It’s a moment to say thank you to Christina who is now saying goodbye to us for the accomplishment of all what she has achieved either to an individual or as a group. Changing a community is one of the hardest things on earth because it’s a group of organisms living in a geographical environment with common interest or culture. Some people it’s hard for them to change their cultures much as it might be beneficial to them but until they see its fruits. That is why some tribes in Uganda have vowed never to give up with female circumcision much as the majority is against it. Thank you Christina for having community empowerment campaign at heart. I belief you are taking breath from the big crowd while watching as they enjoy the party, or complaining but you shall be always contacted where necessary.
While the host takes a breath from the crowd, there is always a master of ceremony who keeps on informing the audience or visitors about the party proceedings. For this matter I would like to welcome and congratulate Grace upon taking this challenging task. And with the experiences she has because she has been the audience I belief she will emulate and perform better too. It’s my wish for the new managing director of life in Africa foundation to continue empowering communities by either creating more communities and empower them or empowering those already created. There are some people who don’t know even that they have rights and can also do some thing unless they are retrieved from that deep asleep. Do you know why every body on earth is jubilating about Obama’s victory? Is because people thought that those who have served America as presidents, since they were/are white, could be that they are not human being but divine :) so historians now belief Kwamekuruma of Ghana’s saying that apart from color, we are equal where as it was the day for musicians to remember the late lucky dube’s song of different colors one people.
I can see that life in Africa foundation is accomplishing its aim and objectives, from the time of its inception this has been the vision and it’s good to appreciate this big achievement. When you empower some body or groups of individuals, is the best gift on earth. Because you have empowered him/her/them in all aspects of life right from socail, economical, plotical and emotional. Just as a mother raises her child until he/she is capable of doing by his/her own. This is the time that, that kind of a child comes back and surprises his/her parents with gift and say thank you for raising me up.
The fastest community that benefited from life in Africa foundation's vision is life in Africa Kireka community and many individuals. Life in Africa Kireka is also challenged to sit with its community and see if they can meet their desires.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Moment of Joy
Music dance and drama is one another thing that brings people together to relax the mind after the whole day of rehearsal. Much as one has thousand problems, people have different ways of spending leisure that you know yourself, life in Africa kireka members just at the quarter have what we call a get together party on the last Saturday of every month. Even a sad one will one day rejoice!
Look at the members dancing with sacks of groundnuts on their heads. Some with children strapped on the back :) for every celebration for all Ugandan tribes, ladies are honored when in Gomes and men always have no choice. Every body has his/her own ways of rejoicing when that moment comes.
Look at the members dancing with sacks of groundnuts on their heads. Some with children strapped on the back :) for every celebration for all Ugandan tribes, ladies are honored when in Gomes and men always have no choice. Every body has his/her own ways of rejoicing when that moment comes.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
POVERTY PERSPERTIVE
To know the causes of poverty, perhaps we need to first know what poverty is and who is considered to be poor. It always amazes me when I hear people talk about poverty, you will get surprised to hear that even person who is doing fairly good will say that s/he is poor perhaps may not know what being poor means to an ordinary man. At the grassroots level we understand poverty as lack of necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, health care and not forgetting lack of access to opportunities like education and employment which fuel the escape from poverty or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. Perhaps if some body does not belief that s/he is rich then should use the word not having enough.
There are levels of riches just as poverty, if one gets sick and rushes to the clinic without rushing first to the neighborhood to borrow money either for transport or medical bills, then that person is neither too rich nor too poor but just has enough which our community discus as the best. Some people have turned luxuries to be necessities when people in our community may have not even met one basic necessity. The members of this community still live below the poverty line not because they want it or lazy but perhaps the world does not know that such people exist not because of their own making.
