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