ARISE AND SHINE UGANDA

2026-02-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

Hi friends!

It has been such a long time since I last wrote a blog. About a month ago, I started thinking about coming back to this space. I missed hearing from you and, most of all, sharing our progress in a more intimate way.

Then came the challenge: I had lost all my passwords. I couldn’t access my old phone number or recovery email either. But thankfully, I managed to retrieve my blog account — and here we are.

When I went back and read our old blog posts, all I could think was: WOW.
We have come such a long way.

So much has happened.
So much growth.
So many beautiful projects now running.

Are you still here, our dear readers? Because I have so much to update you on.

From now on, I will be blogging once a week, sharing detailed updates about our progress. These will be much more in-depth than what a social media post can hold. So even if you don’t follow us on social media, you won’t miss a thing here.

Thank you for staying with us, and welcome back to this space.

Stay tuned — I can’t wait to share more with you.

susan's experience at Arise and shine Uganda

2014-01-15T21:43:00.002-08:00

In November en December I worked as a volunteer for Arise and Shine Uganda. Besides my work in the babieshome in Jinja I worked at the tailoring project in Kibuye. In the Netherlands I raised some money so I could buy fabrics and teach the ladies how to make bags which we can sell to volunteers and gift shops. In total 25 ladies joined the project and they were very enthusiastic and well willing to learn new things! Even though they don’t speak English and the interpreter wasn’t always around, I had a great time with

them! We first started practicing how to make the bags and after a few days they started to produce a lot of them! We pay them per bag so the more they make, the more income they have. I started to sell the bags at the babieshome and it was great to see almost all the volunteers bought some! Projects like this are very important for Kibuye. Most of the ladies don’t have another day activity and they especially need an extra income to buy food or to pay for their children’s education. For the next months it is important to improve the quality and they can learn how to make different types of bags so the project can continue for a very long time. From the profit they make by selling the bags they can buy new fabrics which means the project is self-supporting! It was a great experience in Kibuye and I recommend all the volunteers to go there and to start an income generating project! You’ll never forget it and they will be very thankful!

Teaching in the Arise and Shine Primary School!

2012-11-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

My name is Katharina, I just turned 26 while I was here in Uganda and I am from Germany. It seems my time here is flying! Already 2 months have passed and so many things have happened.

The main task I do for AASU is teaching English in their Nursery & Primary School in Kibuye village, where I also live from Monday to Thursday every week, the rest of the time I am in Jinja (or travelling around this beautiful country). But of course, and luckily, I didn’t go straight to the village when I arrived, first I enjoyed a good few days in Jinja, where AASU’s offices and Babies’ Home is based. During this time I could acclimatise myself to the Ugandan weather and culture, get to know the people here and the way they live, get to know all the lovely children in the Babies’ Home and learn more about how AASU works in detail.

Michelle (right), me, and Cow Dina!

One very interesting adventure happened here at the very beginning. Another volunteer from the Netherlands, Michelle, who was here in the Baby’s Home for only 3 weeks, decided to buy a cow for the children there as AASU couldn’t afford to buy milk for all children every day and so only the very small ones got it until then. She had raised some money already before she came here and when her friends and family heard she wanted to buy a cow they even sent her more money! Unfortunately, it still wasn’t enough to afford a pregnant cow that would give enough milk as it turned out that they are quite expensive here. So I promised to give the rest of the

money from the donations I raised before I came here. It was even not easy to find cows here for sale and finally they found a good one for 2,200,000 UGX, which are more than 700€!

So we went there to buy the cow from the farmer (who must be a rich man now!) and brought it to the Baby’s Home, where all the children and the staff were so excited to welcome the new inhabitant of the Baby’s Home! The children were screaming “Ente, ente!” which means cow in Luganda and immediately had their cup ready to drink as soon as we started milking the cow. We decided to name the cow Dina, and I hope she will have a good and long life there and give a lot of milk so that all the children can have a healthy diet! Now and then you here a “mooooooo” around the house which scared the children first, but now they are used to it and they know at least where the milk comes from - better than some children in Europe who might think it comes just from the fridge in the supermarket!

Teaching at the Arise and Shine Primary School. One of the
classroom blocks is not yet finished so some classes
study from under trees.

In my first days I also started my research and preparations about the special reading and writing classes I wanted to do with the pupils at the Arise and Shine Primary School, as they found out last term that it is where they ally need extra help. For that reason I visited the village and the school first for only one day, after which I never could imagine myself to stay there actually for 3 nights and 4 days every week like I do now! It was all so different to what I am used to.

So to start, I stayed only one night to observe the lessons how they are now and got back quite shocked: that is how I imagine my parents or even grandparents were taught! And although I am not a teacher, just from remembering the English lessons I had in Germany I was thinking I could do that maybe better or at least in another way, that is not just the teacher saying something and the children repeating it without any thinking on their own. But it turned out it is not just that easy to change the children’s habits and make them think themselves – they are, after all, used to being taught in a much different way than I was. And they’re too worried about getting something wrong – but it’s lovely to see how happy and motivated they are when they get something right! The teachers always say that the children are slow learners and at first I didn’t like that word, but whatever speed they are moving it they are definitely learning and improving and that is wonderful to see. Sometimes it is a bit frustrating when they don’t understand things as quickly as I expected, but I guess that is just how a teacher’s life is!

Lauren, Myrthe, Renee, and Suzan, some of
AASU's other volunteers, outside our house
in the village!

The first two weeks I was the only volunteer staying in the village and life there was quite an adventure on its own. However, the teachers are very helpful and show you how to survive! Although I am very glad that I have more company now with Lisa, another Muzungu (that is what they call white people here) who is also teaching at the school, and also Renee and Myrthe, two Dutch volunteers working with pregnant women and those with young children, teaching them about healthcare, nutrition and even stimulating play. I’m really enjoying having more company in the village now, and the teachers are already talking about the improvement they see in the children. And then when I’m back in the Babies’ Home I see Cow Dina and how all the children are enjoying her milk, which is a lovely sight.

Well come home Ezra!

2012-10-27T04:26:00.001-07:00

Just a small up date to let you know our precious one is back! God is keeping him alive for a reason. Ezra came back home last night.He is weighing 1.8 kg meaning he has put on 0.2 kg. I could see he has grown so much in the time he has been away . He has developed nails, he didnt have them before. I hope i told you that he was a premature.

Ezra is opening his eyes so wide now and complains at any discomfort. This morning, the arise and shine Nurse put an iv on his hand and he didnt like it. But he only gets this treatment today and tomorrow and then he will be fine .

He looks amazing! Sleeping lots, only waking up to eat and sleep again. Thank you to all of you who donated some money to go to his medical. You were God sent to save his life. We all know that one day, Ezra will minister to so many souls, serving God's children . We look forward to when God's plans for Ezra unfold.

Jeremiah is also doing so much better, though he still has some cough.We are treating it and hope it will pass soon.

The rest of the babies are doing well. Yesterday we received some blankets and soy based formular from a team from 60 feet.This was so nice. Those are some of our greatest needs. Most of our children are baby babies. Formular, onesies, blankets, crib sheets are so much needed in our house hold.

At the moment we also have alot of children sharing beds. We wish to get 12 more beds so that each one of them can have their own bed.

Please help contribute to buy more beds for our children, this would help minimize infections. You can all donate on this blog and you will get tax deductable receipts.

Thank you for following us, have a blessed day.

The living miracle- baby Ezra

2012-10-21T06:09:00.002-07:00

I was just browsing the net , looking at baby information websites. As I browsed, one caught my attention http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/lists/free_newborn_baby_checklist.php.

