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.
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http://ariseandshineug.org/

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