Luton Sixth Form College Community Development Project 2009
Jinja, Uganda2 weeks, 4 July - 18 July 2009Background
In July 2009, a group of 13 Luton Sixth Form College volunteers under the leadership of The Great Generation spent two weeks working at an HIV/Aids outreach clinic in Jinja, Uganda.
The Project
The first task was to help improve the facilities and living space of the St Francis children?s hospice for children affected by HIV/AIDs. The hospice provides short-terms stays and medical treatment for children who are severely ill or have not been responding to their ARV treatment. The children usually live with their grannies who are their primary care givers as one or both of their parents have died from AIDs. Once the children have recovered their health they return to their homes. Using local materials and discarded objects the students made a new ?recycled? playground including a swing set, sand-pit, and merry-go-round. The volunteers painted, dug, planted for 5 days straight!
volunteers painted, dug, planted for 5 days straight!
The second task was to prepare and deliver two workshops as part of a cultural exchange programme. St Francis runs a youth group called ?Shadow Idol Club? for children of all ages which takes place every Saturday. The club teaches life-skills (being able to say no to sex, facts about HIV and AIDS, hygiene and sanitation), career-skills (presentation skills, public speaking, CV writing), runs drama and music workshops, and sports tournaments. The Shadow Idol Club is open to certain children from the local community ? some of them are clients of St Francis, some of them go to the local school, some of them come from the local orphanage. The Club is inclusive in that it is open to children with and without HIV/ AIDS and their status is not a barrier or talking point for inclusion. The volunteers talked with the older children about growing-up in Luton and Uganda covering things like home-life, school-life, and social-life, and commented on the challenges both groups face. The volunteers taught the younger children games and British songs, and took part in their games too ? mostly soccer and netball!
The third task was to prepare and deliver a one-day schools programme similar to the Shadow Idol Club programme for the local school.
The fourth task was to help a group of grannies who are part of the St Francis micro-finance club to prepare and plant community model vegetable gardens. The grannies are HIV positive and take ARV medication. They also have several beneficiaries, their own children, some of their grandchildren and other abandoned members of the community. The model gardens are used by the grannies to growing crops for themselves and for selling on, improve the health of the grannies and their beneficiaries, teach other members of the community how to effectively farm on a small area of land, to create community cohesion, and for the grannies to achieve their personal development goals.
If you would like to find out more about this project you can contact us through our contact page.
