mass update

well, I've been pretty bad about posting this past month, but i figure it is better to spend time enjoying my life then spending time writing about it, right? that said, my last two weeks in Arua were great -- i loved working with NRC despite the really intense areas of work and desperation I've been looking at. had the chance to make some new good friends at the last minute, and build stronger relationships with those who, by the end of my five months there, i could call old friends. in so much that i had not one, but three official going away events. a friday night at oasis, with all the proper NGOs in town being represented, a dinner party at Per-Olaf and Jelena's, and a proper farewell at 'The Indian'. It was great that Phil was present to meet all these folk and have a slight glimpse at where I've been living working this year...the next point to mention is that PHIL IS IN UGANDA! yay! it was a bittersweet departure from arua, but his presence and our travel plans certainly made it more palatable.

More details/photos/memories/feelings will have to come when i'm not at an internet cafe in mbarara.

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Again, at an internet cafe in Mbarara, after darting to reach a Western Union by 12:30 on a Saturday, I can write with a bit of ease. Bank calamity has been partially absolved. Not worth posting details - hakuna matata, right? I'm sure Phil is sick of me telling him things along this vain, but hey, "This is Africa" (please pardon my use of the worst quote ever). But hey! This IS Africa!! Tuesday we reached Murchison Falls, where we stayed at a lovely hotel (with bad bad bad operating procedures and horribly annoying missionaries that were singing far too frequently...) on the south bank of the Nile River. A few game drives yielded spottings of buffalo, uganda kob, birds a plenty, antelop, bush buck, etc. The highlight of the visit was the River Boat launch, where crocodiles smiled widely, and lounging Hippos burped frequently as we cruised up towards the base of the tremendous falls. Actually, that wasn't the highlight -- the visit to the top of the falls was! absolutely incredible. photos will have to explain further.

From Murchison we headed southwest, via Hoima, to Queen Elizabeth National Park - the park harbouring the greatest diversity in the country. We stayed at Jacana Lodge - a gorgeous gem with a fullboard price that nearly rivaled my salary for the past five months. Yesterday we started with a game drive at 6:30 AM - spotting multiple prides of lions, elephants, kob, etc - before chimp trekking at the Kyambura gorge, and then heading with a packed lunch to the Kazinga Channel for a river cruise and ending the day with a drive through the crater lake salt mining fields. All fantastic, with little much I can say -- you know how I do. Photos are a must. Until greater bandwidth exists, i'll keep you waiting!

Proceeding to Lake Bunyonyi now, Rwanda (GORILLAS!!!) on Monday, down to Kigali, and back to Kampala by Friday. A quick tour for Phil through K'la's hotspots before he leaves for Dubai on Sunday, and I head to Nairobi...

hope your trails are as fruitfull as mine! XOXO.

World Refugee Day, June 20 backlog

World Refugee Day was a hoot. I'm delighted to say that I'm finally being paid, AS A CONSULTANT(!), to make art with refugee kids, and it came completely by surprise! When work with CARE collapsed I found my networking skills to be in top form as I was quickly offered a short contract with Norwegian Refugee Council to help look at their current legal cases and see what issues were regularly emerging, in order to stream line their engagement.

As it would turn out a severe budget cut for this operating year meant looking at the caseload and trying to find ways of attracting more donor funding, i.e. figuring out what can really pull at the heartstrings of government wallets, i.e. child protection. Given my background, the upcoming World Refugee Day (really a day that is meant to bring to the attention of the west/global north the plight of the displaced, and NOT a celebration of refugees themselves...), and the appeal that child-focused projects have to donors, I was asked to coordinate NRC's activities for the seventh annual World Refugee Day. This involved my participation as the NRC representative to the UNHCR committee organizing the various aspects of the WRD events as well as the orchestration of the specific work of NRC for the big day.

This year UNHCR had no official theme for the day, nor did the country of Uganda, yet somehow both had unofficial themes, the former being 'Repatriation' (as refugees at individual settlements across West Nile are all in the process of voluntary repatriation to south Sudan), and the latter - which was later determined to be completly NOT even an unofficial theme, but an art exhibit in Kampala at the time - 'The World Through the Eyes of the Refugee Child'. These two themes - to me - shouted 'Let the kids talk about their feelings through pictures!' and not 'Lets have another long, dry speech that fulfills classic Ugandan protocol of special events.' Thankful NRC heard the same thing!

