Tag Archive: Refugees

16 Days of Activism

Author: December 3, 2017

As part of the 16 Days of Activism CARE awarded a goat to the winning team of a soccer game between two areas of Rhino Camp Settlement. CARE also provided the balls and uniforms.

We are in the middle of “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence” with plenty of activities in the settlements to promote awareness. “16 Days” is observed around the world every year, but like other International holidays and observances, not so much in the United States. A great deal of focus is about Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV) including forced early child marriage, rape, and sexual harassment. Other forms of GBV include economic and psychological violence. From what I have observed going on state-side, maybe this International observance should get more publicity.

I have gone to a few trainings of “Role Model Men and Boys”. The participants are selected by their local communities and usually chosen because they already have volunteered in various capacities and have good reputations. I talk a little bit about harassment and parenting.  One of my favorite and most effective exercises from the trainings begins by dividing into two groups. The first group makes a list of all the activities of the wife in a normal day, while the second group documents the typical day of the husband. 

Ronald of CARE compares the Men’s list on the right to the Women’s list on the left

Man’s list:

Wake at 6:30 a.m.

Brush teeth and bathe (water prepared by wife)

Eat porridge (cooked by wife)

Slash compound (often done by wife)

Go to the field and dig

Move animals to pasture (often delegated to children)

Take shower

Wait for Lunch

Perhaps more field or animal work (rarely)

Spend afternoon at the market center (often drinking alcohol)

Come home for supper

Shower

Sleep

Woman’s list:

Wake at 6 a.m. while man sleeps

Fetch water (or done at night)

Sweep compound

Set fire

Boil water for man’s bath, tea, and washing utensils

Prepare tea and porridge for family breakfast

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Send children or accompany them to school

Clean house and mattresses

Work in the garden/field

Wash clothes (not daily)

Come back from the field, gathering greens and firewood

Prepare lunch

Wash dishes and utensils

Bathe

Go to market or take children to health center

Prepare supper

Prepare water for bathing children and (sometimes again) husband’s bath

Provide time for “family discussion” or sex with husband

After their training the men will try to undertake changes within their own households such as taking on more of their wife’s chores, letting her share in decision making, or spending quality time with the children.  After a few months, CARE will assist these men as they reach out and engage ten other men targeted in their community. It is not unusual for the neighbors to speculate their local Role Model Man has been “bewitched” but theoretically they should notice a happier family.

A local official launches “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence”

Women’s group performs traditional dance during launch of “16 Days of Activism”

Kenneth from CARE participates in a ceremony turning over musical instruments and games for a Youth Center in Rhino Camp

The eventual winning team in the soccer match posing with their new uniforms.

Entertainment following the game. We didn’t leave the settlement until night on this particular day. There is some solar lighting but otherwise it gets pretty dark there.

Sometimes planned programs get disorganized when there is a food distribution, attracting hundreds if not thousands. We try to learn the schedules ahead of time but they don’t always adhere to them. I am reluctant to openly take photos here.

Ration cards are used and now we are implementing cash transfers, which are recognized in the humanitarian community as efficient and secure. Gender Based Violence often happens when the husband in charge of the family’s ration card sells food for cash so he can buy liquor.In their reports, CARE staff frequently write “ratio” cards.

EVI’s are Extremely Vulnerable Individuals

Sign at Help Desk during food distribution

Nearby, local community members sell firewood and charcoal for cooking

Dry season is settling in

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Wind Up

Author: June 1, 2017

This is the first of my many goodbyes. Azedy and Margaret’s four boys just went back to boarding school after the holiday break today. This is Aymed and Ayman. Margaret says they won’t be back until September. Most Ugandan students and parents of middle class means and above prefer boarding to what they believe is a the stigma of being a “desk scholar”. I struggle with this a bit. I couldn’t imagine sending my kids off to boarding school while they were so young. Well, I guess I did ‘imagine’ it a couple of times when Blair was a teenager.

Wednesday this week marked the two year anniversary of my Peace Corps service, when I arrived in Philadelphia for staging. This Saturday will be two years in Uganda. I am really winding down what I now consider the first “phase” of my Peace Corps service. My org ATEFO still goes out to youth groups but I haven’t been much of a participant lately, and that project has been winding down too. My supervisors at Peace Corps are starting pre-service training with a new batch of 53 Health and Agri-business volunteers. Nobody expects much from my cohort now as we wrap things up.

A few weeks ago, I agreed to “vet” a couple of NGOs who are expecting to receive new volunteers. I interviewed the CEO of the org and the prospective counterpart and took a few pictures of the office and the potential housing. It appears not only ATEFO will get a replacement, but another org in Bugiri will get a new volunteer. So if things work out, after I leave, the Muzungu population in Bugiri will double from one to two.

I spent last week in Kampala for the medical tests all departing and extension PCVs must undertake. I was a bit nervous, since the last time I had an extensive physical I learned I had diabetes. But after giving up some blood, piss and three different stool samples (they look for parasites) I got a clean bill of health. My blood sugar is absolutely normal notwithstanding I am struggling to keep my weight down. Ironically at the end of my week, I came down with a terrible cold, which I had avoided up until now.

The United Nations said that $ 1.4 billion was needed this year alone to help the nearly two million people who have fled war and famine in South Sudan.So far, only 14 percent of the initial $781 million appeal for 2017 has been provided. More than 100 lone children cross into Uganda each day as they flee conflict. Delphine told me the camps are 86% women and children.

While I was in Kampala, I visited the offices of CARE International, and enjoyed a visit with the Country Director, Delphine Pinault, who is French. We hit it off pretty well. She said as part of my job I would get a lot of opportunities to write about the CARE programs in the refugee camps, and will visit them with a team in a vehicle. My motorcycle riding days are coming to an end. Arua is a long eight hour bus ride from Kampala, but there is a UN plane that goes there every Monday. My CARE PCV mate Ruwani met with Delphine this week and informs me our orientation and training for two days is likely July 10 in Arua and we will likely take that plane. If so, I am excited I will get a preview of Arua before I come home for my one month leave. Hopefully I can drop off a box of my stuff then. It now appears I will be able take my month leave starting in mid-July after this orientation.

I know you are sick of permagardens, but this one from the other day is notable because I taught it by myself. Matthews needed to pick up some charcoal for it, so I said, we’ll just get started, and it was nearly finished by the time he returned.

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I was in Iganga the other day and peeked in at what I first thought was a presentation about nutrition, but I was only partially right. This was a classic multi-level marketing pitch with supplements as the main product. The presenters told me that Amway and HerbaLife is alive and well in Uganda too.

That calculates to $14,000 US per month

The is the product, made my Natures Way a U.S. company. Is MLM a sign of development in a country?

Lady jammed on a taxi with me, feeds corn to her hen in a sack at our feet.

A large structure was begun next to my compound. It is intended to have shops in it. That would be annoying for Azedy and Margaret, but who knows when it will be finished. There are a million roofless, uncompleted, structures like this all over Uganda. It’s a way people here invest.

This was a photo I posted on the blog in July 2015 of my Lusoga language cohort, during language training, still the most stressful part of service for me… Becky, Nick, Carson, Will and myself. We were so neat and clean.

Here we are recently at a mini reunion in Iganga. Missing is Will, who went home in January under the classification of “Interrupted Service.” I’ll leave it at that. He expects to attend law school at Florida State University. Due to a wedding, Nick was the first of the cohort to leave and become an RPCV after the COS conference. Becky and Carson (obscuring his man bun) will COS and come home about the same time I do. All three of them will be hunting for jobs. I have reviewed and edited about twenty resumes for my cohort.

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