International Women's Day 2011

International Women’s Day is held every year around the world on March 8th. In Uganda, where women’s rights and issues are a very real and hard struggle it is especially important that we do something special to mark the day. Unlike Canada, Uganda has marked IWD as a national holiday, so last week we had a day off but being so close to election time,the District where i work decided to hold the celebration the following week, yesterday March 15. The event was organized by my supervisor for the youth project, Jolly Acen, Senior Community Development Officer for Lira and it was held in Ogur Sub-county, which happens to be one of the two sub counties where my project will also be running. For me this was an opportunity to observe how they celebrate here in Uganda and begin to get out to see the situation on the ground where i will be working.

The event started with a gloomy forecast of rain with heavy clouds drizzling in the early morning. It was actually the first day i was rained on while walking to work. But the clouds were a welcome relief from the very hot days we have had recently.

Before events got started the PA system was setup, the scouts and guides setup the chairs and the women police arrived to march.

The event began with a march of all the participant groups (women's groups, NGOs, women of power (military, police and prison guards), and children from local schools. They were lead in by the police brass band and all carried banners promoting the theme this year of “Act Now: Promote Maternal Health”. .

   

The guests included local politicians and a special guest of honor. Speeches were separated by  various entertainment acts such as dancing, poems, drama and song. Below the elected women's representative for the area addresses the crowd, a woman performs a poem and we stand for the national anthem.

   

For me a highlight of the even were the children and their messages of hope, care and their pure joy in being part of the celebration. See here some videos of their performances…this little guy was amazing, as was his counterpart who lead this song. It will stay in your head….

Womens Day 2011 Ogur Uganda

And this guy, as you can hear from the women trilling, was a real crowd favorite. Not sure why all those women gave him money, but did he ever get the crowd engaged.

Crowd pleaser Ogur Uganda

The event was very well attended and water and biscuits donated by NGOs were offered as refreshments. Guests were seated under large tents but the overflow spread out all around the Ogur Youth Center grounds.

NGOs were present to provide information, HIV/AIDS testing and counseling as well as organization and coordination efforts to make sure the event was a success.

It certainly was.

Please meet Kenneth Odur

One extremely wonderful part of being here in northern Uganda, working on a project like this, is the people i get to meet. As i have mentioned so many times, there are constant opportunities to meet many special individuals and as i have been reminded recently, i can’t loose focus of what an opportunity that really is. Thanks Louise.

Kenneth and i first met sitting in my new managers office – Jolly. Kenneth immediately struck me as being a little more tapped into the bigger picture of the world and i quickly realized why. Chosen as a member of the youth action network http://www.youthactionnet.org/showmultimedia/1061

This is an organization promoting youth development, he was fortunate to be sent to the US for a conference of other youth from all over the world to discuss these issues last year. I can truly see how exposure to western programs such as this can dramatically accelerate ideas in the right people.

Now there are a few things that immediately make Kenneth stand out. At mid 20’s he runs not one but two different NGO’s focused on helping the most vulnerable of people here in the most war affected areas. Children's Chance is his primary NGO http://childrens-chance.org/ started in 2008 with a focus on orphans and other vulnerable children. His projects have concentrated on “child headed families”, which is a baffling concept for us in the west. These are families of children, lead by the eldest (often only 12 themselves) where the parents were killed in LRA raids. They provide basic service support and small funds for these families (500 orphans helped in 2010) so the children can go to school, develop skills and engage in sustenance farming. Although education is considered “free” in Uganda, there are small fees that the most poor can not possibly afford. Uniforms, exam fees and other costs make many village families unable to send their children to school. Many of these families also have no formal skills yet perhaps have inherited land from their families, so support in the way of skills training and tools is also an important leg up for them.

Kenneth also understands the impact of social media, the internet and networking as a whole in creating a support and information sharing system that in one of their success stories re united 82 street children with families. This is one hard working guy.

I have committed myself to work with Kenneth and other NGOs such as his in any way that i can and i believe there may be ways his organization can put me in touch with youth that our program will be looking to assist. Its a sad reflection of the reality here but there are literally hundreds of grass roots NGOs operating on budgets smaller than a 10 year olds allowance and are making some real differences in real peoples lives. They are under the radar of most and don't get the recognition that larger and better funded organizations do. They have no “executive committees”, they don't loose up to 40% of donations to “administrative costs” and they don’t have slick websites ( as many opt for blogs to get their accomplishments and objectives heard). They live to work in what ever small capacity they can to help their fellow Ugandans. I was told once that if you help one Ugandan, their selfless nature probably means you are also helping 50 people behind them, Kenneth is a perfect example of this.

