Little Robert was born disabled with both his legs and hands folded. As a child, Robert had never had a smile on his face and was always in pain.

The parents tried so hard to see that he gets a life by taking him to different kinds of hospitals but nothing changed. Various tests were made but no sickness was ever found in his little body. Despite of the test results, Robert always seemed in pain. He could not feed like normal children do; he seemed fad up of everything and could throw up each time he was fed.

After the parents trying all they could in vain, they decided to bring him to Arise and Shine Uganda. He was taken right away to hospital and the doctors said that he was only malnourished and needed extra feeding on special meals but first with very soft meals. So he was put on a diet of milk and some special food known as “E-pap” and at first it wasn’t easy for he could throw up still. But we never gave up on feeding him and time went on he started picking and stopped throwing up. He even started putting on a little weight each week. Robert was thriving on a special diet of milk with some added food nutrients, high protein porridge among other foods. Life went on and after some time he got a cough and was taken to hospital and various tests were made like the T.B test and still nothing was found. He was given medicine and he responded so positively to the medication and he was fine.

Robert was so loved, even though the parents were not able to care for him, the father kept calling to find out how he was doing and he was always fine not until he fell sick on the 9 of Aug on his fateful day. He fell sick early in the night and was rushed to the children’s hospital in the morning. The doctors could not diagnose any sickness and anticipated that it could be T.B because he was breathing so hard. So he was ex-rayed and results were supposed to come back the following morning. Unfortunately, little Robert didn’t make it to the results day.

He was put on medication as they were waiting for results and at around 11:00pm his condition worsened. His breathing was so rapid and whenever fed, everything would just fall in like in an empty tin. He didn’t seem to taste anything. He seemed too much in pain and was whining. So i rushed looking for a doctor to look at him, an injected and a drip was suggested for him. We thought the nurses would have been faster and more concerned about the ill child but that wasn’t something we would definitely expect from our public hospital. “this is a place where hundreds of patients are waiting in a queue , some losing consciousness and fainting, some in need of blood and looking like they would die the next minute while others are dying therefore you are not the only ones “the nurse informed us with a serious look  on her face while giving Robert the injection. Not long after the injection, little Robert passed away not waiting for the drip. I learned that sometimes life is just too hard to live. But above all, Robert is in the loving hands of his Father.

HIV/AIDS project

At the beginning of July, Sharon and I were talking about possibilities of different projects for the community outreach program. She came up with the idea to start a project about HIV and AIDS. At that moment I was so glad, something medical! Just what I like, because I am studying Technical Medicine. After a little conversation I was happy to prepare an outline of the project. We discussed the outline together and made a plan.

Laura, from the gender project, had a meeting with Fatumah (an AIESEC’er who worked for The Aids Support Organisation) about the possibility of gettig free condoms from TASO for the village. I told her about the HIV project and she suggested that i could come with her to TASO on the following day and talk about the project. After the meeting we were able to walk back to the house with 1000 free condoms; a good beginning of the project!

Marieke, after the glance at the gardening project, decided to join the HIV/AIDS project. She is studying Psychology and this was more useful for her. Together we embarked on the project with the first session in the Kibuye Village.

During the focus group discussion session, we talked about general information about HIV and AIDS. We asked the attendees about; HIV is, ways in which HIV is spread and its prevention. If they did not know the answers, we would give them more information. A lot of questions came up after that. One of the questions was from a guy who asked if one can get HIV from wearing an infected person’s shirt. For me that was one of the points backing up the importance of the project.

A Week later, we did a condom demonstration; a fun activity! After the demonstration we split the men and the women up so they could talk to separate people in line with their own gender groups. Men were really interested in the subject. Women were very open and laughed a lot, mostly because at a banana we used during the presentation. After the session every person got 9 free condoms. It was a good session despite the difficulty of the HIV/AIDS subject.

In response  to our suggestion, TASO decided to come to the village to test the people so that they could know their HIV status. On Sunday before the testing day, we had a session concerning details, how the test works. After the session we were advertising the testing day in the village so that everybody could know about it. We went to the church, to the different men centers in the villages, the school and the borehole putting up advertising sign about the testing day.

