#uganda volunteers

[k12academics]

Volunteer with Aventyr Africa through our organization Community Programs.We bridge the Gap between volunteers and Meaningful volunteer programs around Uganda.

MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT TO THE LIVES OF UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN

COORDINATE & ENGAGE IN FUN ACTIVITIES ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS

LEARN ABOUT LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

EXPERIENCE THE VIBRANT & FASCINATING UGANDAN CULTURE

AMAZING DESTINATION FOR SAFARI NATIONAL PARKS

If you're someone who loves working with children and is happy to provide support wherever your assistance is most needed, you will be well suited to this project.

As a volunteer on this project, you will work within in day care centers, nursery schools, children's homes and kindergartens to assist local staff in the day-to-day running of these centers and ensuring they operate effectively.

Activities vary across the different centers with typical tasks including Bathing, feeding changing of diapers for babies, educational activities and basic teaching of English, Math, Health/Hygiene, Reading and Writing. Other activities include play therapy and games, cleaning, reading stories, dancing, singing, arts and crafts, as well as assisting with feeding and daily chores.

As you will be volunteering alongside our local placement staff, you do not need to have previous childcare experience to participate on this project but high energy levels and a willingness to help out wherever your help is most needed is a must.

Transport to the childcare volunteer in Uganda project is not included in the Program Fee. Some of the childcare volunteer in Uganda projects is within walking distance from the Volunteer House, but many are further afield. In these latter cases, you will be required to take a Taxis (local bus) to placement.

You should budget up to 10 GBP per week for getting to/from the project. It can take up to 45 minutes to travel to your volunteer work in Uganda. Our local team will guide you through the local transport methods during your in-country orientation. You can also always ask them if you are unsure of how much you should be paying for a journey.

[bemarketers]

How You Can Help:

Supporting Parental Childcare can take many forms, from donations to volunteering or simply spreading the word. Each action contributes to the sustainability and expansion of the program, enabling it to reach more children and make a greater impact. 🙌  

https://bit.ly/4g4B1XL

(via Pioneering Change: How Community-Driven Childcare Initiatives Are Transforming Lives 🌍)

[pave-uganda]

The untold truth behind PAVE Philanthropy Institute Uganda

[govolunteerafrica]

Embark on life-changing volunteering trip to Africa. Sign up now! Our Africa Volunteer Program is one of the best volunteer abroad programs and our trips are suitable for seniors, retired, families, solo travelers, teens, high school, & college students and couples.

#volunteer #volunteering #volunteerabroad #volunteerafrica

[aimeedaisies]

The Princess Royal visits a Save the Children shop in Wandsworth

Published 22 February 2024

The Princess Royal, as Patron of Save the Children UK, visited the charity's 'Mary's Living and Giving' shop in Wandsworth, as it celebrates 10 years since its opening.

The Princess Royal has paid a special visit to 'Mary's Living and Giving' shop in Wandsworth, where Her Royal Highness thanked volunteers and staff for their ongoing work to raise money for Save the Children.

Save the Children aims to help every child get the chance of a future they deserve. In more than 100 countries, including the UK, the charity works to ensure children stay safe, healthy and learning – finding new ways to reach children who need it most.

Save the Children has over 90 charity shops in total across the UK. 100% of the profits of items sold go directly to Save the Children’s work in the UK and around the world.

The charity’s Wandsworth shop branch has been running for 10 years and is operated by 35 volunteers. Over the past decade, the shop has raised over £1.2 million through sales for the charity’s work in the UK and around the world.

The Princess Royal first became President of Save the Children UK in 1970, before transitioning to the role of Patron in 2017.

Her Royal Highness has spent a significant amount of time visiting Save the Children projects in the UK and overseas, including places such as Uganda, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Bosnia and Herzegovina and most recently Sri Lanka, which she visited last month to commemorate 50 years of Save the Children operating in Sri Lanka.

[capybaracorn]

‘It’s not human’: What a French doctor saw in Gaza as Israel invaded Rafah

When asked about the conditions of the hospitals he worked in, Dr Lahna is pained by the memories of the sick, wounded and dying.

Dr Zouhair Lahna working at the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis [Courtesy of Zouhair Lahna]

(9th of May 2024)

Dr Zouhair Lahna has worked in conflict zones across the globe – Syria, Libya, Yemen, Uganda and Ethiopia – but he has never seen anything like the Israeli war on Gaza.

In those life-threatening situations, the Moroccan French pelvic surgeon and obstetrician said, there was a route to safety for civilians.

But on Tuesday, Israeli forces seized and closed Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt – the only escape for Palestinians from the war and the most important entry point for humanitarian aid.

“This is another injustice. … It’s not human,” Lahna said, shaking his head as he spoke to Al Jazeera from Cairo, Egypt, where he has been evacuated from the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis.

He laments having to leave his Palestinian colleagues behind.

“I am angry, troubled, upset … because I left some people. They are my friends. I was with them, these doctors, these people. …We eat together, we work together and now I left them in trouble. They have to move their families, look for a tent, look for water, for food,” he said.

Lahna has spent months volunteering in Gaza’s hospitals as part of missions organised by the Palestinian Doctors Association in Europe (PalMed Europe) and US-based Rahma International.

Dr Lahna, centre, with his colleagues at PalMed Europe and Rahma International in Gaza’s north, near Kamal Adwan Hospital [Courtesy of Zouhair Lahna]

On the morning that displaced Palestinians in eastern Rafah were ordered to evacuate and before Israeli tanks rolled in, Lahna and his foreign colleagues received text messages from the Israeli army.