People preparing for their babies to be born and how much it will cost them. The excitement of a newborn baby, shopping for baby cloths , cribs and all.

For one of my babies, this was not the case. A mother was pregnant and at birth she had a different plan for her twins.

On the 2^nd of October I got a phone call from the probation officer. Twins had been thrown in a pit latrine 15-20 ft deep right after birth.

These babies were rescued and taken to a near by hospital in that village. We went to pick the babies so they could be further treated here in Jinja. At the village hospital they were just wrapped in a blanket and left on the bed with no treatment at all.

We were lucky we made it soon to the Jinja hospital, all was done to save the babies. Unfortunately the twin sister didn’t survive. She had been hurt so much by the machines that rescued them from the pit latrine. She died shortly after admission in the hospital.

Ezra fought on and he is still fighting for life.

I had spent last Friday with a family in Kampala trying to help them with their process. In the evening, I felt I hadn’t seen the babies at all and wanted to just go say hello. I greeted each and everyone giving them good night kisses.

When I got to Ezra, I found out he had thrown up once that evening. I immediately told the auntie to pack up staff so we could go to the hospital.

While in the car, I thought to myself, there wouldn’t be a doctor in the public hospital this time of the day. So I decided we go to a private clinic.

Getting their, the doctor took off the babies cloths and looked at his eyes trying to open his eye lids. He told me the baby was so sick, so severely dehydrated and could not handle his case and advised us to take him somewhere else.

I had an instant emotional breakdown, I was scared, I was afraid of what would happen to my little Ezra.

During all this, I had to remind myself of God’s love and His plan for Ezra. He gave me a scripture right then Isaiah 41:10. This encouraged me, I got energy for the next step.

I wrapped up my baby, and rushed to the public hospital. There was no doctor there but the nurse was very nice. She kindly looked at Ezra and told me he was severely dehydrated. She gave him 10mls of glucose. I suddenly saw a little hand moving towards Ezra’s face. He had got some energy!

We put him on Oral rehydration solution that whole night but he wasn’t seen until after 5 am. Later on Saturday morning, he was seen by the head nurse and put on antibiotics.

Ezra is feeling a little better but he still has a lot of diahorea.

He is feeding well but not picking up. He still weighs 1.7kgs. We need to get more medical examinations done on him, so we can find the problem. We have been advised to take him to Kampala international hospital were they can do further medical investigations. It is a very good hospital but very expensive. He would be there for a while, but he would get the best treatment.

Ezra is fighting A LOT of infections in his body. Please fight with him. Help donate today; together we can make a difference in this little boy’s life.

To donate please look on the right hand side of this blog for the donate button. Thank you all for following us and thank you for your support.We would not be able to do all we do without you!

ARISE AND SHINE UGANDA, a second family for all the volunteers!

2012-09-20T03:46:00.002-07:00

My name is N’taho Emmanuella Djama, a volunteer from Côte d’Ivoire. I worked for Arise and Shina Uganda (AASU) for 9 weeks (20^th June 2012 – 27^th August).

In the beginning, I really missed my friends, my family, in a nutshell – my country! But I couldn’t just get on an aeroplane and fly back home, so I did my best to feel like Uganda was home.

For my work with AASU I chose the Community Education Project. It is one of the 4 main projects and at the heart of the organisation. The project is based in Kibuye, a village in North Eastern Kamuli district. Topics I taught included HIV/AIDS and other STD awareness (e.g. syphilis), hygiene and sanitation, and also good child nutrition.

It was a great experience for me! During the morning, the other volunteers and I walked around the village to talk to the community members and also to encourage them to come to our sessions. During this time the translators we worked with showed us different types of plants and animals, and taught us some words in the local language, Lusoga. I learned how to greet someone, how to kneel when talking with an older person (a sign of respect), and also how to thank someone. Let me give you some of the vocabulary I learnt from the translators in the village:

Oli otya? (How are you?); Wasuzi otya (Good morning) ; Bulungi (Fine, good); Webalé nyo (Thank you very much); Sebo (Mister) ; Inyabo (Madame) ; Méeka? (How much?) ; Miliki (Milk)

Sometimes the community members we visited would very kindly offer us Ugandan food for lunch – for example, posho (maize flour mixed with water), beans in sauce, and roasted maize. This was especially generous when we thought of how most people we were visiting were subsistence farmers, growing just enough (and sometimes not enough) for them and their families to eat. I enjoyed being able to spend this time with them and they also liked us to have photos taken with them. They are kind and amazing people.

In the afternoon, I organized my education sessions with the adults. I was helped by a translator who translated my English lessons into Lusoga, the local language. Most of the attendants was women; and they were always enthusiastic and open to acquiring new knowledge. These women are wonderful mums, and also wonderful friends for me and all the volunteers.

The night was time for relaxing. We all cooked together and would tell stories about our lives, our countries, our universities, all so that we may know each other more and discover the similarities and differences between our countries. I really learnt a lot about foreign cooking and the other cultures.

When we came back to town on Thursday after being in the village since Monday, it was just amazing. A meeting is organized by the Project Coordinator every Friday and where we discuss our week in the village – our achievements and also the challenges we faced. From these we worked together to propose ideas to help those in the village achieve a better life for themselves. The Project Coordinator always took care of us and listened carefully to our propositions. We would spend Fridays in the Arise and Shine Uganda Babies’ Home with the children – playing, singing, dancing, eating together and also sometimes swimming. During the weekend, we organized parties, visited some beautiful sites of Uganda, did some shopping and strolled about Jinja town.

At the end of my trip to Uganda I felt really sad, because I had gained a real family there with the staff of AASU, the volunteers and also the people I worked with in the village. I will always remember this wonderful organization. I thank everybody for making my travel to Uganda so exceptional. Don’t miss it! Join AASU, you will never regret your choice, I promise you!!!!

iPad Raffle and Matching Funds!!

2012-08-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Do you want to help Arise and Shine Uganda continue to serve the people of Jinja and Kibuye?

Do you want a new iPad?

Do you like magically turning $1 into $2?

If these apply to you then today is your lucky day!!

AASU is launching a raffle for an iPad and all the funds raised by "selling" tickets go directly to support our work on the ground in Uganda.

The best part is that a private donor has offered to match every dollar raised up to $3,000! That means that each dollar given is doubled by this matching gift!!

Here is how it works:

1) Go to http://ariseandshineuganda.bigcartel.com/ and decide how many tickets you want to "purchase." Each ticket equals one entry into the drawing. Add it to your cart and make your donation!

2) Share this blog post or the Raffle Store link via email, Facebook and Twitter with all your friends to help us meet the match of $3,000.

3) Every ticket will be assigned a number in order of purchase.

4) The raffle ends on Wednesday August 15th at 10 am EST. We will use random.org to generate a true random winner from all the entries. We will announce the winner by the end of the day and the iPad will be shipped to the lucky supporter of AASU!

Every dollar donated to the raffle will make a huge difference in the lives of our people. We work hard to make every penny count so we can serve the most people most effectively.

In 2010, Arise and Shine Uganda was founded with the goal of using education to transform the lives of vulnerable children and adults throughout the districts of Jinja and Kamuli in Uganda.

AASU uses a four-part approach to bring about sustainable community development:

1.) Income Generating Projects

-The Beads Project

-The Candle Project

-The Tailoring Project

-The Farming Sessions

2.) Adult Education and Outreach

-Adult Literacy

-Sexual and Reproductive Health

3.) Kibuye Village School

-Offering nursery and primary education to over 200 boys and girls and community development and education courses to local adults

4.) Jinja Babies’ Home

- Employing 15 caregivers and providing love, shelter, nourishment, medical care, and education to up to 40 children at any given time. The home works diligently to restore the children back to their families or to find local foster families when reunification is not an option.