After mobilizing appropriate resources (tempera paints, white kitenge, bananas, school teachers, etc) an action plan was in place - one primary school class and one secondary school class would participate in a collaborative project that helped them look at their own feelings about returning to Sudan and also thinking about how to share this information (as individuals and as part of a group) with other people.

Serge, Tove, Jonas and I created a masterpiece of a banner the night before I headed to Imvepi settlement with a Landcruiser full of NRC legal and information officers, bottled water, art supplies, and recording equiptment. About three hours behind schedule we began the art classes - as a facilitator I guided the NRC counselors/officers as art teachers for the day to help the students ease into the idea of being communicative artists. We started with self portraits, looking at what you can tell someone else about yourself by putting your emotions onto paper, before dividing into groups, one covering the topic of home and the other, the topic of repatriation.

Hard at Work:

Day of drawing:

Some of the results were expected; women with Jerrycans, mango trees, flags, school houses. Others were startling: landminds detonating, UNHCR convoys catching on fire, people murdering with pangas, empty fields that used to have villages and have been left in ruins. The students began so quitely but poured so much extreme emotion into their creations --

We wrapped up the session by working together to finish the banner/mural that was started the day before, to represent the students' ability to work together to create something of shared value, that demonstrates a collective voice of refugee children. At the same time some students gave short monologues about their feelings on returning home to Sudan, a place where some of the students had never actually been.

Group painting:


New friends:



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A few more photos ...

Old Sudanese Scarification:


New Sudan license plate:


Parking Lot:

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Wednesdays actitivities were enjoyable but never ending. With a total of about 15 speeches, I have to say the NRC presentation took the cake (maybe after the Ding Ding dancers from Madi-Okolo...).

The day started with a football match, first between refugee youth teams, and then between refugee adults and a team composed of different UNHCR implementing partners (including NRC, DED, RTP). The partners lost (someone argued for political reasons, but i must comment that DAMN those Sudanese are serious about football).

Implementing partners football team:


Football:



Watching the Match:

Some prayers, welcome songs, and introductions later the first dramatic presentation was great, despite that I couldn't really follow what the Congolese drama group was really talking about....

Congolese Drama:



Audience:

Around three o'clock the youth from the NRC project began their presenation -- six individuals described their picture, what they felt about the theme, and what the image meant to them. The other students from the group carried the poster of images and showcased the work to the broad audience, before parading the group banner.

Images on Display

Students presenting on WRD:

Drawing of repatriation //Kennedy smiling brothers greeting each other

Full banner with kids:

Overall I think the activity was really rewarding, both helping the students' think more thoroughly about what they can do to tell the world how they feel, and in terms of helping them accept that it is ok to have a wide range of feelings and responses to the different experiences they must face. Plus, it was fun.

As I said, the only perfermance that may have outshown us were these cultural dances from visitors from Madi-Okolo. Check it out for yourself:

Ding ding dancers

Acholi dancers from Madi Okolo:

I've been so fortunate to have had the opportunities with NRC; it was a real surpise blessing/life making lemondade/silver lining of the CARE work falling through. Reading through case files, helping look for child-protection issues, field work, etc, has offered a (albeit slight) solid look at refugee work in the field...quite interesting to say the least!

TASO Gulu - backlog, June 2 - 13

Gulu is a crazy, incredible place. I've been awash with a million emotions,made more complicated by lack of processing time. The work I was part of over the two weeks with TASO was inspiring, gut-wrenching, important, and, dare I say it - somehow fun.

My terms of service as a “professional volunteer” were to document the engagement of TASO-Gulu (via photography and video) and to help draft a set of guidelines to support creative arts in the child-counseling/child play functions of the Gulu Centre.