They are trying as mush as possible not to be spoon fed but to be productive that they can only cross over the poverty line if some one outside there supports them either in their income generating activities as you must have learnt in this blog or even sponsoring a child’s education. When the children’s parents are poor and not encouraged to go to school, they will be poor even for the tenth generations to come! And that is what economist say poverty cycle; this is what Kireka concern is concerned about.
Much as the government agencies may try, but might not rich all these needy people. But thank God for the upcoming of non governmental organizations, they have helped the government to reach many than before. I was amazed to read on the local news paper about the growth of Uganda’s economy at a rocket speed and this is very common with developing countries, they tend to measure only economic growth without considering economic development. And when they measure economic development, you can find in the hands of 1, 2, 3…5 people, with the majority yawing! There is massive production but is not backed by the market and at the end of the day a sack of maize is sold only to purchase a small basket of necessities leaving them with empty hands to take their children to school or get medical care and this does not make the balance sheet balance.
That is why lia kireka has engaged its community in income generating activities like making handcrafts that if they are supported in, their balance sheet will perhaps balance. We can therefore belief that the majority poor are the illiterate ones, a good number of people in developing countries like Uganda can not pick their names if even if they find it on the way. Based on enrollment data less than 1% of what the world spends every year on weapon was supposed to put every child in school but this did not happen. Infectious diseases like HIV/aids still is a cause of poverty, parents die at an early ages leaving behind helpless orphans, these need be cared for in terms of education, health etc. with no access to clean water, almost 2 – 3 people lacking access to clean water live on less than a dollar a day, including lia kireka community lacks access to clean water and sanitation, this kind of community of displaced persons is supposed to have proper sanitation and clean water. Apart from HIV/aids that can be controlled by other means, malaria may not be the same... 95% of the life in Africa kireka community living in Acholi quarters the outskirt of Kampala depends on cracking stone apart from the in hand crafts, from morning to evening in order to get what to eat but not to buy mosquito net!!
People used to die of natural deaths at the ages of 70 and above but today in Africa people die of natural deaths at the ages of 2 to 40 because of extreme poverty. They lack every thing including shelter, howver much you may eat, get satisfied and medical care, but you sleep in the drainage, you have wasted the food you have eaten. I refer you to my friends’ blog GHETO LIFE. Some people have theory that high birth rate is the one causing poverty in Africa and Uganda in particular, to some extend may not be true because China is considered to be one of the most populated country in the world but they are doing better than Uganda. Anyway, whereas the high birth rate in China is high, it matches its economic growth and development as Uganda is not.
Poverty can not be ended but reduced by access project this can be done by financing and implementation of projects supported by whatever fund and through community led development at the village level to help them achieve the community prosperity for all programs.
There are levels of riches just as poverty, if one gets sick and rushes to the clinic without rushing first to the neighborhood to borrow money either for transport or medical bills, then that person is neither too rich nor too poor but just has enough which our community discus as the best. Some people have turned luxuries to be necessities when people in our community may have not even met one basic necessity. The members of this community still live below the poverty line not because they want it or lazy but perhaps the world does not know that such people exist not because of their own making.
They are trying as mush as possible not to be spoon fed but to be productive that they can only cross over the poverty line if some one outside there supports them either in their income generating activities as you must have learnt in this blog or even sponsoring a child’s education. When the children’s parents are poor and not encouraged to go to school, they will be poor even for the tenth generations to come! And that is what economist say poverty cycle; this is what Kireka concern is concerned about.
Much as the government agencies may try, but might not rich all these needy people. But thank God for the upcoming of non governmental organizations, they have helped the government to reach many than before. I was amazed to read on the local news paper about the growth of Uganda’s economy at a rocket speed and this is very common with developing countries, they tend to measure only economic growth without considering economic development. And when they measure economic development, you can find in the hands of 1, 2, 3…5 people, with the majority yawing! There is massive production but is not backed by the market and at the end of the day a sack of maize is sold only to purchase a small basket of necessities leaving them with empty hands to take their children to school or get medical care and this does not make the balance sheet balance.