Under the faithful oversight of Sharon and our team, these programs are successfully working together to improve the standard of living for vulnerable community members in Jinja and Kamuli.

The scope and reach of AASU is continually increasing as we seek to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people in our community.

We need you to help us continue our work. Buy some tickets and spread the word!!!!!!

*************CLICK HERE TO BUY YOUR RAFFLE TICKETS**************

Kibuye? Where's that?

2012-06-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Bernice Lin, a kind and hard-working volunteer from Singapore with us here in Uganda for 6 weeks, tells us about her time with Arise and Shine.

How did I end up here?

Three weeks have passed since I’ve arrived in Uganda. Understandably, my primary purpose is to work with Arise and Shine Uganda. More specifically, I have decided to work with its Community Outreach projects in Kibuye village.

Where we stayed in Kibuye village

What am I doing here?

Due to a lack of volunteers/manpower at this point in time, we had to work on several projects cooperatively. We mobilized for and conducted HIV education cum family planning sessions, adult literacy classes and beads- and necklaces-making sessions. We will also begin working on a new project to sensitize villagers about the importance of education in both boys and girls.

Kibuye is a sparsely distributed village, so mobilization by foot really takes time! Still, my experience at the village has been great. We could pick mangoes off trees any time and we made friends with hospitable villagers. Children waved frantically and screamed “Jambo” so much that it could bring smiles to our faces regardless of how exhausted we felt.

Funny faces from the children in Kibuye

And when I'm not in Kibuye?

When I’m not in the village, I visit the Babies’ Home. The babies here are really cute and huggable! Sweet boys like John, Joshua and Reagan. Lovely girls like Stella. I must say I’m not good with kids, but these babies here are really an independent and amazing lot!

All plain sailing?

Admittedly, it was not easy to assimilate initially as I had to figure out which of the differences are due to culture and which are due to individual personalities. Nonetheless, the challenge and experience made it all worthwhile so far. I guess this is also common to working in a country so different from your own.

The Arise and Shine school in Kibuye

What will I take away?

Overall, although I understand that my time with Arise and Shine will be too short to witness substantial changes in the programmes I’m working with (as sustainable development by its very definition takes time to achieve!), I hope that I can make at least a little difference before departing this beautiful country.

P.S. Ugandan food is awesome! :P

2012-06-11T06:37:00.002-07:00

BEHIND ALL THE SILENCE!

It has been such a long time since we last blogged! There has been a lot going on since you last heard from us.

Just to give you a quick update, all is well at Arise and Shine Uganda. Classes at our Nursery and Primary School have increased from 3 to 6! We now have classes from nursery to Primary 5 and from 50 students a year ago we now have 250! We are surely educating the village, raising Uganda’s future generation.

We are also building 3 more classrooms to cater for the growing number of students in the school. This is going slowly but surely and we hope that before the end of September these will be usable. We will be sure to keep you updated!

The Babies’ Home is also doing well. As most of you know, we shifted to a new home where we have more space and shade. The children are looking happier and happier in their new home. We even have goats, chickens, and swings! Our garden is also coming along nicely and soon we will be enjoying delicious home-grown vegetables.

We all love the Arise and Shine Children’s Care Home!

News about the children!

In the past few months we were sadly overrun with measles. This was such a tough time for us at the Care Home as all of the children got sick. Thanks to Sara, Shane and Shannon for coming to our rescue! That meant a lot to us. This family helped bring us a lot of medical supplies and lots of healthy yummy drinks. Thanks a lot for loving and thinking of us at such a hard time!

We have also had more additions to the Arise and Shine family! We had 9 children move into our home since the last time you heard from us. They are well settled in and thriving under our care.

Last month 2 of our babies got adopted! Mariam and Khadil got a forever family! They are now in America; we are so excited for what the Lord has in store for them.

Last week was very difficult for everyone at Arise and Shine. Sharif has been very sick; he was hospitalized for a week in Nalufenya children’s ward, but we are very thankful to have him home with us now.

Sharif is almost 2 years old yet he looks like he is 8 months old. His appetite is so low and his development is so slow compared to other children.

Sharif is not an active child despite already being a toddler. He doesn’t walk or crawl and doesn’t even get interested in exploring his environment. His favorite things to do are sucking on his thumb and sleeping. He eats so little considering his age.

Even after being with us for a year he still looks so malnourished! When the doctors at Nalufenya Children’s Ward were told about his history, they were so concerned about his growth. They have done so many tests on him at the moment, yet they cannot find out what is wrong with him. More tests have been requested to further investigate his illness, and they are looking into getting his kidneys, liver, spleen and heart checked out.

He also suffered from measles during the outbreak in April, but he is now recovering from this at the moment.

Sharif is struggling with an illness we are all not sure of. The Arise and Shine family is fighting to find out what is going on. We need to save his life. Please follow the next blog for updates about Sharif.

Thanks for following us, we love you all!

African Dream

2012-03-12T04:26:00.002-07:00

When we are young, sometimes we feel like we are invincible and we can change the world. This feeling can lead us to amazing adventures and in fact can lead us to fulfill our dreams. In aim to achieve our purpose we are able to do incredible things. We define the rest of our lives when we are young.

It’s this wish of doing something that is worth, that makes possible we have such a variety of young people volunteering for Arise and Shine Uganda. Our team is a mix of every continent, each one of us trying to be part of the same dream, sharing the same vision.

We came thinking that we could change the people and when we get here we just realize that we are the ones changed by the smiles of the children in the babies home and by the respect of the people of Kamuli district.

Here are the testimonies of our team during the past week.

Natalia – Brazil

“I’m already in Uganda for one month, and I’m just amazed by the people here. Working in the babies’ home just makes me see how it’s possible to be happy with so little. Simple gestures can make a huge difference with those kids, they can smile everyday even if they are fighting with troubles that I could never find myself facing. In the village, it’s not different, people are so glad and thankful that just showing them that we care is enough for making them feeling important. Let me share one experience I had these days: I brought a girl named Angela from the village to Jinja. The woman who takes care of her told me that her parents had died and she was feeling sick for a long time, but never getting better. She also told me Angela was HIV+. So we decided to bring Angela to get a properly health care in Jinja. We found out she was HIV-, which made me feel very glad. Then I took her to the hospital and now she has got the treatment for her sickness and is feeling better. Back in the village her step mother with simplicity and humbleness gave me a gift that I will never forget, four eggs and peanuts, it may not be a valuable present but made me feel that was worth every minute I spent in the hospital with Angela!”

Yuri – Japan

“Hi, Im Yuri, I’m a new volunteer from Japan! This week, I went to the village(Kibuya)at first time. It was really good! There are no water and no power, so we went to the well to get water! It was nice experience for me. I had Adult Literacy Class with Lily, the volunteer from France. There are 5-10 students, and it was my first time to teach English to adults but I did my best. I taught English words of parts of the body. Besides, I also had condom demonstration for adults. When I explain the way of using condom, I used banana to make them understand easier, and it was really good. They laughed at it so much. When I was going back to Jinja, one of the students in Adult Literacy class asked me, ‘Will you come here next week again?’ to hear that, I became sooo happy. I’m really looking forward to meeting and teaching them again!”