After a short visit to TASO-Mulago, a meeting with the Dr. in charge of programs, and a 4 hour ride in the car of the Executive Director, I found myself overwhelmed with questions about the work and working circumstances of TASO. My first reaction to learning about the enormity of TASO’s function was sheer delight – imagine this: a civil society organization, created in a completely grassroot fashion, that has grown to 17 offices across the country, 1200 employees, an annual budget of $22 million USD, while providing EFFECTIVE care to over 60,000 clients a year. The words “absolutely fantastic” can’t quantify the awesomeness of what these stats mean in a country plagued by AIDS, fraud, and frequent ineptitude at a civil society level.

drama performance at TASO Mulago

Wednesday morning I was welcomed (along with the Exec Director and the Danish Ambassador to Uganda…) by 30 TASO clients who are members of a drama/dance group "living positively." Much to my chagrin the traditional Acholi dancing involved monkey skins tied around the dancers' hips. COLOBUS MONKEY skins! I was slightly aghast, but the views of Gulu town, coupled with the drums, synchronized movements, and the freshness of the morning made my balcony view somehow acceptable. Had a lovely lunch with the Ambassador – a really brilliant, insightful guy – at which point he pledged an unexpected 5 million USD to TASO for the next three years (!!!). I had a small briefing shortly thereafter to set out the general plan of attack for my time…visits to a handful of IDP camps, homes, dramas, outreach centers etc to “capture” the medical, counseling, social/support and general activities.

That night, my second in Gulu, someone from TASO took me on a walking tour of Gulu town to help me gain my bearings. This didn’t involve walking through the market, or to the second hand clothing stalls, or even past the post office. No, it involved walking past the former shelters of the famed Night Commuters, to a public hospital full of sick babies, and to the UN-World Food Program tents. Can you even imagine – 1.6+ million people have been living off of this for over two decades?

Most war statistics and stories are horrifying, and after working with others who have struggled with forced migration, the generalized stories and statistics weren't so shocking. The most brain bending information for me really concerned how migration patterns and transitional security influences the spread of HIV/Aids and other medical epidemics. IDP populations are likely to become more transitory if the government’s policy of decongesting camps and relocating IDPs to villages continues. Point blank, as security improves across the north, and people move back and forth between their villages and respective camps (keeping two homes) the virus explodes; this migrancy epidemic ultimately afflicts women and girls disproportionately, who comprise the highest number of new infections, only magnifying the gender based aspects of inequality rampant in war-torn societies. Generally the prevalence of HIV in rural settings is half that of in urban centers; currently Gulu has a 8.3% prevalence, the highest in Uganda.

Stats (from TASO):

• It is reported that there are over 200,000 refugees living in camps situation within northern Uganda.
• The region is characterized by the breakdown of family, social and community structures
• Poverty rates in the north are almost double the national average
• Illiteracy levels are extremely high; 73% of IDPs above 10 years of age can not read or write or do so with difficulty
• WFP estimates a shortfall of 27-35% of the Recommended Daily Allowance among IDPs; most IDPs are dependent on food aid
• Early age of first sexual encounter, exchange of sex for food or money, rape and sexual violence, multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex have been indicated as drivers of the epidemic
• It is estimated that between 100,000 and 130,000 IDPs between the age of 14 and 49 are living with HIV / AIDS
• The prevalence rate in the conflict affected north central region is higher than the national average
• A 2003 survey estimate of Gulu district suggested a rate of 11–16%.
• At Lacor hospital analysis revealed a rate of 21.1% for women aged in the 30-34 age group.
• The prevalence among children and adolescents visiting the same hospital aged 6 to 10 years was reported at 7.6% for males and 11.8% for females.
• The prevalence rate among pregnant women in Pader district was reported as 12% compared to the median national rate of 6%.
• There is a total or partial breakdown of HIV / AIDS services in IDP camps
• There is a disproportionately high number of children living in camps (in the eight camps in Gulu 60% of households members are less than 18 years old)
• Child mortality in the conflict affected areas in the north is very high.
• In Pader a child mortality rate of 4.33/10,000/day and U5MR 10.46/10,000/day were recorded
• AIDS currently accounts for about half of all orphans in Uganda Given the higher HIV prevalence, poverty and adult mortality rates the proportions of orphans is likely to be higher in the North. Likewise, there is a high proportion of child headed households in the north.

Although the security is improving there are still so many people living entirely within IDP camps (an interesting map), or the visions of squalor that most people conjure when thinking of refugees in blue-unhcr-tarp-roofed tents, made more permanent by the addition of grass thatched roofing and mud walls, but less than 5 feet apart, and with no land for digging.

