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Greetings!
New Newsletter format and hopefully no more NIGERIAN email scams! Just a note to apologize to many of you who may have received a bogus email from some Nigerian scammer -- who got into my yahoo account! Thanks for all of your notes of concern and I hope we got to everyone in time before any money was sent. There was no emergency, I am alive and well and back in Bududa! Hopefully this new software package will prevent future mishaps. Barbara Wybar
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Children of Peace News
by Kaitlyn Riordan (visitor to Bududa Fall 2008)
Saturday mornings in Bududa are similar to Saturday mornings in most places. The pace of the day is slower than during the week, people allow themselves more leisure time, and by noon many sunny spots are covered in newly washed clothes for church tomorrow and the week ahead.
The exception to that lackadaisical atmosphere would have to be at The Bududa Vocational Institute where The Children of Peace Orphans Program (CoP) is housed every Saturday. The energy of 200 children aged 5-18 arriving all at once in a pick-up style truck is unmatched by the rowdiest of sports events I have attended. Each grade rushes to its classroom where a teacher awaits them. They greet friends, play marbles, and gossip until the assembly bell is rung and they all line up to sing the National and School anthems.
The rest of the day is spent reviewing school work from the week, doing art projects, improving their singing and dancing, playing soccer or netball and getting two hearty meals. There is also a medical officer who attends to weekly scrapes and bruises, a case of malaria or a sore throat.
It's a joy behold, to borrow a phrase, and their smiles never give away the often difficult realities of their lives. If you are an orphan in Bududa that means that one or both of your parents have died. If the case is both, you may be taken in by a family member; usually uncles or grandparents. But a typical household in the area already consists of about 8 children, a hefty burden, and any extra mouths to feed, bodies to clothe, and school needs to attend creates a lot of additional anxiety.
What the CoP does is support the people caring for these orphans as well as provides enrichment programs for the children themselves. Simple things like soap, uniforms and a square meal are not to be overlooked in an area as poor as Bududa and these little things make a big difference. The secondary school students have to pay school fees which are often far beyond the reaches of the typical peasant family. The sponsorship program pays these fees and often provides the scholastic materials they need as well.
Sponsoring a child in the Children of Peace Program also includes corresponding with them. They love receiving letters and pictures from the people supporting them and are eager to respond in return, usually with drawings of their chickens or goats included.
What struck me, when I was in Bududa for the fall, was how much having a connection with the outside world boosted these children. Bududa is the most isolated place I have ever been, no running water, electricity, phones, computers, Starbucks and feeling a link to the world at large has a powerful impact. They feel cared about and vital, and though they can rarely understand the interest from North Americans, they relish it.
The CoP is a powerful example of how a little can go a long way. I have heard children in this program tell me that they wanted to be doctors and teachers, they want better futures and more importantly, they believe that it's possible because of the support they get from their sponsors.
TEACHER JANE 
The benefit of this program is not only to the children and the families around them, but it also employs about a dozen locals every Saturday to teach and cook. The teachers work hard all week, but feel that the extra income cannot be turned down. Teacher Jane is a woman in her fifties who teaches the youngest students; P1 & P2. Her classroom during the week is an unfinished mud hut, with 60 students and no scholastic supplies. Yet, she manages well and is a woman of incredible compassion.
TEMI
One Saturday the medical officer asked if he could take one of the kids up to Barbara's guest house to get some rest in a bed as he had a bad case of malaria. He slept all day and when it was time to leave, his teacher advised us not to move him, his home life was not good and it would be best for him to stay with us. Around 7:30pm his fever broke and his appetite returned, the evening was spent playing cards and reading books.
The next morning his mother arrived on our door step very early to pick him up. She was a beautiful young woman with kind eyes and an eager smile. Temi, our patient, was thrilled to see her and to show off the bed he had slept in; his first since being an infant. Barbara asked Aidah, his mother, what had happened to the mosquito net that all the Children of Peace had been given. Aidah explained that their home was so small that the net would be in the way and get damaged if it was up. Barbara was certain that there was a solution to be found and visited the family a few days later to set the nets up. Sure enough, with a little ingenuity, the nets went up and hopefully Temi and his siblings won't be getting malaria any time soon.
Barbara updates Kaitlyn's story following
her return to Uganda in January
I returned Jan 18th
to a warm welcome from my friends here in Bududa and an old Canadian
friend in Kampala. However, the first bit of news I had over the phone
that left me speechless was that a wonderful woman that Kate and I had
just come to know in the fall, Aida, mother of six and wife to a
serious alcoholic, had died a week earlier. Of course my thoughts turned to Aida's children, the oldest being 13 year old twins, Temi and
Ester.
They
seem to be the poorest of the poor as over the years, Dad's alcohol
problem had consumed all the family's money and there was nothing left
for the simplest items like a basin and food. Dad appears to have
stopped drinking as much as previously, but I am sure he has not
stopped completely. The children want to stay with Dad and a
grandmother is caring for the baby of 2 years.
The
kids keep getting sick and Dad brings them around to our guest house
and we look after them until they are well. I am convinced that part of
the problem health wise is the frightful unsanitary conditions that
they live in. The five children share a room that is more like a
cupboard with no windows and no light, as they seem to be too poor to
buy candles or have lanterns, or pay for paraffin. Although they have
the brand new nets that Lorna Pitcher and I gave out in 2007, they
never hung them as it was too complicated and too tiny a space. I tried
over the past year to attend to this and bought hooks and paid two
strong local men to help, but to no avail. The nets may have been hung,
but they were not used, and Ester and Temi repeatedly suffered from
malaria.