The 2^nd of August was the big day: the testing day. TASO came with 14 people of the testing team, including counselors and lab technicians. There was also a drama group entertaining the people who were waiting for the test. All the volunteers from AASU were involved in it during this day.

They were doing the registration of all people, preparing and cooking lunch for 48 people, doing surveys and the guidance for the TASO people. During the day a lot of people showed up to have tested. At the end of the day we tested 204 people and only 6 people turned out to be HIV positive.

After the testing day we visited TASO in Jinja to speak to one of the counselors to ask a few questions to which we did not know the answers . What should we answer, when a woman ask, what she should do, when her husband does not want to use a condom during sexual intercourse? Or questions about polygamy. During the sessions women were asking about the female condom. It sounded like the female condom could be the solution to the problem if men did not want to use a men condom. The counselor told us, they had the same questions, to which it is hard to answer. The counselor was sure, that female condoms were too expensive for the people. We also visited one of the lab technicians, who guided us around TASO. In the morning he was taking blood from people to check their CD level. CD level is the amount of antibodies in your blood against HIV. When this level is under 250, people need to take antiretroviral treatment otherwise they take different kinds of antibiotics. I helped him by calling the names and doing the administration. After lunch he showed us a laboratory. A small and simple place, but with almost everything they needed.

In the meanwhile Sharon arranged an appointment with coordinator of TASO. After the appointment, she made a partnership between AASU and TASO. The partnership includes 3000 free condoms every month, testing twice a year and giving the HIV-positive people possibility to get free medication. 

The last session in the village was about positive living with HIV. How do you cope with a positive test result? Can you do things to improve your quality of life then? Unfortunately people were really late (2 hours delay is usual). Because of that we were not able to talk about all points of the session.

The important challenges AASU still has to face:

·         To provide HIV-positive people from the village with free transport to the Kamuli hospital

·         To get medication in the health centre

·         To make people aware of the importance of protecting themselves.

Hopefully we were able to imprint a mark in the village!

Linda and the candle project!

Even though,  my experience with Arise and Shine will be completed next week, it isn’t hard to remember these past two months in Uganda. There are thousands of images and smiles impressed in my mind that can not be deferred in whole, but which have taken place so quickly that it seemed like just a few days ago I arrived. The first week has flown by. Between the smiles, games and playtime at the babies' home in Jinja, I dont know how not to become attached to so many smiles that require you only to play with them. After that i moved to the village Kibuye, as a teacher in primary 2, despite all my misgivings about the fact of being able to teach in English, I am amazed of the desire of these children who want to learn and improve and, also have fun. Well then I could not refuse the proposal of Sharon: "I have the right project for you." For several weeks I have been engaged in a project in favor of the ladies: the production of candles. Not having the slightest idea of how its done, I am amazed to be able to get something very similar to a candle,  on the first attempt, and then in turn will improve even more. The project was to involve only ten ladies, as the material (wax, colors, rope ...) has a considerable cost. At the proposal of the new project in the village, I found an interest in wanting to learn something new and useful at the same time. The process is quite simple: once the wax melted, it is poured into molds, where the wick was centered  and then you wait for it to  dry. And all is well up to here, the biggest problem arises when it comes to removing the mold from the candle because it takes time, patience and energy! But that certainly does not scare the ladies, because no matter how tedious it can be, they never lost their cool and have always been satisfied when they are able to get the candles. After a couple of weeks of training, I can say that the quality improves over time and I hope that soon we will be able to package and sell some to help support other projects of AASU.

It was an experience full of emotions: the friendliness and smiles of so many people saying hello, thank you and help you, remains the best memory of this time spent in AASU. I hope my small contribution may have been helpful for all the kids and the community of Kibuye. I can only thank all the people I met and with whom I collaborated in the past two months, and thank you very much  to Sharon for everything.  She patiently followed me and gave me the opportunity to be part of AASU. And before I wrap the sadness of farewell, a greeting and a hug to all and thanks again !!!!!!!!