Election EXHAUSTION

I think its finally over. Amongst reports of renewed violence and demonstrations in Kampala today, we in the north of Uganda are finally over the “elections period” for 2011.  Back home our Federal, provincial and city elections occur at various times during the year, polls are open early, close late (relatively) and people barely notice when elections are happening. In Uganda there are 5 sets of elections (bless decentralization) that all occur within a few weeks of each other. There are obvious benefits to having all government levels re elected at the same time every 5 years. Imagine the coordination efforts that can be established when all officials have the same term in office. Lets see how it plays out. But there are also problems with the system, most notably the disruptions we have had in the past month.Each election day is a non declared but taken holiday. Combine that with our mandated quarantine period of 5 days for the Presidential election, and we have had 10 days off in the past few weeks. Today is Wed, and its my first day back from a 4 day weekend, last week we had Tuesday off. . But its over now. Yesterday was Women's Day (also a national holiday in Uganda) so we are now back to normal until Easter (next month). Time to get working. Next week will be 5 days long. Might take some adjustment.

We are madly planning for a delayed celebration for Women's day to be held on March 15 in Ogur district. The reason “election exhaustion”!! Our hopes are to have the celebration at the community level this year and involve those on the ground working with various organizations. The theme for Uganda for 2011 is Act Now: Promote Maternal Health. Should be a good day, if the rains hold off.

Although it is not yet officially rain season (I keep asking and they keep telling me April), we are getting some frequent storms in the afternoon that produce vast quantities of rain. Uganda is anything but a dry place. Even during the dry season things are lush and green, quite different than Brazil was, and i am told during the “long rain” season coming up, the abundance of fruit and growth is amazing. Can’t wait i bought a hoe and some pruners this weekend. The men at the hardware store were very sup portive but everyone else was wondering what i was doing with such a tool. “Never seen a mazungo dig before!” they would all declare. Mike at the beer store aptly named “one for the road” said he had to come over and see this for his own eyes.

Well it is happening this weekend, as Ambrose will come over to help me get started with the garden cleanup.

We are also finally interviewing for a new house guard. Two women will be the candidates and they will also be working in the garden with me as well as general cleaning and other duties you give a guard. Personally i don't think the security part of the job is necessary, we live in a great neighborhood and have a good gate and locks, but it might be nice to have someone around.

Lwo classes are into their second week and Bob is doing a great job forcing me to use the language, and everyone at work whole heartedly help me when ever i try to say/ask something. It will come with time, but just as i get the Lira local language i will probably go to Gulu and have to learn that one too.

Apwoyo

sally

My Project Area

This is where I am… exactly. The right most point is Lira where I live.my work duties will be split between the Planning office and the Community Development office  in the District Local Council. The left point is our sister office in Gulu. In between there is also a center for youth training called the Northern Uganda Youth Development Center. All three locations are participating in the project. 

Geographically, Uganda is divided into Regions,sub regions, districts, counties, parishes and villages. Lira is in the North Region and the Lango sub region. Lira is the District where I will be working and it has been decided that we will be concentrating our project in two Sub counties within Lira district – Aromo and Ogur. The sub counties have been chosen based on poverty levels and impact of the LRA war. They are the closest to the more northern District of Pader where the LRA conducted many of their raids and there were IDP (internally displaced peoples) camps. People in this area have returned to their villages and are beginning to return to normal life. Sustenance agriculture will be a main part of this. So for this first part of the project we will be collecting data from these regions about the lifestyle and economic opportunities for the youth as well as identifying Youth Groups to be working with. Agricultural training for the youth will be a focus.

Coincidently, while sitting in the local cafe – Sankofa waiting for my language teacher (Bob) a very nice young woman sat down across from me, and introduced herself. Carolyn is a war orphan, from Aromo sub county, her entire family was killed in a raid by LRA soldiers. She has graduated from University in Social work and has done an internship with the Community Development Office (CDO), where I am working now. She told me of her struggles during the time of the LRA war and was a valuable resource on the issues of village life and their ongoing struggles. We talked specifically about street youth here in Lira and whether they may return to their villages if there knew of opportunities that are developing there.

I have just recently moved to the CDO from Planning office, and this week has seen me more involved in activities. We visited a few sub counties and have had a few meetings. We are also preparing for Women's Day activities. Should be some videos coming from that event as they are encouraging me to bring my camera every time we do things.