The work of TASO in Gulu is unique when compared to their other operations around the country, because of the basic living conditions of the north, in summary:

People in the Northern Region live in an emergency setting and face insecurity, poverty levels above the national average, have compromised food security and limited access to health and education facilities. Furthermore most of the population is displaced and resides in IDP camp where there is increased risk of being victim to sexually based violence. Overall the conditions are conducive to HIV infection and higher rates of HIV / AIDS and related illness mortality.

An excerpt from my paper journal, written June 7:

"But yeah, I’ve been in and out of IDP camps all week. Today we visited a small sub-county in Awwo camp, that involved sing, drums, traditional dancing, plays about fideltity, and lots and lots of dirty, hungry, little Ugandan kids. It’s incredible that I’m sensitized to it and it isn’t shocking. These kids genitals hang out because their clothes are worn through. Half of them stare at me and gasp at my whiteness, others smile, or laugh, or are generally excited by my whiteness, and still others are ambivalent. The last ones fascinate me the most and are they ones that make me think about each individual’s personal, existential crisis with the world. I think we all try and think of young, disaffected youths as so very different from what and who we are, but I think that they are probably having the same concerns, fears, panics, and friendships that we all had, just made miniscule through the lens of war, rape, AIDS, and poverty."

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All I can say is that the best place to find a ton of Americans in Uganda is in Gulu. Despite the somewhat reverse culture shock I experienced, I got to know some really amazing people – from MPH candidates researching IDP women and reproductive health, to photo-journalists turned medical logistic officers.

The (partial) Yearbook of people scattered across the bajillion NGOs of Gulu:

• Rebecca – American Jewish girl from CA, doing research on Acholi IDP girls’ sense of self-esteem, and if PTSD is a proper diagnosis for so many of these girl-children scattered across different camps in the district.
• Lauren – Darling British/Australian hybrid studying at Utrecht in Holland. I’ve yet to find a more fashionable girl in UG, in so much that i had her tailor produce to copied dresses for me. Anyway, I know that’s not a lot to say about a person, but I like her and the way she takes charge of a scenario, is a gracious hostess, and has interesting interests - ie the traditional justice, the ICC, and that she's been attending the Juba peace talks...
• Invisible Children– I still have a thing against the “invisible children” posse of shmucks. I think they are unbelievable pretentious and absurd! I mean, all three representatives of the organization have been incredibly condescending, somewhat boring, and arrogant. Yuck.
• Miguil – French citizen of Tunisian ancestry, who’s been living in Quebec before beginning work Action against Hunger – Kinshasa and now MSF-Swiss in Gulu – as an accountant! Kind of boring, in a bad-posture, nothing too much to say kind of way, yet still dark, handsome, and somehow brooding.
• Nathaniel – recent graduate of North Western who started an international students-study – work startup attachment to the university. He’s bringing something like 20 university students to Gulu in the next week or so…
• Jackfruity – this blond girl who is president-equivalent of the Uganda’s blogger forum and studied Russian Literacture (Slavic studies…) in Kansas, and now works for GYPA as a volunteer full time, supporting herself through Web design. Neat, ehh?

New friends (and a few old):

Also made friends with some really awesome Acholi folk, the first that I’ve actually met in UG.

Benon. 24, cute and really quite smart. From kitgum, father’s an opthomologist, B went to Makerere and studied anthropology. I rode behind him on a motorcycle for about 45 minutes to reach an HIV/AIDS hospital in the depth of an IDP camp. As a field officer he makes daily deliveries of medication and test results to hundreds of Northern Ugandans infected and affected by HIV. We talked about war and death and (what else) AIDS. Benon told me how he thinks it will take at least one hundred years of stability for the Acholi people to regain the characteristic aspects of true Acholi culture, as so many have been reduced to begging and dependency from their previous selves as strong, self-sufficient and able-bodied.

A snap of me and Benon, inside Awwo camp:

An afternoon of delivering Anti-retroviral drugs in an IDP camp or a walk on the moon?

Quinton – An acholli of maybe 35 years, who works at the hotel. He, like most men in Uganda, has a shaved head, but I think it makes him look older than he is. That or maybe it's years of war and telling the same horrifying stories to tourists.