Madeleine – Norway

“This week the beadsproject have made big strides. First and foremost Sharon and I (Madeleine) made a project design and a plan for the project which hopefully will make the project reach its full potential. Second I started to organize the project which has been influenced by discontinuity, so now the ladies now have their own profile to ensure the right ladies get paid.

Also this week I have undergone beadstraining, which is a lot more extensive than you would think. You have the cutting, the rolling, the gluing, vanishing and threading. And that's not all, you also have to think about what different papers make different beads. So now after 3 lessons hopefully I will be able to pass on my new-found knowledge. This week has been very busy and exciting, I have big plans and hopes for the beadsproject!”

Femka – Netherlands

“Everybody deserves a change!

It’s my first week in Africa and it already feels like home! I will be here for 4 weeks and mainly will work with children with a disability in the Babieshome in Jinja and in the village in Kamuli district. This week we did the first pre-school lesson with three of the disabled kids and it was amazing! We gave them papers and color pencils and they got really excited. It was probably the first time ever they have made a picture on their own. From now on we are going to do the pre-school lessons every day and we are going to learn the teachers how to work with the disabled children. People in Africa think that being disabled is a punishment and they are not accepted yet, so there is still a lot of work to do for us here in Uganda. Everybody deserves the same chance. Pay it forward!”

Maiken and Karoline – Norway

“Next week we are going to start having sessions about HIV/AIDs and syphilis in the center near the village. We are going to have sessions every Tuesday, with condom demonstrations and sharing out condoms. So this week in the village we mobilized for the sessions. We hung up posters in the center, and went around to talk to people about it. There were a lot of people that seemed interested, and I think that to hold sessions in the center will be a really good location for bringing a lot of people together, and also get more men involved in the sessions.”

Lili – France

“This week was the third week of adult literacy session for me. We worked together with Yuri, a new volunteer from Japan. Besides teaching parts of the body, the verbs to have/to be and objects in the house, we held a conversation on Tuesday and Wednesday at the end of the classroom. And that was a cultural experience of its own! To the question “What is your marital status?”, Harriett, Janepher, Rosa and Annett were actually bewildered to see that at the ages of 21 and 26, Yuri and I could still be single while at that age, they were already married and had 2 to 3 kids.

Similarly, we encountered disgusted expressions on their faces when we told them that our favorite foods were raw fish, snails and frogs. Finally, I felt proud when Harriett answered that her favorite hobby was to come to my classes to learn English. I just felt so touched to see that they were appreciative of our work and they were realizing the impact of English classes on their own empowerment.”

Sharon – Uganda

“HEY ITS THE VILLAGE LIFE .its sweet!!

When one hears the word village, the person goes like ‘no…. I can’t go to the village’ but guess what? It’s one of the best experiences in the world! You know why? I know you don’t, so I will tell you why. I have been to the village myself and gosh…… I don’t really have the right words to use but I will try. I worked with adult literacy mostly in the lower class and ladies are the most active, though I have a gentleman. It can be lots of fun when they laugh at each other, when they know nothing on how to write their names. But I am glad, happy and proud to tell you that now I have the best students who have learned how to write their names. One good thing is that you always want to teach them because they are so devoted students who never give up. I’m an African who enjoys the village so what of you? You can give it a try. Promise you will before I continue. I do the translating too, for my white friends´…..and it’s amazing because my friends can’t get anything the villagers are saying and likewise the villagers don’t understand English. Let me take a second and laugh. Ha ha ha ha. It’s really funny. Sorry I cannot say the whole of it because if I do you will not tune in next time. So if you want to know what’s going to happen to my adult class then join me! I remain Sharon Luda: the village girl.”

blog 12/02/2012

2012-02-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

The week just past has been as vibrant and full as those that preceded it. The AASU team received more new, interesting and motivated interns; and so the dynamic between everyone feels exciting and fresh. We now have three new young Norwegian, and one Brazilian intern to contribute to the organisation’s projects and mission, who offer diverse and valuable knowledge and skills. As these new interns will be replacing many of those that have been around for longer, this signifies a period of transition and change for Arise and Shine, which is exciting and yet also sad for those who will be moving on.

Once again, last week, several interns stayed in Jinja to work, and others went back to Kibuye village to further the programs in place there. In Jinja, Sophie and Isabella were busy travelling around to schools in Jinja, conducting workshops on Sexual Reproductive Health, and marketing and selling one of AASU’s products: Afripads. This was fun, interesting and rewarding! Sometimes we would be addressing classes of up to 300 students; all females aged between 12 and 20, and give presentations of roughly one hour. Firstly Juma would talk for about 20 minutes; informing the girls of issues surrounding sexual risks and behavioral change. He had a very engaging way of getting his point across, and would often use funny and quirky sexual analogies that had the girls giggling and smiling throughout his presentation. Following that, Sophie and Isabella would talk about Afripads; a sanitary pad that is suitable in impoverished communities, and that largely improves the sanitation of many women’s menstruation cycles. This week a total of 28 Afripads were sold, which was encouraging and rewarding; often only 5 or 10 of them will be purchased per week. A few things really stood out about these sessions. For one, the respect and admiration with which we were treated. From the moment we started speaking to the second we stopped, the girls were almost entirely silent, and 100 percent attentive; their wide eyes following you as you walked around the room talking, with interest and focus. I thought about how a class of similar-aged students would react to this back home, and am almost certain that such a talk (which was often taken out of their free time) would be met with audible sighs, eyes rolling, and incessant whispers circulating amongst the members of the audience. After the talk they would shyly come up and thank you for the time you had taken to talk to them, and for having chosen their school to do workshops with.

In other Jinja-related news, last week a new volunteer arrived from France to help AASU in the field of finance. The plan is that she will work with David, the accountant of the organisation, to ensure that a solid and transparent financial structure is implemented at AASU. Accounting, budgeting, internal processes and reporting are the key areas in which they envision a change within the organization. This will greatly assist the functionality and efficiency of Arise and Shine, and is a welcomed and much anticipated change in the NGO.

Otherwise, the other focus for last week was the furthering of projects in Kibuye village. Firstly, the Adult Literacy program is making slow but sure progress. Despite the fact that inconsistent attendance and varying competencies between students is rendering the work very challenging, advancements are still being achieved. The girls heading up this project decided to focus on practical vocabulary for this week. Topics such as local geographic forms, occupations, days of the week, and basic maths were covered; as these are subjects that arise often in the lives of these rural inhabitants. The beads project is also continuing according to plan, with the women making beads, and these beads eventually being sold in local and international markets. One of our Chinese interns is still working on setting up an online store, which would stock these products, and sell them to Chinese Clientele. Lastly, Mickey and Paul, the interns from Restless Development, also conducted some very informative research. They interviewed women who take part in the beads project, as well as attend adult literacy classes.

The purpose of that is to get to know the local women better, learn about what motivates them to pick up new activities, in addition to whether or not Arise & Shine has improved their life quality. Information we gathered shows that women in the village are grateful for Arise & Shine activities, as they would not be able to get basic education and English language skills any other way. As for the beads projects, women we interviewed said that with money they made, they managed to buy chickens for their farms, pens and books for their children, and necessary commodities such as soap and salt for their families. We were lucky because all women we approached were willing to talk to us which shows their trust in the organization.

Data we gathered shows that Arise & Shine projects are indeed helping the community and we will use it next week when we’ll start fundraising for sewing machines so that women can start making bags.

In summary, last week was a fulfilling one, insomuch as the completed work and continuation of AASU’s projects is concerned. Unfortunately the following week will be the last one with the organization for many of us current interns. This is creeping up on us unpleasantly, and we try and distract ourselves from thinking about it too much! It’s been such a great experience with AASU and Uganda that we don’t want to leave. But it’s given us the imperative to come back, which is the most important thing. A taste for Uganda, so to speak!

