It is now 5 weeks since I returned from my amazing experience in Lira, Northern Uganda.The time there went so fast and since arriving home it has moved at an equal speed. I sat back this week to look at and assess what had happened and been achieved during the last 9 weeks.I was amazed, excited, emotional and suddenly I felt exhausted One Step at a Time is now registered as an
International Non Government Organisation (NGO) in Uganda.We are also well on the way to submitting our request for charity status in the UK.This will enable us to claim back the Gift Aid tax on all of the past donations and to apply to major funding bodies here and abroad.
Thanks to all you fantastic people we are almost half way to reaching our target of £6000 to enable us to start building our own property. I was unaware of Lianne's determined efforts whist was away and I would like to say an enormous thank you to her, to Keighly and to all of you who contributed so generously to that cause.
To enable that project to move on, I have personally invested a sum of money to purchase a plot of land in Lira 125 x 65 feet. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would ever own land in another country but this is what happens when you really believe in something.
I will be donating it to One Step at a Time and hopefully claiming back around £600 in Gift Aid for other use. No new car for me this year, I will have to get the sander out on the rust.
In Lira we are renting a property with 4 rooms and storage within a good compound.3 staff, Moses, project co ordinator, Isaac, social worker and Lillian, housekeeper, manage the project and are working hard to make it a success. 40 street/orphan/vulnerable boys and just 2 girls are fed twice a day. They are being taught how to cook porridge for breakfast and beans, veg, rice, and twice a week, meat for dinner.On the street their meal was whatever others threw in the skips or what they could buy form collecting scraps of metal or empty bottles to sell for a few pence.
They are now able to:- -
Wash themselves-
Drink treated water-
Clean their teeth-
Wash their clothes-
Eat twice a day-
Dress appropriately-
Shave their heads-
Draw their experiences-
Receive Counselling and love-
Feel cared for and safe during the day-
Be loved and feel part of a family
What they cannot do yet is sleep safely and that worries me. I had established a place but the woman rented that for more money and we don't have so much money in these early days. The search continues.....
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
THIS IS WHERE MY STORY BEGINS...
I have been asked many times why I went to Africa to start this charity.
I suppose it was almost 13 years ago when I found myself living alone following divorce and my 2 daughters leaving for University. There had to be changes and I began the long journey.
Sometimes exciting, sometimes painful and often difficult, but I am so happy to say that I feel I have made it.
When I began to notice the materialistic way most of us were living in this country I found myself wondering what it would be like to live with nothing. That was the beginning, the only way was to go and have a look for myself so in 2004 I went off to India to do some work for a charity in Himachal Pradesh. Himalayas here I come.
It ticked a few boxes, trekking the Himalayas, visiting and seeing the Dali Lama and the displaced Tibetan community, the true Buddhist experience, living life in a very poor area in the foothills amongst the community and hearing their stories. Watching the Indian world wake up to sunshine, eagles flying overhead, views of snow capped mountains and then the eyes lower to small boys milking goats for milk which will sell to provide some rice for lunch. To toileting taking place in the undergrowth and the few children whose parents could afford the fees walking to school.
I worked in a school with the poorest children with learning difficulties and deafness. Their classroom was stuck at the end of a boy’s school with bars on the windows and NO appropriate equipment to be seen. The teacher was a physiotherapist with no experience except in the making of Chai to keep her awake. The children were hit with sticks for fighting, and expected to learn by that.
I took prisoners who were addicted to drugs and alcohol on guided meditations to places of peace and was touched by their commitment to these exercises. Great experience. Then I had cancer which is a story for another time.
I returned the following year with a friend and had a wonderful time but this was not what I was looking for. I needed to go to Africa. I had had dreams the previous year of me being surrounded by black children, perhaps this was Africa. A return to the internet provided links to various charities and I chose a church based organisation from Milton Keynes. They were bound to do everything with love and compassion.
On arrival in Lira a town in North Africa, an area affected by 20 years of rebel activity I travelled over the month to remote villages where families were trying to return to some normality in life. I saw the displacement camps which were supposed to keep these people safe but had actually been the breeding grounds, for the spread of HIV, where women and children had been abused, where aid was the only means of legal survival and theft and prostitution providing other ways.
I cried and laughed at the same time, made some long lasting friendships and began to feel the way personal relationships unaffected by physical things worked. I saw how faith in God provided a great support for these people and how communities were one in their strength and determination to stay positive despite everything. The charity I went with had a project leader claiming to be a Christian Pastor from the Milton Keynes Church. I was saddened by the bullying tactics I witnessed, by the racist remarks I heard and the fear shown on the faces of African workers as he shouted his instructions and humiliated them in front of others.
That was my decision made. I had to come back to do it properly.
I returned on 11th March 2008 and that is where this story begins.
I suppose it was almost 13 years ago when I found myself living alone following divorce and my 2 daughters leaving for University. There had to be changes and I began the long journey.
Sometimes exciting, sometimes painful and often difficult, but I am so happy to say that I feel I have made it.
When I began to notice the materialistic way most of us were living in this country I found myself wondering what it would be like to live with nothing. That was the beginning, the only way was to go and have a look for myself so in 2004 I went off to India to do some work for a charity in Himachal Pradesh. Himalayas here I come.
It ticked a few boxes, trekking the Himalayas, visiting and seeing the Dali Lama and the displaced Tibetan community, the true Buddhist experience, living life in a very poor area in the foothills amongst the community and hearing their stories. Watching the Indian world wake up to sunshine, eagles flying overhead, views of snow capped mountains and then the eyes lower to small boys milking goats for milk which will sell to provide some rice for lunch. To toileting taking place in the undergrowth and the few children whose parents could afford the fees walking to school.
I worked in a school with the poorest children with learning difficulties and deafness. Their classroom was stuck at the end of a boy’s school with bars on the windows and NO appropriate equipment to be seen. The teacher was a physiotherapist with no experience except in the making of Chai to keep her awake. The children were hit with sticks for fighting, and expected to learn by that.
I took prisoners who were addicted to drugs and alcohol on guided meditations to places of peace and was touched by their commitment to these exercises. Great experience. Then I had cancer which is a story for another time.
I returned the following year with a friend and had a wonderful time but this was not what I was looking for. I needed to go to Africa. I had had dreams the previous year of me being surrounded by black children, perhaps this was Africa. A return to the internet provided links to various charities and I chose a church based organisation from Milton Keynes. They were bound to do everything with love and compassion.
On arrival in Lira a town in North Africa, an area affected by 20 years of rebel activity I travelled over the month to remote villages where families were trying to return to some normality in life. I saw the displacement camps which were supposed to keep these people safe but had actually been the breeding grounds, for the spread of HIV, where women and children had been abused, where aid was the only means of legal survival and theft and prostitution providing other ways.
I cried and laughed at the same time, made some long lasting friendships and began to feel the way personal relationships unaffected by physical things worked. I saw how faith in God provided a great support for these people and how communities were one in their strength and determination to stay positive despite everything. The charity I went with had a project leader claiming to be a Christian Pastor from the Milton Keynes Church. I was saddened by the bullying tactics I witnessed, by the racist remarks I heard and the fear shown on the faces of African workers as he shouted his instructions and humiliated them in front of others.
That was my decision made. I had to come back to do it properly.
I returned on 11th March 2008 and that is where this story begins.
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