That is why lia kireka has engaged its community in income generating activities like making handcrafts that if they are supported in, their balance sheet will perhaps balance. We can therefore belief that the majority poor are the illiterate ones, a good number of people in developing countries like Uganda can not pick their names if even if they find it on the way. Based on enrollment data less than 1% of what the world spends every year on weapon was supposed to put every child in school but this did not happen. Infectious diseases like HIV/aids still is a cause of poverty, parents die at an early ages leaving behind helpless orphans, these need be cared for in terms of education, health etc. with no access to clean water, almost 2 – 3 people lacking access to clean water live on less than a dollar a day, including lia kireka community lacks access to clean water and sanitation, this kind of community of displaced persons is supposed to have proper sanitation and clean water. Apart from HIV/aids that can be controlled by other means, malaria may not be the same... 95% of the life in Africa kireka community living in Acholi quarters the outskirt of Kampala depends on cracking stone apart from the in hand crafts, from morning to evening in order to get what to eat but not to buy mosquito net!!
People used to die of natural deaths at the ages of 70 and above but today in Africa people die of natural deaths at the ages of 2 to 40 because of extreme poverty. They lack every thing including shelter, howver much you may eat, get satisfied and medical care, but you sleep in the drainage, you have wasted the food you have eaten. I refer you to my friends’ blog GHETO LIFE. Some people have theory that high birth rate is the one causing poverty in Africa and Uganda in particular, to some extend may not be true because China is considered to be one of the most populated country in the world but they are doing better than Uganda. Anyway, whereas the high birth rate in China is high, it matches its economic growth and development as Uganda is not.
Poverty can not be ended but reduced by access project this can be done by financing and implementation of projects supported by whatever fund and through community led development at the village level to help them achieve the community prosperity for all programs.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
PEOPLE AND CULTURES
Apio Dorcus and Adongo Dorren my twin girls made one year on 14th October 2008 :) happy birth day to them. In some African cultures like japadhola in Uganda, twins are very important and it becomes a miracle when one gives birth to twins. In most cases people call it a blessing, when twins are born, there are some rituals performed to welcome the new born in the family. First they are not allowed to be seen by the neighbors until some simple celebration is done, normally food is cooked and served.
Twins have special names like in my females twins are named Apio for the first one to come out and Adongo for the last one to come those applied to girls and if boy’s opio is for the first one and Adongo is for the last one. Apoi/opio means first and Adongo/Odongo means last. The parents of twins are renamed Bawengi for father and miniwengi for mother. The twin mother does not go to their parents until q big celebration is done. Normally the mother of the twins invites her relatives and the father of the twins too invites his relative and celebrates. After this the mother can begin to visit her parents.
The father of the twin can not marry another wife unless the mother of the twins has given birth to another baby. That is about twins in my culture. The above are my first born and moreover twins
Saturday, November 8, 2008
How to transform communities
Reaching out the communities has never been easy. When we talk about communities, here I refer to the most vulnerable communities of Africa. Among such communities is life in Africa kireka. This community was formed to see how they exchange their thoughts into meaningful ideas that can help sustain themselves by being productive.
The members are engaged in innovative with recycling as the major activities. Among which are recycling paper beads and many other polythene products. This they think can help them over come challenges at home. And this prompts me ask how one would want to help this kind of community! The best way to leave positive impact to this community is by supporting them in what they are doing. They have beautiful handmade crafts that one would use as gifts for his friends. Take a chance to know what they are doing and see how you can help and make positive impacts.
The members are engaged in innovative with recycling as the major activities. Among which are recycling paper beads and many other polythene products. This they think can help them over come challenges at home. And this prompts me ask how one would want to help this kind of community! The best way to leave positive impact to this community is by supporting them in what they are doing. They have beautiful handmade crafts that one would use as gifts for his friends. Take a chance to know what they are doing and see how you can help and make positive impacts.
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