Challenges and Successes in the world's hottest room...

Today was our first day of delivery and chance to get fully stuck in. After meeting everyone yesterday it felt as though we had to live up to everyone’s’ obvious expectations (more than a little daunting!), coupled with the fact that it was by far the hottest and most humid day yet, the day had definite potential to be a challenge.

We gave two separate workshops to the departmental heads, a group of around 12 people and of course the ever-present Chris and Dr Sam.

The morning was the turn of Brad, talking through Leadership and I spoke through Project management in the afternoon. The experience was superb - after some initial shyness from the heads (and the challenge of the world’s hottest room), there were some fantastic ideas coming through - particularly when we broke out into smaller groups. I was left quite surprised by the sophistication of their existing knowledge, although seeing the amount that they’ve achieved at KHC, perhaps I shouldn’t have been.

Leadership workshop led by Brad

Feedback after the from the heads after the sessions was amazing, although owing to the cultural differences in how feedback is delivered, this was probably skewed somewhat! Whilst going well, in my heart of hearts I’m not sure that we lived up to the 100% scoring that we received – still, you never know.

The day was also broken up nicely by that international language that is football (something that is possibly more of an obsession here than it is back home). Some of the clients visiting KHC for treatment brought along their children, as soon as the footballs were out, all language barriers were removed. It was a great interim, with everyone enjoying themselves.

By Amy Daw, Project Leader

The Days in Pictures - volunteers leading workshops

Daniel making beads at home with his family

Leadership work in small groups

Pig breeding project

Project management group work

Project management workshop led by Alex

Volunteer on the Uganda project speaks about her understanding of poverty...

How would you define poverty?
Absolute poverty is a shortage of food, shelter and drinking water. I would also consider the lack of access to education and employment and subsequent social exclusion as poverty.

There is also relative poverty which is defined by social standards and compares people in a particular society in terms of access to goods and services - people excluded from these goods and services for financial reasons can be said to be poor relative to other members of their society. This is not the same as absolute poverty but it is still an issue.

How would you describe your emotions the first time you experience poverty?
I was quite shocked to see images that had previously existed only on television brought to life. The hardest thing was the scale of poverty which you can't grasp until you visit a poverty stricken area in person. Once I had recovered from the shock of seeing how people lived, I was actually amazed at how positive they were - nobody I met was wallowing in self-pity, they were incredibly generous with the little that they had and I was left feeling deeply humbled.

What is the most shocking aspect of poverty you have experienced?
Teaching slum children in the Primary School in Mombasa who do not get regular meals at home was shocking. They were given beans at lunchtime at school, but trying to teach them on a Monday morning was hopeless as many of them hadn't eaten all weekend. One day I threw away the skin from a quarter of a mango that I had eaten, and one of the children picked it up and started eating the tiny bit of flesh still left on the skin. It was deeply shocking that she was so hungry, that I felt I had been quick to throw something away, and ultimately that there was nothing I could do there and then to solve the underlying poverty affecting these children.

What was the most enlightening aspect of poverty you have experienced?
The most enlightening thing on both of my projects in Kenya and Uganda was that the people I met never defined themselves as 'poverty stricken' or 'living in absolute poverty' - this is a label attached to them by the western world. These people are just getting on with their lives, and their dedication, generosity and willingness to help each other is breathtaking. Every one of the children at the primary school I support in Mombasa works incredibly hard in all their lessons, and they all have dreams of being doctors, lawyers, pilots and many other things! To them, education is everything and generally they are happy and positive despite what I perceive to be their challenging circumstances. Likewise in Uganda I met people who had literally given their lives to helping others when from a western perspective they were 'living in poverty' themselves. The most enlightening aspect for me is that these people are not looking for pity or handouts, they are incredibly grateful for my support, but they want to work alongside me and achieve their dreams in their own way with a little help from people like me - that gives me so much more confidence in what we can achieve in the future.

need for capacity building for small grass organisations

"With the partnership with The Great Generation, St. Francis will be able to achieve more when the capacity of the staff is strengthened. This what has been lacking in our organizational development. This is the dilema for small grassroot organizations who solily depend on the community volunteers who have good intentions but lack capacities in organization development. Although this is a strength, it is a challenge for organizational growth. I do strongly agree that this rare opportunity should be exploited to the full for St. Francis to grow and be able to achieve it's goals."

Feedback from an expert partner in Uganda working in partnership with The Great Generation

Day 3: Wednesday, 18th March

Our day kicks of by seeing the Beads For Life project. This was followed by an extremely surreal experience visiting a bead village where enroute we walked through a school. Within just a few seconds each of us had at literally 100s of children clinging onto our hands. The genuine excitement and happiness on their faces is something that we will never forget. Our day was rounded off with another communication skills workshop. This time we taught 3 of the PHD women how to further deliver the workshop to their colleagues. Things began rather bleakly with seemingly little enthusiasm of the task at hand - infact all the signs were there telling us to give up but then we finished the session asking the women to deliver the workshop back to us. To our astonishment the women relayed every single point we had told them plus more - executing the workshop with charisma and intent. They had surpassed all expectations and grasped onto the opportunity with both hands.

Day 2: Tuesday, 17th March - an introduction to Kawempe...

