Emmanuel (Manuel for short) is in Primary 3 at Wells of Hope, and so happy that school started back in January after nearly two years of closures. He loves running around, playing football, and being a regular kid.
There’s just one difference: Manuel has only one leg.
He was born this way, and watching him move you would never really connect that one of his “legs” is actually a crutch. He uses that crutch as easily and naturally as can be — it’s pretty amazing.
But Manuel’s crutches have always been made out of wood, and as a typical, active boy, that wood breaks. When that happens, Manuel can spend a week out of school while another one is located, and funds figured out.
This means he not only loses a valuable week of education and food, he also has no means of movement outside sitting on his bum and scooting around. His family couldn’t afford a wheelchair, but also, his home and the surrounding village aren’t really places a wheelchair can go easily. So he waits.
We have a project up on DonorSee to buy Manuel a metal crutch, so he can play football and run to his heart’s content. We’d love your help to give this amazing kid an amazing gift.
After our “fun with food” at Hopeland School last Wednesday, we spent Thursday out at Rwakobo Village and Wells of Hope School. This photo is the home of one of the parents from the school, who has 3 kids there.
This village is, essentially, “a refugee camp without the UN.” (Per Gilbert, the Assistant Director at the school.) It was planted inside the then newly formed Lake Mburo National Park forty years ago, when the government needed something to do with refugees from the Rwandan genocide. They put them in the middle of this game park with no well, no clinic, no school, and lots of rules. That was pretty much the last time the government has done anything for the people there.
Anyway, we combined our planned 2-day visit into one because Director Gideon’s wife was suffering terribly with gall stones and they were going to have to go to Kampala on Friday. It meant a long day, a 2 mile walk, a lot of sun, and a lot of these kinds of houses.
We toured the school, which has come a long way since our last visit, with one real brick building in service and a second nearing completion. (DonorSee project on the way for the floors and blackboards soon!) There are 340 students in buildings that would legitimately hold 150, but it’s pretty hard to turn them away.
In the West, this classroom would hold *maybe* 10 students, with desks and chairs. There are 40+ children in it now. All the old mud and stick classrooms look like this, so a move to the new building will be a huge help.
I’m a huge fascination out in Rwakobo — a mzungu is rare out there! So I wore my hair up, long sleeves (to cover up my tattoos which caused MUCH interest last visit!), and long pants. Still, they all wanted to touch my hands or feet, and kept surging forward to be ever-closer to us. haha It was a bit intense, but I always love to visit them.
It’s Sunday and I leave in THREE DAYS! Thank you all for your encouragement and support while I’ve been gone. We’ve funded a lot of DonorSee projects over the last two weeks, so THANK YOU!
That’s the best word for it. The president had addressed the nation several days before about rising cases of COVID19, but said they were not locking down. Then, Sunday night after 8pm, he announced that a 42 day partial shut down would begin on MONDAY.
To say there was shock, dismay, anger, and chaos would be an understatement!
Chaos in Kampala as people try to leave the city before the deadline
After a REALLY good week last week in our programs, with graduation for our first term students from Skills for Life just a couple of weeks away, new water filters for Wells of Hope School, students reporting in stages back to the two primary schools, and two of the hairdressing girls hired by salons, we were very… UPSET.
Here’s what we know so far:
Schools are CLOSED. They just started reopening in March, and several grades hadn’t even come back yet, so we are now at about 15 months without school for many students. Since our schools service extremely poor children, this also means they lose the food and supervision they get at school. In the case of Wells of Hope, they lose the only clean water they have access to.
Churches, mosques, and other houses of worship are CLOSED.
Important gatherings, such as burials and weddings, are limited to 20 people.
Inter-district travel is restricted starting the 10th. (He did allow a few days for people to get home, at least.)
The informal economy has effectively been killed again — the only markets allowed are government sanctioned ones.
WHAT WE ARE DOING:
The primary schools are closed, which left about 10 children who are true orphans once again homeless. The foster families who took them in last year graciously agreed to receive them again, so they have been relocated to those families. We will be providing them food as we did in 2020, and they all were given Wonderbags so that will help with charcoal costs.
