Thursday, June 7, 2012

Making Out of School Children Heroes




I am excited to announce the project that Kitovu Mobile and I will be working on and implementing this summer!  First let me start with why I’m in Africa in the first place.  I came here with a Sarlo Scholar scholarship from the McCarthy Center at University of San Francisco to work in Uganda to 10 weeks with The Foundation of Sustainable Development.  As an FSD intern my main goal is to work with my host organization and community to create a sustainable grassroots program that will last long after I leave here.  I feel so blessed to have received such an amazing opportunity and especially to be here with a program that I feel is truly doing the work of 3rd world development correctly – by going to communities and working with locals on issues that they feel are important.  This creates a sense of mutual ownership instead of me going into a country and attempting to fix what I feel is wrong, and unfortunately that is what many other organizations do.

So back to it! In the next week I will be working to start a pig and chicken farm for children who have lost parents/guardians to HIV/AIDS and are out of school for reasons being lack of money for school fees or dropping out to work odd jobs.  With the help of community leaders and counselors, this project will give psychosocial support to out of school youths and peer support groups will help them to cope with traumatic experiences.  In Uganda there is a high rate of unemployment and this income generating activity will assist participates in becoming entrepreneurs and economically independent.  Participants will be learning basic veterinary skills and basic business and accounting skills as well.

I am so excited to get started on this work and will keeping you updated on everything along the way!

Love,
Mal

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