Support our activities in Uganda
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International Board of Advisors
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Canada
Sally Bongard
Lizette Gilday
Caroline Hoen
Alan Monk
Kaitlyn Riordan
United Kingdom
Desi Dillingham
Phillip & Lorraine Hellen
United States
Scott Douglas
Geri Fitzgerald
Paul Hogan
David Mraz
Steve Wiley
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Children of Peace
Sponsorship renewals are in the mail
If you would like to renew your sponsorship or want to start a sponsorship, please email
Lizette Gilday
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Who Are We?
BDC is a collaboration
between concerned Ugandans, African Great Lakes Initiative (a U.S. 501
(c ) (3) charity), and Canadian Friends Service Committee (charitable
number 132146549 RR0001). Our activities are based in Bududa District, Uganda
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| Greetings!
It
is now early May in Bududa. The
sun is shining the crops are growing and the flowers around the guest house are
blossoming in vivid colors. The school is on vacation at this time and the
Children of Peace are coming twice a week. There is so much to report on and
not much space, so I am going to resort to bullets.....read on!
Barbara Wybar
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Worth Mentioning
*The C. B. Powell Foundation in Canada gave us a grant for $2,000 to
alleviate hunger and with that money we have been working hard on the farm,
cultivating our fields, planting maize, beans, cabbage and bananas. We have
tried to replenish the soil which was somewhat depleted with dried cow manure,
and now the intercropped fields of maize and beans are looking terrific and the
banana suckers and cabbage are growing. It is fun to watch the progress.
*We
hired a new bursar in February and we think we are very lucky and we think he
likes his job, even though he is from a different village and so has had to
leave his wife and young family behind.
*
We have been fortunate enough to get a contract with a Olav Boenders, a Dutchman friend of mine, who has a huge flower farm/industry near Entebbe. He ordered 354 aprons for some of his 1,200 employees. The tailoring students and
their teachers are hard at work and we are using this holiday time to finish the project. It is fun and I am even getting into the act, having done
some ironing with a charcoal iron no less. We are hopeful of additional orders from Olav and the "profits" from the contract will go to the students, the teachers and to support our programs.
*
In April, we invited all the parents and guardians of the Children of Peace children for a meeting
and served them lunch and had local officials there as well. The day went well
and the invited guests expressed their gratitude for what the program had done. Now in addition to paying secondary school fees and lunch
fees for the secondary school children, we are have also begun to pay for lunches for
the primary aged school children. It is
just a logistical problem as there are so many different schools and the remote
ones that just have one or two of our children are hard for us to reach. Next
term should better.
*Our new Work Study Program, funded by generous donors, has enabled 32 of our BVI students to earn money to pay for their school and other expenses, and to help our new farming activities. Students have been coming early in the morning before classes and working with us in the fields (PHOTO BELOW--FIELDS BEING PREPARED FOR PLANTING OF "GROUND NUTS" -- a great protein source and nitrogen fixer for the soil).
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Reflections of Sheila Havard (Canada -- February 2010)
Sheila Havard with Girls and New Dresses from Coldspring Meeting  | Since
2005, I have visited the AGLI project in Bududa on a yearly basis; that's how
much I love being there. The friendliness of the people, Barbara's
heart-warming welcome and the stunning mountain scenery make it seem like a
home-coming every time. This last time, I stayed at the guesthouse for the first time, which I would describe as a perfect example of
Quaker simplicity: clean and ample, but no frills. It
is this attempt at an equal footing, working side by side with Bududans that
has always inspired me since my first AGLI workcamp in 2005.
Last year,
as a wonderful gesture of support for my trips to Uganda, my home Meeting
engaged in an exchange of sorts with the Children of Peace program. Friends held sewing bees every Monday throughout the fall and
produce 27 dresses of various sizes for the Children of Peace. Barbara
and I then distributed these according to size to the orphans during Saturday
school. My, were they pleased with their brand new garments! These
were probably the first new dresses the girls had ever owned. Coldstream
Monthly Meeting also donated some money for fabric for the BVI tailoring
class. With only one third of the money, Barbara and I shopped for an
array of brightly coloured lengths of cloth in the neighbouring town, Mbale,
and came back so laden down with fabric. The delighted tailoring students displayed the cloth along the front of the school, the idea being that some of the many
passers-by on the winding red mud road would take a fancy to a particular roll
of cloth and come into the school to order a dress. With the proceeds the
school will buy more cloth and so this one donation will develop into a
revolving fund.
But
back to the theme of working with, not for Bududans. What was my surprise
when the gift from Canada was reciprocated! My suitcase was almost as
full when I left as when I arrived at the school because the students had sewn
some fifteen aprons out of the cloth donated by the Meeting as a thank you to
Coldstream Friends! And, into the bargain, I received a brand new dress
myself just in time for my official visit to a Canadian Friends Service Committee
product in Kinshasa.
