to have a sustainable income with that. Peninah and Joan will be reunited with the family and hope with her

income, faith will be able to take care of the girls.

Rose joined us when she was 18 months old and now she is 2 years and 3 months now. Rose will live with us for the next two years and together with Pross at 5 yrs will be reunited with their family and will be attending the AASU nursery and primary school.

Peninah is 5 years old, time has passed so fast! She is at the transition age and will be joining the AASU nursery and primary school next year. She has tried on the uniform so many times as they were being

made. She must be excited about starting school soon.

Joan is a twin with Peninah, very sweet kind girl. Sad she will also be leaving us at the beginning of next year as she will be reunited with her family as well. But it’s good for the children to live in the normal African setting were children learn daily responsibilities and chores.

Mariam is 12 months old, her father is 70 years old and her mom is 21 and mentally disabled. Her father is ill. At the moment he is hospitalized in Jinja main hospital .Mariam has a brother but was adopted by an English family long before she came to live with us. We never got the chance to meet the parents. Of late, she has been struggling with malnutrition .First she was admitted in jinja hospital children’s ward. But even when she was discharged, she still got fevers and it was so clear that she wasn’t well. Of recent she has started getting cold sores so at least we know what she has. And we know how to help her. She is getting better, has gained some weight and learning how to walk! Mariam is getting happier each day.

Ruth is about 11 months old, born to a teenager 14 yrs old. On her birth, the father denied being her father and the mother didn’t have any income to support her. She brought her to AASU children’s care home. Ruth is blossoming under our care and fortunately the mom found some sponsors to take her back to school, her parents stopped paying school fees because she had given birth. But now she is back in school and will be reunited with her daughter when she finishes her technical training. Ruth is such a beautiful happy beautiful girl!

Fiona is one of our first children, 3 yrs old and has been living with us for a year now.  Fiona is a healthy happy girl; she has grown more and healthier during her stay with us.  Unless she gets adopting parents, she will be moving to kibuye village with foster parents at the age of 5.

Niina and Sari are twins. They have been sick with malaria, but now they are all better. Niina had it first and it didn’t show for Sari, we had to take her back for another test and it eventually showed in the test. She got treatment and now both of them are all better. Exciting news about the girls is that they have started making a few sentences! It is hard work to understand what they are saying but the sound brings joy to the ear listening! And I am so excited to announce that they are getting a family very soon!  I don’t have much to share about this, but will keep you all updated on how everything is going. For now please pray with us for God’s will to be done.

  

Venekent Is 4 years old now. He originally comes from Kamuli district around Namasagali village. His mother and father died a year ago. He has a sister who is disabled and lives in a different children’s home. We are planning their reunion every once in a while. He has lived with us for about 4 months and doing great so far!

Sharif   joined us 5 months ago; he is about 11 months old now. Sharif was brought to us by his dad, claiming his mother had abandoned him in the house after a disagreement with her husband. He came as a severely malnourished child and now his all getting better under our care; his been able to put on a few kilograms since then and  looking more like a healthy boy each day that goes by.

 Reagan : according to his mom, his father died in February this year. As a stay home mom, Reagan’s mom found it really hard to provide for Reagan. He joined us mid February with edema. He was so big we simply thought he was a fat baby. Little did we know that it was a buildup of excess  fluid between his tissue cells! A month later he started getting sick, after taking him to the doctor, we were educated about his condition. He was flashed down and in two weeks he went from fat to “too skinny”

That was a scary time but he is now getting so much better. He has started playing and gaining normal weight at the moment. Reagan is also trying to walk now!

Pia :  is 3 years now and she has the warmest personality one would ever see in a child! She welcomes everyone that comes to the baby’s home, always ready to hug them all! Her cheerful smiles keep the home very warm. She has lived with us for seven months now.

 Stella : Is one of the kids with a  disability, also supported by Bulungi Uganda. She will be turning 4 very soon. 

Stella seems to be growing taller and taller each day. She is also working out her way of getting around different things in her environment. Her muscles are noticeably growing bigger as she uses them often while crawling. We hope she can be able to walk some day.

Fahad:

 

is also one of our disabled children who was rescued by Renate (from Bulungi Uganda) one of AASU partner s that sponsors disabled children. Fahad was found in extreme vulnerable situations. He was severely malnourished and we all thought he would never make it. He joined us February this year.He

has become much healthier .He is our biggest miracle!

Hussein  : Unlike all the other normal babies, Hussein is a microsophalus baby and was born with his legs stack to his head. The whole of his infancy, Hussein was hospitalized and his legs were broken and put in a cast each month that went by during his first 5 months. I found out that no matter what we do to change his appearance, he would never be able to use his legs. So we have decided to leave him just as he is. He will be seeing a specialist to see if he needs any medication. Hussein is now 8 months and looks perfectly happy

.

Josephine: is 6 years old, both her mom and dad died this year from AIDS. She is our newest addition to the home. Josephine is disabled, cannt walk or do any of the fun things that other kids often do but she is always a happy girl. Thanks again to bulungi Uganda, we can reach out to the children with disabilities. Especially in a community where they don’t have so much support due to different cultural beliefs.