The girls from Term 1 of Skills for Life are finishing up their final projects. We can distance them, and make sure to stay under the “3 people” limit so that they can complete the term. Our graduation ceremony will be held once the restrictions are lifted.
Term 2 of Skills for Life is on the drawing board. I should have some updates for that by the end of the week, as the staff meets to discuss our options.
Two of the girls at the Ross House have been there for four months, and are ready to move on once the S4L term ends. We have located a place for the Suubi House, and should have access to that by the end of the week. We have to furnish it, but we will have the girls and social worker eat at the Ross House to keep extra expenses down for now. (It’s very close by.)
We are brainstorming ideas to keep the kids in the various programs ENGAGED and BUSY during the coming 6 weeks. During the lockdown of 2020, teen pregnancies skyrocketed, child bride practices escalated, and drug and alcohol use increased. While we can’t have our Saturday Turning Point, we can continue counseling sessions and small gatherings, and we are working on ways that the teens can get involved in the community to keep them busy and out of trouble.
Prices have already gone up significantly on food and charcoal, because of the inter-district travel restrictions. We are cutting expenses where we can to prepare for emergency situations. Please consider setting up a monthly donation of ANY size ($3/mo is the minimum and even that is so helpful!), or a one time donation.
Today we welcome Gideon, Director of Hopeland and Wells of Hope Schools, and our liaison to Rwakobo Village. I’ve known Gideon for about ten years when he was a teacher/tutor at Father’s House in Kampala. We’ve been working together on the schools since May 2019, when my bakery began a Pound for Pound program to provide food for Hopeland School and the Arise Africa Babies Home. I’m so glad to have a chance to chat with him about Rwakobo Village!
J: When and how did the village at Rwakobo come to your attention?
G: We visited it in 2018 when our church [Celebration Tabernacle Church in Mbarara] was doing outreaches to the poorest and most needy areas in our region.
J. What was the first thing Celebration Tabernacle did in the village?
G: Together, the church fed the hungry, built a few mud houses with iron sheets for those who slept in grass huts or were basically homeless, and talked to the parents about the dangers of forced child marriages and other associated vices.
J: How many people live in Rwakobo Village?
G: Almost 3,000 now!
J: What is life like for those living there?
G: They live hand to mouth, well below the poverty line [so below $2 per day]. They hardly have any clean water, getting food is a struggle, and they have no health facilities so they depend on herbs for the treatment of illnesses.
J: What impact has the school made on the lives of the villagers?
G: They have seen the importance of education! Forced early marriages have been reduced, as well as the behaviors associated with that [like abuse, early pregnancy and related complications]. The value of girls has been resurrected!
J: How will the new school building and the reopening of the school after the Covid lockdown affect the children who attend Wells of Hope?
G: Their lives were being threatened over the last year! Not only were schools closed, but churches were also closed so they began to lose hope. They fell back in their educational achievements [school had only just started its third-ever term], and were giving up! The news of the opening will be amazing to them!
J: What impact did the Covid lockdowns and the loss of the full school year have on the children. What negative effects did you see during the last year, and what negative impacts do you anticipate because of the “lost year?”
G: Some children were starving and malnourished. Some were abandoned by their parents in their houses and left alone. Others were forced into early marriage, early pregnancy, and some girls were exchanged for food. The girls who were forced into marriage will not be able to return to school [Wells of Hope only goes to Primary 6]. We also anticipate that the little tuition some parents were able to pay will be reduced, as the parents have lost what incomes they had during the pandemic. Additionally, the families had to eat any seeds that they were saving for planting after the rainy season, so there is little income on the horizon.
J: What difference would having access to clean water, as well as good sanitation and hygiene, have on the school and village?
G: If the village didn’t have to rely on seasonal wells [ponds] and had clean water, the incidence of disease and illness would be greatly reduced! Waterborne illness is one of the biggest problems in the village and the school and accounts for many lost days of class. Diarrhea kills many children in the village. Handwashing stations and clean pit latrines would also help a lot!
J: What is the greatest need in Rwakobo Village?
G: A bigger school so all the children can attend, and funds to pay the staff. Clean water and water easily available for washing. And improved homes for the families who live in grass huts or mud homes.
J: Thank you so much for all your work in this village — and for introducing us to it last year! We can’t wait to get back there as soon as Covid allows!