Until next time,

The interns of AASU.

Sophie and her team.

2012-01-31T04:18:00.000-08:00

We’ve spent the majority of this past week in a remote village called Kibuye, which is about three hours drive from Jinja. Kibuye is a beautiful place: green and lush, and possessing an incredibly profound sense of space. In our entourage were six female interns, and the project cordinator of our NGO, a Ugandan called Juma. Juma is a lovely man, of playful and jovial temperament, and always eager to impart a gem of wisdom or various, cryptic Ugandan proverbs on us interns. During the car ride, every now and again he would turn around from his front seat in the car grinning and expressing words of encouragement (whilst being seemingly bemused at our inability to handle the rough drive). Several redeeming aspects of the rough trip were the beautiful landscapes and forests we passed, and the children that would run out to see the car, smiling and waving.

The conditions in the village were very basic, as was to be expected. There was no running water or electricity, and thus no sewerage or apparent irrigation systems. But things weren’t chaotic, far from it. Things were slow, drawn out, and interestingly orderly. We slept in mud huts under the silent sky, resplendent with stars. Meals are simple; cooked over a makeshift stove or fire at our campsite, and we all had fun fumbling around in the dark, trying to put together a decent dinner! In the morning, it was peaceful and pleasant to wake up to the sound of children playing around the huts, and to the smells of Ugandan women cooking Chapati for breakfast. And the people were so beautiful, so warm. You couldn’t walk past a gathering of women without them drawing you into their circle, hugging you and holding your hand, uttering warm words in their limited English and continuing on in the same way in their local dialect. They seemed to host an ultimate sense of respect for workers from the NGO. This leaves one feeling incredibly honoured, but also hugely responsible; a live reaffirmation that what we were doing had large and direct impacts of the lives of these people.

For the moment, interns are working on three main projects: those pertaining to Adult Literacy, Sexual Reproductive Health, and Social Entrepreneurship. All of these projects present different challenges and difficulties, but are equally as rewarding when progress is made.

It was great to start working in the communities, but an overwhelming sense of what progress still needs to be made soon became prominent. As they were so isolated, life in the villages was so very basic. Families were very large (and often polygamous), and so the people poor, and the education (other than the NGO’s school) seemed almost non-existent. To illustrate this particular point; our adult literacy consists of working with the adults in the community to improve their English. The advanced class can, maybe, write the letters of the alphabet. The beginner’s class are just learning how to hold a pen. The process of teaching for us was rendered slightly more difficult with the language barrier; the people communicated almost solely in Lusoga (their local dialect), but our translators were patient, and we got our points across when we needed to. The motivation and curiosity of the people was very encouraging, as they would come to classes with focus, determination and good spirits, very eager to learn. And the positivity of the people was so enlightening: setting aside the obvious indications of extreme poverty, I could easily say that these people are some of the happiest I’ve ever met. As the classrooms were not in the best of conditions, next week we hope to make them more presentable, and the environment more conducive to successful learning. It was inspiring to learn that the women were so motivated despite their slow progress: they seemed to know that even if they wouldn’t reap the benefits of their current learnings, perhaps their children, or their grand children would.

The aforementioned social entrepreneurship program that we’re implementing was also progressing nicely. This program helps the women to make jewellery in a very cost effective way. They make beads from free paper that we obtain from Telecommunication, or various other companies. This is not only cheap, but also environmentally responsible, as paper that would otherwise be thrown away or burnt, is recycled. In explanation: we teach the women how to make the beads, and then the necklaces, and subsequently find local and international markets for their products. This allows them to generate some income, and support their families and agricultural plots.

The sexual reproductive health project is also in a transitory period. The mornings we would spend doing sensitisation, which consisted of walking around to different households in the villages, and raising awareness on various topics of importance. And then in the afternoons, people would come and see us at the intern base in the village, and we would inform them on them programs and services that we were currently working on, and gauge their interest regarding the programs. For sensitisation we were mostly working on birth control and family planning. Sophie had the idea of exploring the feasibility of introducing different forms of birth control in the village, and namely the method of Implanon. For those not familiar with the product, it’s a single-rod implantable contraceptive, providing more than 99% effective contraception for up to three years, and various WHO reports have researched and proved the efficacy of this method in developing contexts. We spent time describing, and evaluating the reactions and opinions of people regarding the contraceptive. Our findings were overwhelmingly positive; most reactions went along the lines of – ‘I need this, after having 11 children, I’m tired’, or ‘Do you have this with you? Can we have it now?’, which was very reassuring. The work was hugely rewarding, but also quite tiring. And of course, it’s important to take things slowly, and to be aware of the limitations and cultural differences present that make the introduction and implementation of new programmes lengthy and difficult.

All in all, last week was a very enriching one! We felt that progress was made on each of the projects, and had some wonderful moments with the people in the villages. We hope to be updating you very soon, in summary of the coming week! Thanks for reading,

The interns of AASU.

New years greetings and the new house

2012-01-26T01:18:00.002-08:00

Our dear readers, the Arise and Shine family. Where do we start from after that long time of not hearing from us? Our apologies again and again. But on our side all has been well, starting with a great Christmas celebration. Thanks to Winnie Kaniar who made our Christmas such a memorable one! She donated to Arise and shine so our babies and all the children could have a great Christmas celebration and indeed it was a special day for all of us.

We started the day with going to the swimming pool. This went on until 12:00 O'clock, the children then started getting hungry and whiny. We then headed home to a very delicious meal prepared by our favorite cook Margret. We had a variety of dishes all Ugandan food ( Matooke, rice, meat, chicken among others) we also had a treat that got all the children so excited! That was the Soda. And shortly after all children went hyper and overly excited. The Christmas spirit was present! We then shared a Brazilian meal "brigadeiro" a very sweet dish prepared by the Brazilian volunteers. It was approved by the babies and they just couldn't stop eating. They also had a visit by Santa Claus! With all the presents, a very new thing for the children.

To date, the children still share their story of Christmas and everything that happened on the day.

It is January now and a lot is happening in the organisation. Through our first year of operation, we needed some changes but because of the limited funds these changes were not possible. This year with all your support, Arise and Shine is able to make these changes! The Arise and Shine children's care home has been a great home for this year, it was so much better than what we had before and also better than what our children have ever had in their lives. But it needed some changes. Our compound was so tiny, not big enough for the children to run around . It was always so sad seeing the children crowding up in the house as the outside was too hot to play. At Arise and Shine, we know that play is a big part of a child's development. And we always wished to give as much as we could to our children. This was not a possibility for genuine reasons. Bless our children! They don't know any better. They came from worse and they thought this was great but we as Arise and shine staff knew what was best for the children.

At the start of January, we started a house hunt. It went on for 2 weeks. But we are happy to inform you about our greatest news. We found a place with everything we ever wished for! Massive bedrooms, massive compound where we can build a play ground and still have plenty of space to play foot ball and run around. A place we will call home for the coming years. We are thrilled with joy! . Photos of the house will can be seen on our facebook page and on the website.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arise-and-shine-Uganda/133109643399722

Arise and Shine is making progress, we are so glad! But this is all because of you, one that takes a minute to think about the orphans and abandoned children in Uganda. You who saves money out of your daily spending, to give to a child so far away. A child that has seen nothing but hardship in their life and a child whose hope for survival lies in other peoples kindness and generosity. Today we as Arise and shine, we would like to pass on our thanks on behalf of this child. Thank you for supporting a child and changing their story.We are truly grateful ,for you are more than a friend.We call you our family.And especially to the children we serve, you are the family they have never had.Thank you for the support! We look forward to what we can achieve together in this new year as we aim at rescuing more children in vulnerable situations.The orphaned and abandoned children in Uganda. Stay and fight with us, together we can make a difference!