Patrick. P is 28, Acholi, from Gulu, lost both of his parents for different, seemingly health related reasons. He works at TASO through WFP appointmentship and is something like a program officer. He talks in a round about sort of way, that made me lost and and often confused, but he so graciously helped me tour Gulu and introduced me to his family and filled me in with tons of baseline information about TASO. I've never met someone as gracious for the simple gifts of life.
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A Summary: The Work of TASO-Gulu

Medical Treatment: As an HIV/AIDS organization TASO offers a variety of medical services, including Anti-retroviral therapy (medications), hollistic and general medical treatment (in a formal clinic setting), voluntary councelling and testing, and homebased care. Most interesting, and in the case of Gulu, most important, are their decentralization/outreach activities. In rural areas where medical facilities are scarce or missing entirely, TASO operates mobile clinics, complete with patient files, medical supplies, drugs, counsellors, doctors, and nurses.

Medical outreach at Awach IDP Camp, TASO brings outreach services bi-weekly to different camps scattered across the region:

Home based ART service delivery includes bi-monthly drug refills, general counselling and question answering:

Home based VTC , The family members of TASO clients qualify for counselling and testing services. The following images were from a visit to a client living positively who's family had yet been tested. The protocol for VTC involves counseling the client on the process and results of testing, taking samples/testing, disclosing (confidentially) the status, and offering follow up counselling:

At the physical TASO-Gulu Center a flurry of regular health activities can be found three days a week - all of the medical services operated on an outreach level also operate at the main center: testing, check-ups, counseling, health talks, drug therapy, etc. To cater for younger clients, and children of adult clients, TASO has developed a Child Play Center, complete with games and toys, and now with an art curriculum!

Councelling: TASO has gained noteireity for providing life-saving support through varied forms of counseling for people living positively; shining green sign posts dot all of the major towns in Uganda, reading "positive living" with an arrow pointing seekers in the direction of support. The counselling activities range from individual adult and/or child, couples, family, group, and community counseling. with well-trained medical professionals leading the sessions daily in different capacities. Pictured below is a snap from a group session at the Center and a child-counseling session, where the client is discussing her art work, in the Child Play Center.

Advocacy - TASO is engaged in various forms of advocacy work throughout different sectors of society. Ranging from weekly radio talk shows in both English and Luo to training of non-health care workers at the district level, TASO works to spread partnerships, decrease stigmatization, and work collectively in the fight against AIDS. One of their unique approaches to this is the CASA program, which trains members of different communities to serve as Community AIDS Support Agents, who act as intermediaries between registered TASO clients, Field officers, and broader community members. Mobilizing civil society at a CASA training:

Social Support: The fourth critical area of TASO's operations consists of various forms of social support for infected and affected persons. Food distribution within IDP camps, through partnership with World Food Program, activities catered for Orphands and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), and Drama, dance and singing groups, are some of the varied methods of social support operating at TASO-Gulu.

The OVC and Household Empowerment project provides formal training apprenticeships for young adults who have been orphaned, whom are child-mothers, or who are in otherways extraordinarily vulnerable. The group pictured below are packing up their new supplies and headed to a vocational training program where they will learn tailoring, catoring, and other skills, while having childcare provided for their babies.

TASO Friends project provides Income-Generating Activities (IGAs) for a select number of orphaned children who are now part of child-headed households and need a financial means for their survival. As part of the TASO Hollistic Care approach these clients recieve both medical and counselling services, but have also been able to start a duckling/chickery project to support their livilihoods.

Child dramas, Singing group, Cultural Dances

An innovative approach for educating children about the dangers of unprotected sex, drug use, polygamy, etc is through child-led drama sensitization. In this play at Awwo camp, children act, for a child audience, what can happen when partners are unfaithful. A strong support structure for adult clients is the opportunity to come together and sing about their shared experience fighting HIV and AIDS. Likewise, through group performances (at the center, at ceremonies, during outreach events, etc) the Cultural Dance group is able to share their story of living positively, in the familiar form of traditional Acholi dance. For outreach sensitization purposes the performance begins with group singing and dancing, proceeds unto story telling and dramatic examples, and concludes by involving community members in the fun!

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