A Warm Greeting from Uganda

From: langdon927@hotmail.com
To: christine.nwankwo@kingsgroup.org
Subject: RE: A Warm Greeting from Uganda
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:27:29 +0000


Hi Christine,

It is just so nice to hear from you. I thought you must be spending all your time with your boyfriend(s). Regarding the bombing, the city was in chaos but where we live has been relatively peaceful.

There is one thing maybe SMC could help-to raise fund for the VCT- the HIV testing for the community in which we operate. The budget required is listed below.

125$- goes for the service providers i.e nurses, lab technicians, pre counsellors(who counsel people prior to getting tested), post counsellors (who counsel people who get a positive result)

the medical crew brings along all the necessary supplies, from the sanitizers to cotton balls to the HIV testing kits( based on our assessments of the number of people expected).

*if found positive the person is given a referral to the hospital to start treatment( that is partially financed by the government)

50$- goes for hiring a car that picks up the medical team and their equipment from the near city of kampala and the surrounding villages and takes them back home at the end of the day.

17-35$( for 2-4 days) a megaphone hire to aid with the advertisement of the VCT

30$ goes for boxes of bottled mineral water for the medical team as well as for the volunteers(pre VCT and at the VCT)

30$ goes for aiding the crew of volunteers throughout their days of advertisement and searches in the community(airtime or transport).

40-60$ goes for additional expenses and mobilization of people and volunteers in the community.

Total- about 300$

I do think the students can be involved in this issue. The head of charity needs to have something really matters to do.

the VCT cater for about 600-800 people. The actual amount of people will always be above the estimate as we will go to every family to do the mapping. In fact, what you see from the official figures the government produces monthly or annually are collected from NGOs like us because we are the ones who actually reach the people. Bigger NGOs have the funds but know nothing about the community. Nomatter how hard we try to get funding, there is literally no way for us to reach any big donors as we cannot even afford the printing of the reports and proposals. Money is then just flowing into the government and certain big NGOs in Uganda. Even if we want to operate the VCT or any projects, we have to join certain committees to be authorised. What the government and the big NGOs go after is the report of what we discovered and helped. You might be surprised to know that we have been out of water supply for days as we cannot afford the water bill which was irresponsively estimated by the government agency. One colleague and I went there this morning to question them, but the water supply will not be recovered until, perhaps, few more days later. Nevertheless, I am happy with where I am and what I do. I'll detail more in my next mail.

Best regards,

Landon

Thanks
Kazo International Community Volunteering Programme-KICVOP Uganda
P.O.Box.34514.Kampala-Uganda
Kazo-Nansana T Council-Wakiso District.
+256782518556, +256712654000.
http://www.wix.com/LandonMeng/KICVOPUGANDA
Email: kicvop2009@gmail.com or volunteering.uganda.kazo@gmail.com

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Subject: RE: A Warm Greeting from Uganda
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:21:19 +0100
From: Christine.nwankwo@kingsgroup.org
To: langdon927@hotmail.com

Hi Landon,

Thank you for your e.mail. It was intriguing to hear about your first impressions of Uganda, and of the real impact of Aid. It sounds like you are making an impact at a grass-roots level which is extremely important. Thank you for the photos � they give a real taste of your life � keep me posted!

On a less positive note, I've just heard about the bomb blast in Kampala yesterday. Apparently 64 people were killed. I know you are not based in the city, but obviously this has impacted the local community.

All the best in your endeavours, and do let me know if I or SMC can help with fundraising or sponsoring HIV-affected children.

Take care,

Christine.

From: MengLandon [mailto:langdon927@hotmail.com]
Sent: 10 July 2010 14:45
To: Christine Nwankwo
Subject: A Warm Greeting from Uganda

Dear Christine,

I have arrived in Uganda 2 days ago and already started working intensively. The natrual environment around is really bad and the water supply of the place where I live has collapsed for days. However, I enjoyed everything I so far encountered. All those things made me realised the reason why I came here. And I am also so fortunate to know the people around and the organisation which is tiny but based in the community. I also realised that I made a wise decision of coming to this organisation rather than any other ones since we don't have much fundings and no bureaucary at all. So I am granted with autonomy to really make changes to people's lives here.

Everything I witnessed so far has also coincided with my research done in the UK on Foreign Aid. My conclusion was that the aid has barely helped the peopleat the bottom. And now I could use the facts to confirm my assumption. Organisations like us do not even receive fundings while bigger organisations use our results to get more funding from foreign donors and kept the money for themselves. I am so excited to see so many things in real life for which I have envisaged. I am also excited about all the projects which I am working on. I have already started a community library project which would encourage children and adults to read and build up the community spirit. Also, I have also involved in raising fund and organising a community-wide HIV testing programme. We also look for ways to sponsor HIV-affected children. There are 24 on the register, but only 4 are roughly sponsored. What I realised was that people prefer to donate loads of money to big organisations for which they would never hear from, rather than to small, community-based organisation which do make changes. Furthermore, we empower local women to earn a living themselves. The women group has been very successful so far and my job is to open up the market for the products they produce and try to sustain the p roject as long as possible.

Of course, everything lying in front of me is extremely tough, but I believe there is success awaiting me as well. I'll talk more but later!

P.S. I have also attached some photos. Please feel free to take a look.

Best regards,