Jiao Jing Ping (Jim) (14th –22th Dec 2011)

2012-01-01T05:44:00.001-08:00

It has been a wonderful week of life in Jinja. As a volunteer from China, I am experiencing an unforeseen warmth and hospitality from locals as well as the nature wildness of Uganda.

During the orientation week, I visited Arise and Shine’s Baby’s Home. That was the first time for me visiting an orphanage, and it was joyful and amazing. Kids were excited to see a new face and strive to be the first to play with “Musmgu”. I remember little girls. One’s name is Fiona, the other is Mitchell. Unlike other kids playing with us excitedly, Fiona was sitting on the floor very quietly holding a plastic little pony. She showed a bit of fear when I was trying to sit beside her. Then I came up with an idea that I pick up the little pony and made it jump on Fiona’s shoulder and head. Then the little girl smiled. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Mitchell was crying the first time I saw her. I could not leave a crying girl alone, so I tried to cheer her up. I lifted her up and swung her, soon she stopped crying.

It was intoxicating to see innocent and puerile expression in their eyes. At the same time, I could not help thinking about the fact that their living standard still remains to be improved and there a lot other African kids that are keen for aid but their voices never been heard. However, as long as we are doing something for them, no matter how little it is, children like Fiona, Mitchell will have a better life.

I also went to the village. The experiences there were both new and exciting to me. Frist of all, volunteers did a survey of a new stove which aims to save wood and improve the efficiency of cooking. I thus had a chance to go into normal household and have a glance at their lives. On top of that, volunteers got the hands on, and did build a stove ourselves. Besides this, I did weeding for young trees planted by former volunteers.

This has been a meaningful and fulfilling week. Hope next week I will be able to accomplish more.

THE EXPERIENCE OF SINGAPORE VOLUNTEER

2011-12-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

18-24th December:
I spent 3 days in Kamoli-Kibuye village and i have seen and felt things I never had before. Good planning is the key to survival here; always have enough water and food. Water, electricity and food was easily available in my country, here they are none to waste. Definitely, I learnt things about myself and start to appreciate things a little more.

I was looking forward to making an impact on the community, but it was the holiday period, for the villagers too so there’s only so much I could do. Nevertheless, how much I want to achieve here is pretty much up to me. I learnt Lusoga and Luganda in order to communicate and teach the villagers more effectively, and it was really helpful when it came to Adult Literacy Project.
I was glad that Arise and Shine has came up with Wood-Saving Stove Project and a tree-planting initiative to help the environment. It has long-term aim and was sustainable too. We did some weeding; though it was just a few trees, I was pleased to do my part for the environment.
I genuinely want to do part for Uganda and Africa, but it seems like my duration and period of volunteering is not an ideal one. Looking at how things are going now, I hope I will get an invaluable insight and exposure to different projects and experience such that I have a better idea of making an impact the next time when I come to Africa for volunteering projects.

goodbye babies home.

2011-12-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our last day in the babieshome. We want to thank all the workers of Arise and Shine, because we had a great time with them. We learned a lot from them and we are very glad that they wanted to learn from us as well. We taught them a lot and we tried to help them with improving the activities and the hygiene in the babieshome. We hope the new volunteers will continue our work, so we all encourage the health and the development of all the children.

We celebrated our last day with a lot of fun. We invited Andrew with his guitar, he played music for the children. We danced a lot and all the children liked it, even the disabled children and the babies. They were all smiling and had a great time. While Andrew was playing, we painted the faces of the children. It was very funny, they all liked it and wanted to see themselves on the pictures. We also brought drinks and candy for them, so they were enjoying the party. After the music, we started with giving presents. We brought a lot of toys, clothes and other materials from Holland. There were a lot of presents, so every child could open one. We also brought some presents and cake for the workers, because we appreciate all the help, advices and the warm welcome we had.

We are sad to leave all the friendly people and the lovely children of Arise and Shine. We are sure that they are doing a great job and that they can achieve a lot more in the future. We wish them good luck and they have enjoyed our stay as well. Thanks a lot!
To see the beautiful smiley faces of the children opening their presents, please follow the link below;
https://picasaweb.google.com/102967361898215432541/IdiAndMaartjeSGoodByeParty

Adult literacy test!

2011-12-09T06:04:00.000-08:00

Tuesday we told everybody in class that there would be a test (exam) on Wednesday. The women asked me about it in class three weeks ago, so last week I made a test about the ABC. I discussed it with Juma and he agreed with the test. Juma told Amar to also make a test for the advanced class, so he did.

I printed 15 questions in each each exam and a total of 30 exams . At the end all the exams were gone, so there were over 30 women (and some men). I put on a vey nice green traditional dress for them, and they really liked it! First we practiced the vowels, ABC and ba, be, bi, bo, bu. This were the things who came back in the test.

First I thought it would be too easy, if I repeated everything before the test, but I did it because some of them could not even write their own name.

When I handed the paper, the women started laughing and I could see at that time, that it was too difficult. Frank, one of the men in the village helped me with translating but a lot of them did not understand how to fill things in, after a while it went ok, better than in the beginning. I could see clear that they were very good at copying, but they did not know what it meant. Also with the practice I did the pronunciation and some of them could say the alphabet in English, but a lot didn’t. I repeated this topics for 6 weeks and I felt very disappointed.

But I focused more on the good thinks which came out of the test: two ladies had a 100 percent good score, all the women were almost present, they are open for making a test, now we know where we stand with classes. So Jukani the next volunteer knows where to go further.

They were very happy with getting the test results back, even when it was a score of 15 percent. So we can use that for making them excited about next semester. The women blamed themselves also for not always being there or not being on time. So at the end I think it was a good thing we did it. We all learned from it and we can start with fresh energy.

HIV testing day for the children at the babies' home.

2011-12-09T05:02:00.000-08:00

This week we started with the HIV tests for all the children from the babies' home. On Monday morning three women arrived with bags full of equipment. We all helped to get the table outside and make everything ready; like filling in the names of the children on the cards. When everything was prepared, the testing then began. The children who were younger than 1,5 years were too young to be tested so they could keep playing. One by one all the children got tested. Most of them were very brave and didn’t cry at all! What we didn’t expect was, that we had the results immediately. We are happy because the results were very good. Only one of the children was positive, all the others were negative!

But there was more good news this week. Last week we did a workshop about activities for the workers of the babies' home. When we got to the babies' home last Monday we saw instantly that the children were playing with bottles of water. We were thrilled because this was one of the activities we did as an example during the workshop. Nice to see that people really liked it and used it right away.

Also in the workshop we made a schedule for every day of the week. In the schedule we wrote down which worker is doing the activity on what day. We also wrote down who takes care of the younger children when the teacher gives lessons to the older children. The other workers were sitting and playing with the younger children outside so the teacher could give all her attention to the older children in the lesson.

On Tuesday, it was Sherifah’s turn to do an activity and she did very well! Sge choose to draw with sidewalk chalk. Lilian and the teacher helped her and it was a great success! The children and the workers had both a lot of fun and a good time. They also involved the disabled children! Josephine, Stellah and even Hussein were also (with a little help) drawing with the sidewalk chalk.