"True kindness comes from knowing what it feels like to be without." Ghandi

If Day 1 served as an introduction to Kawempe, day 2 really brought home the reality of care in the community and capacity building in practice. Heartbreaking, awe-inspiring, frustrating - it's hard to put the experience into words. Seeing - in reality - the images that have haunted TV screens in the UK and hearing impossible stories that you couldn't make up made us all take a step back and re-evaluate issues of humanity. The dignity with which the clients talked about their experiences and welcomed us into their homes amazed us all. Something that couldn't be doubted is the real impact Kawempe Home Care has made to these people's lives - their support - physically, emotionally and medically - has given new life to these people. And yes, there's a long way to go, but the impact to date is unquestionable.

Joyce - Joyce deserves a whole paragraph dedicated to her in this blog. What an incredible, loving woman. A woman who has used her own experiences of being HIV positive to turn around the lives of other sufferers in her community. A woman who has turned her home into a clinic to support her neighbours and her neighbours' neighbours. A woman who will work for Kawempe Home Care until she dies - a true inspiration.

Following our community visit we returned to Kawempe to work on our project plan, brainstorming options for developing a sustainable income stream for Kawempe through their Beads for Education programme. Simultaneously we developed and implemented our first communications workshop to help upskill the volunteers and clients. 23 people attended the workshop and although they were reluctant to answer questions and join in at the start, they warmed to our method of knowledge sharing by the end and the initial feedback was really positive!

So at the end of day 2 we sit down and reflect - reflect on today, reflect on tomorrow and reflect on how these experiences will stay with us and hopefully inform our behaviours. As we hope to make an impact on their lives, they are already making an impact on ours.

Day 1: Monday, 16th March - Barclays team arrive

Arriving at Kawempe Home Care, following an invigorating night of sound sleep (despite the thunderstorm, monkey cries, goat mews and the night terrors or our sleeping companions) we felt excited at the prospect of meeting the team, if not a little apprehensive. But what a welcome we received from Chris, Dr Sam and the team: warmth, enthusiasm, positivity and yoga (more exercise than one of our team had done for a while!) Starting the day in such a unique way, dancing, clapping and praying in the open air, in the backdrop of a vista of lush greenery, cows and traditional African houses, is something that we will all remember.

Day 1 really was about absorption, learning and reflecting on our objectives and the challenges faced by Kawempe. Safe to say it's not a small ask but the positive attitude and proclamations of love were inspirational and made us all realise that small steps can leave a huge impression - as a dedicated and committed team a real impact can be made.

The holistic approach to care in the community and the volume of work undertaken by the volunteers and workers at Kawempe is nothing short of miraculous - local communities helping local communities.

So day 1 - what a lot to learn about Kawempe, about Uganda, about Ugandan culture, about Ugandan working practices, about the NGO sector, about having an impact, about overcoming challenges and about working as a team to achieve a united goal - be it big or small.

Emily, Project Leader, sets the scene...

It is hard to begin to explain the experience of working out in Uganda on behalf of The Great Generation. I have never seen such an industrious, innovative and enterprising response to hardship and poverty.  Uganda embodies The Great Generation.  This is a country full of entrepreneurs and people who refuse to give up.

We have been working with a number of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) - whom we call our Expert Partners - most of which have developed holistic responses to the spread and impact of HIV Aids. While Uganda has been successfully working towards reducing HIV Aids rates on a national scale, there still exists a regional variation which sees some lake side settlements with rates still as high as 35%.  The work to join sectors in the fight against disease and poverty is ongoing.

Our partner organisations are all run by individual community leaders who want to give back, who refuse to walk away from the problems that exist in their communities.  They battle with faulty infrastructure on a daily basis to achieve their mission.  One of our partners has managed to set up delivery of free anti retroviral treatment to all members of their community who are HIV positive.  This has involved continual work, continual pushing, lobbying.  The drugs arrive and people refuse to take them because they cannot guarantee their next meal.  There are numerous factors which trap people into the cycle of poverty and disease, but for our community partners this will not deter their delivery, and the team will continue to fight on all levels, bringing dignity, prosperity and health to the people of Uganda.  We have much to learn from their approach.

We are proud to be working in Uganda, building the capacity of Expert Partners and their community activities.  This is an opportunity to share our knowledge, experience and goodwill, and join the battle against hardship on all levels. We have far to go before the Millennium Development Goals are achieved, but one thing is for sure, we need to work together to get there, listening to the real need that exist at a community level, and responding with appropriate, locally defined solutions.

Volunteers arrive...

"Volunteers have arrived and are happy. We had lunch and did some sightseeing in Kampala, then a very early night for them. They raised c. £900 for KHC which is amazing! They want to choose how this is invested during the week as part of the infrastructure investment, and as KHS outlined a printer/scanner/photocopier as being a priority, they would like the investment to go towards that. They have also sourced 5 laptops, stationary and 50 Manchester United shirts!

First day tomorrow..." Emily, Project Leader

Emily, Project Leader for TGG, arrives in Kampala...

On Friday, 13th March, we're waiting to hear from Emily - who's just arrived in Kampala, Uganda and will be spending the next week overseeing a pilot capacity building project alongside a group of 4 top Barclay graduates who will be volunteering their marketing skills to help drive an HIV/Aids Outreach and Home-Care Initiative. Emily arrived earlier in the week and has been busy working with the expert partner to ensure that when the volunteers arrive on Sunday all runs according to plan.

Emily phones at 10:15am...to give an update - she's in a remote place called Ginga, 18kms from Kampala, the country's capital. It's the epicenter of HIV Aids - she says 'a harrowing reality'. She's spent the last few days uncovering where the needs are, creating a long-term vision for partnership in Uganda to help with the crisis and waits to see how, once the volunteers arrive on Sunday, the project will work to empower, train - and create an infrastructure for fulfilling the needs of the community.

Stay posted for more of the latest news...