Irony in Government

Ah, the Ministry of Health. Uganda is currently fighting for disability rights. The first week I was in Uganda, Fatuma and I went to the MOH for a meeting, but she was unable to get up the disability ramp because it was completely blocked by motorcycles, cabinets, and other random stuff. All said, Fatuma couldn't get by. She would have had to had a wheelchair that was about 10 inches wide to pass by. The people assured us it was temporary and would be moved soon.

My last day in Uganda, we went back.



While there was more room cleared, Fatuma's wheelchair was still a few inches too wide to pass.



There's the respect for the disability issues in Uganda...

There are always challenges you don't anticipate. There is a law that buildings should be accessible, but most of the time, there is no funding for it, and the government doesn't have the resources for or want to pay for it. When the ramp exists, it might be blocked. If anything, it's a lesson in remembering that there is far more to a story that what is on paper. There are challenges in policy, sure, but there are more in attitude, implementation, and sustainability.

Bus Rides & Gulu

Bus rides in East Africa are always interesting. Between the sellers who come up to the bus practically pushing things into your hand and the interesting sites - you know you're in Africa. On one trip - my first bus ride - we passed a horrific three bus accident that left many people stranded. On another, a seller talked for 30 minutes straight about the merits of his herbal toothpaste, soap, and other items - in Swahili. From what I gathered with my limited Swahili, a lot of things had vitamins in them.

All of this pales in comparison to the epic bus ride to Gulu. Northern Uganda is recovering from significant civil unrest that orphaned many children and displaced many more. The place is rebuilding, though, and an economic boom may be in Gulu's future.

This story is fraught with drama and intrigue - why did the bus stop? (Clutch broke. No big deal.) What is in the sac next to the g-nuts (peanuts)? (That would be ants. Mmm... tasty. Apparently not great raw but yummy in stews.) Oh my... what was that sound? (Two live chickens. Yes, on the bus. Apparently being upside down keeps them reasonably calm.)

It has all the makings of an epic tale: Comedy - dozing off leads to jumping out of your skin when you hear SQUAWK and oh look, the mzungu is making faces at the baby.
Beautiful scenery - quaint huts line the road with neatly thatched roofs (although no signature thatch animals like in the UK's little Harry Potter town).

We finally arrived in Gulu and saw the JYRO wheelchair workshop. They are the only major wheelchair manufacturer in Northern Uganda and seem to have a good workshop. They are able to make pieces ahead of time which means that in five days, they can make 1, 2, or 20 wheelchairs. Not half bad.

Here are a few pictures from their production line.



And here is Zulfa (Fatuma's daughter) in our hotel room in Gulu. Pretty sweet, right?

OLPC

There's always a comfort knowing that you have friends nearby. When I was in Kampala Uganda, my comfort came from the OLPC team: Kristen, Jeff, and Victoria. Traveling on your own is exciting. You can plan your own route, take life at your own pace. But, it's awesome to know that somewhere nearby, someone cares that you made it home or that you got over being sick. So, in honor of my OLPC buds, a little info about their project.

Kristen, Jeff, and Victoria are distributing 100 OLPC laptops to the Kampala Secondary School. They have taught the children in P5 and P6 how to use the laptops. OLPC laptops are about the size of your average netbook and loaded with educational materials, games, and Wikipedia. Keeping in mind the situation, the OLPC is designed so it has a high probability of surviving being dropped, is water resistant, and can be used outside.

While it's debatable how good it is to give a child a laptop when she doesn't have basic necessities, the laptop can, when implemented properly, be used to enhance learning and give children the opportunity to explore and learn on their own.

While I was there, I saw two classes. One use the matching game (you can create your own) to practice addition. 5+7 gets matched with 12, etc. There was an odd number of kids, so I partnered with one of them and it was pretty fun. While it was definitely good practice, I'm not sure how much the kids honestly learned, but they did get to practice their addition and work on memory skills. The second class made excellent use of the laptop's capabilities. The students were learning about interest, so first they looked it up on Wikipedia, then they used the calculator application to do some sample problems. I think that shows how the OLPCs, like any tool, can be a great addition to learning if used properly, which is why the OLPC team's work training the teachers and students to use the laptops is so important.



Me and Zulfa (Fatuma's daughter) playing with the XO

Home Visits: Zenab & P5 boy

The first person we visited was Zenab who has a small business selling tomoatoes and other vegetables in the Kalerewe Market (picture on the left). She is in a wheelchair because she had polio and has had a wheelchair for six months. Since she lives in a swamp area it's difficult to keep her wheelchair clean. Although she has a business and at first glance you may not notice that she is disabled (she scoots around while working), she is segregated from the other sellers. Her area is a blanket clearly distinct and in front of the line of vegetable sellers. Although many of them have shade and a table, she does not. While we were there Fatuma had a chat with the manager (apparently there is some organization to the chaos?) about that. She encouraged him to think of people with disabilities as a responsibility of the community. A very active lady, she would be interested in going into a group with some of the others and expanding her small business.

After visiting Zenab, Fatuma, Steven (Fatuma's driver) and I went to St. Jude Primary School to visit a boy who was in a wheelchair at the school there. Right now the place is completely unaccessible.


In order to even get up the step to his class he needs a bit of assistance. His chair also isn't very fitted. The cushion is good, though, so I suspect he's using that so that he can grow in the wheelchair. He's in P5 right now and seems to be doing pretty well for now, but his classes in P6 & P7 aren't remotely accessible. Fatuma talked to the headmaster about everyone contributing and helping.


Here he is with his class. He generally sits in the back with some friends, but when the kids crowded in the front I insisted on being able to see everyone. The kids were super cute. On the way out we moved at a snails pace with the car because all the kids wanted to wave bye and Steven was driving very carefully.