On Wednesday we first thought we had a little problem, because not all the people had time to do the activity; but it was solved fast! The other workers were very enthusiastic when we asked if they wanted to do the activity that day. Nice to see that everybody was very flexible as well!

Thursday we brought the activity book to the babies-home. It was finally finished! The teacher, Angela and Juma were very happy with it! In the afternoon the teacher and Florence immediately choose one of the activities that we wrote down in the book and they did a ball game with the children. It was nice to see that it was used right away!

After all, it was a great week with lots of good news! Hopefully it will continue!

Written by; Ildi Hummelink & Maartje Libbers, volunteers from Holland, working in the Arise and Shine babies' home.

What some of our new volunteers think of the village!

2011-12-09T04:23:00.000-08:00

Hi, I am Yukari, a new volunteer from Japan. I have just arrived here and had an introduction week in the Arise and shine Uganda. This is about my first experience of visiting Kibuye village.

This Tuesday I went to the village where Arise and Shine conducts several projects. It was a really long way. First we took a taxi from Jinja town to Kamuli town for two hours, and we had to take the motorcycle called boda-boda for around 30minutes from the town to the village. Although we have “villages” in Japan, they can never be the same as Kibuya. There is no electricity, no running water. So it will be a great experience for me to join the projects here!

The primary school in the village is going to be closed for holiday soon, but we fortunately could meet children of the school before that. They had a sports day on that day and all the students were in the ground. When we got there, children were running toward to welcome us, and they showed us their dance. I was really amazed that how good they could dance for their ages.

It was just a one-day trip, so there must be a lot to see and many people to meet. I am really looking forward to meeting them and working together as a member of the Arise and shine!!

Candle project

2011-11-23T03:30:00.000-08:00

Hello, I'm Kazuo, the volunteer from Japan. I'm doing internship here in AASU from the beginning of October. I have experienced a lot of new things that I've never in Japan since I came here. The life in Bandali village is one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever experienced.

There are some projects AASU does in the village, such as adult literacy, beads project and HIV session etc. Each volunteer who works in village takes their own project. For me, the project I'm now responsible to is Candle project.

Candle project is one of the community outreach projects. AASU involves people in village and make candles then volunteers/stuff market them. The profit from the sales would compose of income which helps people in village.

In recent weeks I have got experienced in making candles. The way how to make candles is not so difficult and anybody can master it. But it needs some certain tools and time. It takes around 3hours to make one set of candles from start to end. As candles are very fragile, we have to take much care when we take them from the tube. It is great time to see the vividly colored candle come out of the tube.

One day, I and the teacher Deo in village came back to Jinja and tried to sell candles. The way we took to market candles is, very plain and simple, that we gave a brief explanation about the product including the background of AASU to mainly the people who are in market along the main street with showing the products. I was worried if they accepted our product at the beginning. But contrary to my negative expectation, we could sell most of candles we had in a day! It was delightful surprise for me.

I think the colored candles were unusual for people and probably attracted their interest. It is also possibly thought that the background of the product and AASU brought about their sympathy somehow. Generally selling candles to people succeeded.

Then we also went to some hotels and negotiated with them to lend us some space to promote our products. It is integral for our community outreach projects such as beads project and candle project to get the fixed route we market them in order to get continuous profit.

Fortunately one hotel understood our objective and agreed with us to put and sell our products at its lounge. I hope the products made by AASU's project will be exhibited and sold in every hotel in Jinja near future and many visitors to Jinja recognize them as the best souvenirs.

Prepared by Kazuo

Education and relaxation

2011-11-23T01:51:00.000-08:00

Last week I went to the village and took something educative with me: a poster of the human body and the names of the different body parts stated on it in English.

It was great to see the enthusiasm of the children while we studied the different parts of the body in English. The children liked it a lot and learned something at the same time. The class was interactive and it was nice that I had the opportunity to do this.

During the adult literacy classes I used the same poster to teach adults in the village the names of the different parts of the body. At a certain moment I noticed a crowd of people standing interested around something in the classroom..... and that something was the poster of the human body with the names of the different body parts stated on it. Great to see how something small can make a crowd gather around it. At the end of the class we practiced the different names of parts of the body in English. After that I asked several students to come to the front and write down the right name in English for each part of the body I pointed at on my own body. This was at the other side of the class, so the poster was not visible for the student in front of the blackboard. This was a funny situation because the practice they had was minimal and thus it was logical that some of the students did try to get a peek of the poster with the correct answers on it. The students that sat behind the tables betrayed the students who wanted to pick and were laughing, the student in front of the class had to laugh and I was also having a great time. The students picked up the names of the different parts of the body very fast and this was nice to see! Next week we will make a rehearsal and the week after an exam on this and/or other topics would be great in order to take care, and examine to what extent, that the knowledge stays in the head of the students.

Great was also that my buddy brought a soccerball for the kids of the village. It was amazing to see how happy they are with this gift of my buddy. I had the honour to take the ball with me to the kids and they were cheering from excitement and starting running towards me. I had the great privilege to play soccer with the kids from Kibuye Bandali in Uganda. An experience that I will never forget!

This blog was prepared by:

Amar

addition to the Arise and Shine family in Jinja.

2011-11-08T03:02:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

We are privileged to inform you that we got a new baby boy by the name of Khadil.

He is such a cute baby but so wasted away from malnutrition and by the time we got him he was at the verge of death and thank God we got there on time to save him. But still your prayers are still needed as we walk baby Khadil back to life.

It was a long Journey to the village where we got baby Khadil. We left the baby home at around 8:00 am in the morning and we got to the village at around 12:43pm.

The stepmother was so happy to see us as she gave us a warm welcome. We didn’t find the father of the baby at home so we had to give him a call and had to wait for around 30minutes before he came back home.

On seeing us, he was so very excited. We exchanged greetings and right away started off interviewing him about the baby’s condition.

We discovered that the mother of the baby was very sick before giving birth . She had a terrible cough , was hospitalised for it but there was not much improvement till the time she had to deliver the child.

She managed to give birth but was still ill. After giving birth,Khadil's mother was then brought back home but the situation just worsened and the relatives had to come and pick her up from her husband's place to her own family. She was taken away to their place for extra care after finding out that the husband had failed to take care of her condition.

After only a period of two weeks the poor lady passed away leaving little Khadil behind with the father and stepmother. It’s so sad but at times life is so very unfair and that’s the sole truth about the little one. He was brought forth in this world in pain. He’s never enjoyed any bit of happiness ever since he arrived.

After the mother’s death Baby Khadil’s life was completely torn apart. He barely had anyone to feed him and most of the time he would be left for along time without feeding. The little chance he got to feed was fed with warm water because the family could hardly get access to milk and also since the step mother has also got a baby relatively the same age has got no sufficient time to take care of him when she has got a baby of her own to take care of. Thank God we were able to get there on time.

The time we got there, baby Khadil was starving to death and on inquiring from the stepmother whether he had fed or not, she told us that they had not been able to get any milk so he had to wait for the milk in order to get him fed.

Poor little thing! He was bowling and gasping for breath at the same time.

Right away, we requested the step mum to boil us some water so we could mix him some baby formula. We had moved well prepared almost knowing the situation. We carried milk, baby clothes and diapers just in case we needed them.

So as she boiled the water we asked for a basin with water so we could have him bathed. One of us bathed him as we waited for the water to boil. We had him dressed in the clothes we had carried and he was refreshed.

Soon after that the water was ready and milk was mixed and the baby fed. His day was made.