Volunteers
are always welcome in Bududa. They come will all sorts of different
skills, and make use of them in often ingenious ways. Or they come with
practically no skills of obvious applicability, as in my case. But
whatever they put into the project, these visitors come away with far
more. I can honestly say that my visits have been a life-changing
experience and a focus that I fully intend to maintain in future.
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Busy, Busy School Break
While the BVI students are off for a month's break, our campus seems busier than ever. Here's been our typical day:
-A group of 14 leaders of local women's groups have been attending entrepreneurship classes. We sent one of our teachers (Robert) to this class and, thanks to a donation from Phillip and Lorraine Helen of England, we were able to hire Robert's teacher to train these local group leaders (many of these groups function as savings and loan societies, but they have no access to capital)
-The Children of Peace orphans have been coming in twice a week for food, medical support and academic enrichment
-Work Study students have been working on the farm to earn extra money to pay for school tuition and to help support their families
- BVI tailoring students have been working away on the aprons to complete the contract with a commercial grower
-The Bricklaying/concrete/masonry students were putting in extra classroom time to prepare for their important national exams.
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2010 Brings Welcome Stream of Visitors
After Sheila Havard visited in Februrary (see note above), Katherine Converse (Philadelphia) arrived, returning for the second time to teach art and also to visit with her sponsored child, Victo.
Then came Lizette Gilday, an old friend from Montreal and McGill days and even
The Study, our old school. She loved it and poured her heart into helping
wherever she could. She found a child-led family of two boys, Albert and Titus
who were really struggling to make it and she paid to have new roof put on
their house and then did a big shop for them to see that they had what was
needed to get by. They had almost nothing. Then, bless her heart, she left
money for them, so I am able to give them a little each week, and in return,
Albert comes and helps in the garden here.
Lizette sent us a a young doctor from the Lac St. Jean area
named Melena Gaudreault. She was a delight and said after being here a week,
that she just loved the experience.
Then a dynamic threesome came from Philadelphia and Vermont . They were led by
Janet Stern who is an old friend. Toby Shawe and Kit Wallace came with
Janet and the three of them turned this place upside down. Toby,
being a dermatologist saw patients everyday that she was here and gave out
medication to as many as she could. Still to this day, I have patients of hers
coming to see me and thank me for how much Toby helped them. Kit, a retired
business manager, sat with our new bursar every day
and taught him how to use Quickbooks. What a valuable contribution that
was!
Now I have a young Englishman, Jasper Wolley, aged 19, visiting for a week or
so. He is the son of Hugh Wolley, the man who so kindly helped us get a grant
for a new classroom building ($15,000) from the Jepcott Foundation in England. He has been doing stock taking and
now he is painting.
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EVALYN
Evalyn
Nandutu is a fifteen year old girl with two alcoholic parents. They make a
living on our hillside selling alcohol. Evalyn arrived very early, one Monday
morning at Bududa Vocational Institute howling in such a way that the
neighborhood was aroused. I heard the ruckus, but did not know what was going
on. Mary, ou guesthouse-keeper, said, "Barbara it is one of your Children
of Peace." Sure enough Evalyn is in Primary 6, aged 15 and she is part of our
program. By this time, she was sobbing in such distress because her parents had
sold her school uniform, and told her she should no longer go to school. She
should get married. In this village, some primitive customs still apply and
families do give their young girls away in marriage so that they can collect
the dowry, which usually means cows. It is against the law, but the law is not
often enforced. When I heard her story, I was outraged. I called the Local
Councilors and we went to see the family. As we sat to discuss the situation,
the neighbors surrounded the outdoor courtroom and we had an assembly of at
least 30 people. Everybody had their say, even me, and in the end we had the
child greet her parents and vice versa. The mother even said she was sorry.
Two weeks later Evalyn is smiling and she says she is fine. Her parents are
leaving her alone. She is happy with that. At least, it is a step in the right
direction.
So please continue to support us as this is what we
are doing, and I believe we are making a difference for the
chldren in the program because of your support.
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Barbara Wybar
Programs Coordinator, Bududa Development Center bwybar@yahoo.com
(all comments/suggestions/feedback welcome!)
http://bududaprojects.org
USA Mailing Address: c/o Geri Fitzgerald, 324 Kings Highway, Kennebunkport, 04046 (checks payable to Friends Peace Teams)
Canada Mailing Address: c/o Sally Bongard, 54 Aberdeen Ave., Toronto, ON M4X-1A2 (checks payable to Canadian Friends Service Committee)
UK Mailing Address: c/o Philip Hellen, 12 Park Road,
Surbiton, Surrey SM2 7EP (checks payable to African Great Lakes Initiative)
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