Fatuma is of the mind that disabilities must be supported by the community and it's admirable that she makes that effort. She was telling me today that she wants MADE to expand to also focus on advocacy in the times where it doesn't have a lot of wheelchairs to build. She had a meeting with the director of Disability Rights Fund. (ironically, located in Boston!) The advocacy would be for making private schools accessible. Public ones are mandated by law to be accessible (although law and reality are completely different), but there is less regulation on the private ones. Here's hoping Fatuma's application is successful! =)


And random: I saw this little guy outside my hostel when I got back from the home visits. I think he was greeting me. Now I just need a banana so we can be friends...

Fort Portal aka Monkeys!

So this was definitely another fantastic weekend. Kristen (who is blogging this summer about her OLPC experiences) invited me to be part of her OLPC team (also blogging) for the weekend while they were visiting another OLPC team's project, which just happened to be in a national park. The person we were visiting was Ian, who lives in the Kabali National Forest research station. His dad is a Harvard professor who has been studying the chimps in the forest for years. (Small world, right?) Kabali National Forest is known for its chimps, baboons, and other primates. We went on a few nature walks led by Ian and got to see a ton of monkeys of different types. Baboons wandered through our camp and we saw red tails, blues, and black & whites in the trees the first day. The second we went to one of the crater lakes to swim. There were these funny fish that come up to your feet and eat the dead skin. Kinda tickled. Not so unlike these, except we paid about $1 to get into the crater lakes. As we were heading out, we got some fantastic shots of some red caspers in the trees around the lake. Without further ado, my weekend in pictures!



KWat & me


Me in front of a cool tree


KWat and a kid who goes to Duke who's working with Ian's dad this summer studying chimps


Jeff! In our first walk through the forest on Saturday.


Big tree! Smaller tube trees grow up the sides and eventually combine to form a super tree.


Kwat showing off the beautiful views we saw while we were walking between crater lakes.


Stoney - this strange ginger soft drink. Made by the Coca Cola Company. Fun fact: if you go to the Coca Cola museum in Atlanta, GA, at the end you can taste Coke products from around the world!


KWat getting a fish pedicure


Crater Lake! Do you see the money tail?


crater lake crew: Ian, Jeff, KWat, me


These are red colobus monkeys, three in this picture


Tiny red colobus monkey!


Two more =)

The Aid Debate

On the way back from Fort Portal this weekend (more about that later!), I borrowed a newspaper from a fellow passenger and read this article by Dr. Ian Clark, The Aid Debate. It was an interesting article to be reading and made me think about several things.

Definitely read through, but the summary in a sentence: Aid by foreign governemts to Uganda is having little effect on the daily lives of the people.

I was interested that Americans were mentioned as primarily giving aid through their own organizations. Yes, it's more difficult, but real benefits can be measured.

"Donors put money in at the top, in the hope that the ministry will deliver results out the bottom, but sometimes all that can be measured are more four-wheel drive vehicles in the car park."

The article encourages the use of results and measurements in order to determine whether to give more aid.

Here in Uganda I've met with both the Ministry of Health (mentioned in the article) and smaller NGOs and I'm glad to see support for my decision to pursue the NGOs as a better option for donations. In addition to cutting the bureaucracy, it's more transparent and more possible to trace the money flow.

I also remember some outrage about the US cutting aid to Africa. Let me propose a different solution: instead of our government donating to the Africa governments, have that funding be donated to the local grassroots non-profits.

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Extra credit: Desist from Racist Tendencies by Deo Kabwende

A very interesting article to read from the Uganda standpoint. While I do sympathize with the woman somewhat because she may have genuinely been concerned that she was a muzungu being ripped off (probably wasn't the first time), her behavior didn't help the situation in the slightest and displayed racist tendencies that could have easily been avoided.

NGO Profile: Action on Disability & Development

I was fortunate enough to be connected to an NGO in Uganda, Action on Disability & Development. Fatuma recommended them as a trusted organization and so far, I definitely like what I've seen. I met Lugemoi Bongomin (cool name right!?) who is the "Fundraising and Resource Mobilization Officer," which basically meant he was the perfect person to talk with.

ADD has their headquarters in the UK and in addition to their branch in Uganda, have others in Tanzania, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Sudan, Zambia, Bangladesh, and others. In the 22 years they've been in Uganda, they've worked at both the grassroots and national level to have interventions and mobilize the disabled to have a voice in their country. Fantastic group, actually.

A few organizations ADD works with: National Union of Disabled Persons, Mental Health Uganda, Association of the Deaf and Blind, Association of Parents of Children with Disabilities, Association of Disabled Women, ...

Additionally, they do research and field work. I'm hoping to go with them into the field for one of the upcoming weeks.

I told them about Worldwide Mobility's goals to connect disabled people to microfinance institutions (MFIs) only to discover they had a similar goal and are doing research into the topic.

ADD is interested in getting volunteers from Uganda, USA, and around the world, so if you're interested, let me know! With all their connections, they would be a great group to work with on a project!!



(PS - Sorry if a few British phrases slipped in. I've been hanging out with several here. Although it could all be in my head hearing the accent...)

Uganda!

I'm alive and in Uganda. Flight over was decent, but expensive. There were about ten people on a plane for 100, so that might explain the price.

Staying at a fairly popular hostel, but managed to snag the last single! It's nice because they arrange trips, permits, etc. Hopefully will be going whitewater rafting with some other people from M-Lab who might come down one of these upcoming weekends!

Uganda seems pretty cool. Still having small "this is expensive... oh wait, it's ok" moments (US$1=1300 Tsh=2097 Usx) because of the difference in conversion rates but I'm sure that'll subside in a few days.

UPDATE: pretty excited to find something here I wanted to get for my brother, but at almost half the price it was in Tanzania!