Soon after feeding the baby drowned into a resting mood and he was quiet, relaxed and went to sleep. So we prepared to leave for the baby’s home and the children were so happy and excited to have an addition of a baby. They all came and crowded around him and went, “baby baby baby……….. “and didn’t not even want to go to sleep.

More to the news, on the 31^st of October we received a donation from one of our volunteers Christopher . He bought our disabled children a wheel chair! Fahad has never been this happy! He was so excited to have the new wheel chair and each time he’s put in the chair he goes all smiles.Before we had 1 wheel chair which was usually shared between Stella and Fahad. But Stella always fights for it and Fahad usually accommodates her and lets her take it. We are so grateful for the second wheel chair as both Fahad and Stella now have one. Life only gets better!

We are also thankful to all of you who are making donations so we can build a new pit latrine for the Arise and Shine school! Thank you for your support, with out you Arise ans Shine can not live to do it's work.

Am calling upon all of you to donate through the web site or the blog as we can get to deal with the bank charges all at once if we donate online otherwise we are charged for every transfer made to the bank. Thanks again for all your support.Your help will take us a long way!

Thanks for following us!

more activities, raising money for the babies' home!

2011-11-07T01:46:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to ‘St. Jude trainings center’ to give information about STD’s, syphilis and the Afri-pads. Our main goal was to sell the Afri-pads, to earn money for the babies’ home. The money from the sanitary towels is spent on the babies in the babies’ home. We think that’s a very good goal, so we’ve tried as best as we can.

To prepare our presentation, we made some posters with keywords. Sometimes it’s difficult for the students to understand us, because of our Dutch accent but with the posters they can also read the information.

We started with general information about sexually transmitted diseases and the A-B-C-D formula. The A means abstinence; keeping away from sex is the safest way to protect one from STD’s. If one can’t abstain, then be faithful to one partner, that’s the B in the formula. The C stands for condom-use. You always have to use a condom; otherwise you can reach the D in the formula. The D stands for Death. When you don’t have safe sex, you can risk sexually transmitted diseases, which can lead to death.

We also talked about syphilis, because it’s a common STD, but most people have a limited knowledge about it. We talked about different stages of the disease, the symptoms, the diagnosis and the treatment.

At the end we talked about the Afri-pads. We showed the menstrual kit and we have explained how it works. The girls were enthusiastic, but a little shy. We asked the girls if they had questions about the subjects. For them, it was hard to ask what they want, they were a little ashamed. We have noticed that it’s not common for the girls to talk about these issues. We tried to make them comfortable with the situation and the subjects. We told them that’s common to talk about and that they could ask anything. It was good to see that some girls raised their hands and asked what they wanted to know.

We already sold one of the Afri-pads. One of the employers of the trainings center asked the girls to repeat what we’ve told about the A-B-C-D formula. If she answered correctly, he would pay the menstrual kit. The girl was a little bit nervous, but she remembered what we told, so she could explain it to the other girls. She was excited when she received the Afri-pads. That was really nice to see. The employer helped us to make the situation comfortable for the girls. We’ve learned from him how to talk about a not common subject with this target group.

A lot of girls wanted to buy the Afri-pads, but they had no money with them. We’ve made a new appointment for next Wednesday, so we hope we can sell a lot more menstrual kits.

Our newest volunteers and their AASU experience so far!

2011-10-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody.

We are Maartje and Ildi, we live in Holland and we study social work, specialized in children. We both always really wanted an internship abroad to learn about ourselves, the people in Uganda, and the culture. When we read the information about Arise and Shine Uganda, we were instantly thrilled about the organization. They achieved so much in only one year, that’s great! So, we are very glad to work for this organization. We already met a lot of great people and feel very welcome.

We are going to stay in the babies home to help the teacher with the lessons and the activities. We are also going to give workshops to the mothers of the babies' home, so we can share our knowledge. But we hope we can also learn from them.

This week we started making a work plan and goals for all the children. We made 4 groups, namely the older children, the younger children, the babies, and the disabled children. Each group has a different goal. Every day we want to do an activity with all the groups but the goals for the children are different.

One of the activities from last week was ‘bubble blowing’. It was amazing! The children liked it so much and they were very creative in catching the bubbles. They all wanted to blow and they had a lot of fun. Even the disabled children and the babies participated in the activity. They couldn’t blow by themselves but they really enjoyed watching and catching the bubbles. It’s good to see that the older children care about the younger ones and also the disabled children. The older children blew bubbles in their way, so they could try to catch them. It was a great experience for us to see the children work on their goals in a playful way. It was nice to see that all the children had so much fun, even the disabled ones.

Photos of the bubble session will be posted on the AASU facebook, enjoy!

Greetings from Arise and Shine Uganda!

2011-10-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

To all our friends and well wishers, we know it has been long since you last heard from us! A lot has been going on down here and we would like to tell you about what we have been up to regardless of the silence.

The director and founder of Arise and shine Uganda is on a fundraising trip in Europe, trying to sell some of the products that our ladies make in the community outreach project of AASU.We will be hearing more about it as she sends us the updates on her progress and when we do, we will surely keep everyone posted on it.

Other than that, a lot has been happening at the organization at the moment. We are welcoming four different volunteers from the Netherlands. They will be helping on the income generating activities in the village as most of the volunteers we had in the last month are leaving. Some of the volunteers are more interested in helping at the children’s care home as they have expert knowledge in that but we will be able to talk about their responsibilities in detail in a couple of weeks from now.For more photos of Arise and shine please follow the picasa link below: https://picasaweb.google.com/home

Alex Cabon who came in as a consultant for AASU also on a voluntary basis has finished his work with us. It was so sad to see him leave, but on the other hand he has done so much good for us that we will only leave to be thankful for his work. We will surely miss him but again, we will cherish the knowledge he has instilled in us. Without him, AASU wouldn’t have been the same.

More on the update, Friday 21/Oct/2011 was a day out for the children at the Arise and Shine children’s care home as well as a general cleaning for the workers in the home.

After breakfast, children were prepared and went together with the new volunteers at St Nicholas field a primary school nearby the babies’ home.

The children were so very excited to learn that they were having a day out! On their way to the field, they saw monkeys and on reaching the field, they spent half of their day merrymaking. It was such a fun day! Kids flew kites, played football and lots of other various games.

At around mid-day, some of the children were already exhausted from the too much running around and playing so they were brought back home and had their lunch.

As soon as children finished eating, Uncle Alex (consultant volunteer) gave them candies as a way of saying good bye. They received them with a lot of excitement and soon after that they had a nap. What a surprise! As candy usually makes them hyper. After nap time, they were up playing football with Uncle Alex and by the end of the day they were all very tired from the tedious day.

On the other hand, the cleaning went well at the baby house. First, we had all mattresses taken outside under the sun before cleaning commenced. At the home, we had three volunteers stay behind to help with the cleaning.

The cleaning commenced at around 10:00am and went on till mid-day. We had all beds scrubbed clean plus all the toilets and walls. And after that, we had all baby chairs taken out and were as well cleaned.

After we had children back at the home and were so excited to get home everything so clean.

Good bye baby puke…..good bye little dirty fingure prints on walls….good bye food stains on dinner tables….Hello clean house!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you know we have a you tube account now? You can watch all our cool videos on there now! Just follow the link below to see some of the work we have been doing!

You can also read more about us through our website, just follow the link below:

www.ariseandshineug.org

We also have a facebook page where you can follow us, again just follow the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arise-and-shine-Uganda/133109643399722

And you like tweeting? we also like the tweets, just follow us on the link below:

http://twitter.com/#!/AriseandShine_U

We will be coming up with more updates at the end of the week. Keep