Kaberamaido Uganda!

Since mid September, I have been traveling in Uganda for my work with Trivani Foundation. Our work has largely centered upon the extremely rural and underdeveloped community of Kaberamaido. This district was the primary base of operations for “rebel activities” in Uganda until just a few years ago. Many orphans and widows live there without means to provide for themselves. Much of the infrastructure built during the 1950s and 1960s- when the Brittish occupied the region- was destroyed during the nearly 30 years of civil wars beginning in the early 1980s.

We stayed at Asayo’s Wish Orphanage, where 160 children are provided for. Through some funds from Trivani ad Great West Institute, Megan McMillan (my colleague ) and I facilitated an incredible creative opportunity for the children that began with imagination based drawing and resulted in every child participating in the painting of a huge mural encircling a building on the property.

We also had the opportunity to meet with widows groups in the district that have been receiving a small (but deeply appreciated) amount of funding to help them begin to get back on their feet. These women are incredibly driven and, for the most part, don’t ascribe to the government aid mentality that is pervasive in the region after decades of opression.

The time has been packed with a whole variety of novel experiences for me including  driving 9 hours on law-less, crowded, crater-filled roads, goat slaughtering, flying insects resembling scorpions, dozens of songs from children, clouds of diesel exhaust in Kampala, exciting meetings with local government officials and headmasters, spectacular scenery and some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. We’re off to Mombasa Kenya today to check on the schools we’re working with there.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing stories of people from Kaberamaido on a Trivani blog site we are about to launch. Stay tuned for more info soon.

For now, please check out more pics that I’ve posted for a taste of this incredible place.