Uganda, also known as the Pearl of Africa
Uganda's natural wonders include impressive waterfalls and an incredible variety of wildlife including mountain gorillas. Its people are reputed to be the most hospitable in all of Africa, although I'd say the Kenyans are not far behind.
Uganda has been a stable country for many years except in the north, on the border with South Sudan, where the conflict has been going on for many, many years since it started in the 1980s. Any conflict is terrible but here especially because of the child soldiers. The rebels often abduct children to use them as soldiers. The children are brutalised and forced to commit atrocities against their peers and even their families, and those who try to escape are killed. In this way, violence becomes their way of life and the psychological trauma it causes is incalculable. The figures are shocking as minors make up almost 90% of LRA soldiers. For those who want to know more, there is a very interesting documentary created by Invisible Children.
Another important fact about Uganda is that it is the country that has implemented the most effective national response to HIV on the entire African continent. They instilled abstinence, faithfulness and the use of condoms and it seems to have worked very well... And speaking of sexuality, it's not just about sexuality, the majority of the Ugandan population (36 million people) think that being homosexual is an abomination. A law passed not too long ago sentences homosexuals to life imprisonment. Religious leaders have convinced the majority of the population that gays have a hidden agenda to dominate the country and even the world, that homosexuals want to "recruit" children to turn them gay. Unbelievable as it may seem to us, there is a large percentage who believe this, which is a real problem for the entire gay community in the country.
The first project I visited is located in a beautiful Ugandan city called Entebbe, in the South, full of green fields contrasting with dirt roads so deep red that it looks like the earth is on fire. It is located south of Kampala and on the shores of Lake Victoria which is the largest lake in Africa and the second largest in the world with almost 70,000 km2.
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| Termite nest in one of the roads |
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| For those of you who thought there was no green in Africa, here is proof that there is no green in Africa! |
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| Typical African butchery |
Here I visited an orphanage that was founded almost 12 years ago by a Californian tennis teacher and is home to 37 children. They are all abandoned or orphaned children and it provides them with a safe home where they can start a new life with the necessary medical care and an education they would not otherwise have access to. The volunteers live in a couple of guesthouses built next to the orphanage on the grounds. I have coincided with a large group of Americans, in fact two of them were families with all their children, so it is a suitable project to go with children and for them to know first hand how children of the same age live in another part of the world. What I liked the most is that not only do they take care of giving the children a better life by covering their basic needs of food and education (which is already a lot) but they also try to facilitate access to employment for the older ones. The possibilities for them to work in Uganda are very scarce, practically none, so they have launched a programme to help them enter the labour market. Currently, the elderly do different jobs such as making mozzarella cheese that is sold in the hotels and luxury restaurants in the area, making different handicraft products, a couple of nights a week a nice pizzeria is opened where the elderly become waiters, cooks, etc. and it becomes a place for the Wazungu (foreigners) in the area to taste western delicacies. There is a UN headquarters and an American base in the city, so there is no shortage of customers.
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| Girls from the orphanage preparing the restaurant and the stall with their products. |
On the other hand, a few months ago they bought, thanks to a donation, a couple of plots of land where they plan to build an eco-lodge and vegetable gardens, thus ensuring on the one hand income for the sustainability of the project and on the other hand work for the elders of the orphanage.
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| The magic tree that governs one of the plots of land they have bought, The photo does not show it, but it is really impressive. |
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| Views of Lake Victoria on the land where they want to build the eco-lodge. |
This project can receive any kind of volunteers but what it needs most are professional volunteers: special education teachers (as they have two children who need special attention), architects, experts in renewable energies, doctors, etc.
Next stop: Kenya 🙂