Dad
is responding with gratitude to the weekly donations of food for the
family from the Children of Peace program. I think he is trying and
clearly he loves his children as, at my last visit, Simon, the 5 year
old was the latest to succumb to malaria and dad was just holding him
as there was nowhere to put him down.
Naturally
we have taken all the remaining children in the family who are old
enough into our Children of Peace program, and now we need new sponsors
for them.
The expressions on the faces of these two young members of this
unfortunate family make me want to try to do all I can to help.
We
need $600.00 to feed this family for a year and pay somebody a minimum
monthly amount to help with washing etc. Kaitlyn Riordan, our last
volunteer, is already trying to raise this and more is needed to fix up
the house and put in windows in the kids room, and buy new mattresses
and sheets and blankets etc. as everything is in filthy rags.
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Bududa Vocational Institute
A New School Year, more students and a hopefully a new program
The term began on Feb 2nd
and once the term began, we have had a steady stream of new students
who have come in daily with their parents to register for classes in
all the four disciplines we are teaching, computer skills, nursery
teacher training, bricklaying and concrete practice (BCP) and
tailoring. It is heartwarming to see all this interest and feel the hum
of positive energy about the place. We are now at 51 registered and
partially paid up students, six in computer studies with a well
qualified teacher from the local high school, 16 in BCP, 12 in
tailoring and 17 in nursery teacher training and there seem to be more
on the way. There are boarding students coming from far to stay in the
new house that we have rented for them under the supervision of
Margaret, who is head of the Nursery Teacher Training department.
NEW PROGRAM FOR BVI ??
We are ambitiously planning to start a carpentry program, hopefully within the next few weeks. We have had enough inquires from the community to have concluded there is sufficient student demand and we know from our own experiences that there is demand for carpentry skills. However, we need to raise $5000 immediately in order to fund the program (to build a small building adjacent to our new masonry classroom/work building; to buy necessary tools and wood and to fund a teacher for one year). If you can help us out please let me know by reply email or call (so I can plan accordingly) and either send a check or make an online contribution.
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Our Community
Development Efforts in Bududa
Medical Care:
On January 28th,
an
American trained Ugandan Doctor and good friend of ours., Patrick
Mutono came to our school with eight American doctors. from Mercy Corps
out of
Odessa, Texas. Along with them came a host of Ugandan support staff and
with the help of the faculty of Bududa Vocational Institute, and the
staff of Children of Peace dealing with crowd control, they saw over
700 patients and treated them all for free and gave out medication for
free as well. It was really quite an amazing scene and I was proud to
be able to be a part of it.
Family support from local profits:
With
the money we have made selling beads and baskets in the USA and Canada,
I have been able to put five of the neediest orphans in our children of
peace program in boarding school. You can imagine what it
meant to these five girls to go fine schools. We met many times and had
very long lists of things that these girls needed, like everything! It
took almost all of the money, so I am praying that the universe will
look after us over here and all the beads and baskets that I left
behind in the USA and Canada will sell and the money will find its way
back here so that I will have enough money to pay next terms fees.
Making our new home in Bududa more "permanent":
Work continues on the legal
work to form a partnership agreement with the landowner, Patrick
Matsanga. This is probably one of the most important aspects of my
job for 2009 now that the programs have been stabilized -- yet it is
the part of my job that I find most difficult. We have been
working on
this for a year and now finally, it looks like it might actually
happen. David
Zarembka, the coordinator of African Great Lakes Initiative came over
from Kenya last week to help me forge this process ahead and I think
with very sincere encouragement and appreciation from Patrick Matsanga,
we are closer than ever to seeing a deed signed.
New North American Board of Advisors meets
Barbara's trip to North America, already busy with many visits to schools and groups in both the U.S. and Canada to promote the Bududa projects, was cause for our new North American Board of Advisors to meet, in New Jersey. Participating were Scott Douglas (NJ), Steve Wiley (PA), Paul Hogan and Geri Fitzgerald (NJ) and Sally Bongard (Ontario). We reviewed the year's activities, our 2008 financial statements, the budget for 2009 as well as goal setting for 2009.
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Visitors and Workcamp
Last
item to report on is that happily there still seem to be many visitors
who are interested in coming to Bududa to volunteer, including two
members of my family and an American friend who lives in Paris and
arrives on the 15th of February. It is always exciting
to have visitors and we all seem to benefit. The people of Bududa
appreciate that outsiders take an interest in them, the students love
to interact with them, and I value their assistance more than I can say.
We will also have a workcamp here in Bududa this summer, from June 21 to July 25. Click here for details
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 NEW SWEATERS!
Children of Peace Grade 1 students show off their new sweaters
which had been sent from Sterling Hall School in Toronto, thanks to
Lorna Pitcher and Norah Cotterill. Thanks!
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Barbara Wybar
Director, AGLI's Bududa Projects
USA Mailing Address: c/o Geri Fitzgerald, 75 Valley View Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901 (checks payable to Friends Peace Teams)
Canada Mailing Address: c/o Sally Bongard, 45 Aberdeen Ave., Toronto, ON M4X-1A2 (checks payable to Canadian Friends Service Committee)
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