“The Israeli army, they know everything. They know everyone who is in Gaza and how to reach them. They told us to leave.”

The texts urged the foreign doctors to leave Gaza because the Israeli military would soon begin an operation in eastern Rafah.

A few hours later, Lahna and his counterparts from PalMed Europe and Rahma International were picked up by their organisations and taken to safety in Cairo.

“There were four doctors in the European Hospital, four in the Kuwaiti Hospital and two others,” he said. “We waited while they gave our names to the Egyptian and Israeli authorities, and finally, we got word to leave.”

As they were departing, leaflets from the Israeli military printed with the evacuation order fell from the sky along with missiles from Israeli warplanes.

People were in a panic as they headed north from Rafah towards Khan Younis or west towards the sea, Lahna recalled.

Collapse of a system

When asked about the conditions of the hospitals he worked in, Lahna has trouble describing what he saw.

He begins to speak, then pauses, apologising, pained by the number of sick, wounded and dying individuals who were brought in daily.

“It’s difficult for me to remember this,” he said slowly.

While the European Hospital has been spared from an Israeli raid, it has been receiving referrals from other overwhelmed hospitals.

It has also been a place of shelter for displaced people who try to find space wherever they can, including at the doors of patient rooms, in the building’s corridors, on the stairs and in the hospital’s garden.

Lahna’s visit to al-Shifa Hospital, which he says was ‘barbarically destroyed’ [Courtesy of Zouhair Lahna]

Before the European Hospital, Lahna and his team volunteered at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza’s northern city of Beit Lahiya. He is among the few foreign doctors to have travelled to the area.

They worked there for a week, the longest Israeli authorities permitted them to be there, he said.

There, the situation was even more dire, the doctor said, exacerbated by what the World Food Programme says is a “full-blown famine” in northern Gaza.

In December, the hospital was the site of an Israeli raid when the military besieged and shelled it for several days. Displaced families had also been sheltering there and were rounded up alongside medical staff and personnel.

Gaza’s hospitals, the majority of which are no longer functioning, have also been the site of mass graves discovered after Israeli raids. Graves have been found in recent weeks in Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals along with 392 bodies.

Working for peace, not war

With the collapse of the healthcare system in Gaza, Lahna is determined to return and volunteer there once again but isn’t sure when that will be possible.

For now, he said, he will return to France to check in at his “other job” and spend time with his family, who may have had a harder time than he did because all they did was worry about him while he was in Gaza.

He is sure all of Rafah will soon be occupied by Israeli forces, which will be deadly for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians there, he said.

“This world is blind,” Lahna said, dismayed that the Rafah incursion is likely to continue to occur despite warnings from the international community, which has not been able to stop Israel from committing mass atrocities, he said.

“Human rights is a joke. The United Nations is a big joke,” Lahna added.

He believes the war is as much a United States conflict as it is Israeli with the US approving an additional $17bn in aid to its top Middle East ally last month.

For Lahna, the protesting university students around the world, particularly in the US, who oppose Israel’s ongoing assault know the value of human rights.

Yet when it comes to Palestinians, he said, they are coming to realise that these values do not apply – and are increasingly becoming disillusioned with their elected officials and the state of the world.

[See article for the embedded video]

That disillusionment is wearing on the doctor himself, but he said it has also strengthened his resolve to offer his expertise to people in warzones around the world, including Gaza.

Asked if he is worried about being arrested. tortured or killed for his work in the enclave, the surgeon barely bats an eye.

He said his time to die will come one day or another and if it happens while helping the vulnerable in Gaza, then that will be the time meant for him to depart.

“I am not more precious than Palestinian people,” Lahna said. “I am a humanitarian doctor. I work. I help people. [We] doctors come in for peace. We don’t come in for war.”

[lavendertitties]

We have 23 children now. We were 24 but one of our children died of HIV. I have 17 girls and 6 boys now.

We are located in a place called Kamuli, a few miles from Kampala. We eat three meals per day and we use an amount of 125000 ugx every day to help our children.

The most challenging issues at our orphanage are mostly food and house rent bills and others like Water, mosquito nets, sanitary pads, education and sickness. Your donation will be provided exclusively to the children of the orphanage and help with the daily basis, the rent of the orphanage locally and the medical bills.

Instagram account

[hellfirezine]

Hey everyone! I forgot to post this when I got it because I'm bad at email but:

Dear Stranger Things Queer Community,

On behalf of Rainbow Railroad, I am reaching out to give our sincerest thanks to the Hellfire Zine: Dungeons Dragons & Demobats Contributors and the Stranger Things queer community for their generous gift.

As a part of our community, your support is instrumental in moving forward Rainbow Railroad’s mission to help at-risk LGBTQI+ people get to safety worldwide. We are so grateful to count you in as a supporter and champion of our cause.

This year, we have a lot on our plate - we'll be moving 800 refugees to safety, including 600 Afghans, and we'll assist thousands more through cash assistance, our work with our partners on the ground, and our private sponsorship programs in the U.S. and Canada. We are also monitoring the situation in Uganda, where members of the LGBTQI+ are facing more violence and discrimination than ever after the Ugandan government passed an Anti-LGBTQI+ law a few weeks ago, further criminalizing the community. Requests for help from Uganda have already dramatically increased, as we've received over 1,000 requests for help in 2023, compared to around 300 in all of 2022.

Your donation will support this important work - empowering LGBTQI+ people to find safety and live authentically with integrity. We could only do our work with community members like yourselves.

Thank you again for your support. Our staff, board, volunteers, and the individuals Rainbow Railroad support are truly grateful. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about our work or are interested in continuing to partner with our organization.

Regards, Brittany Skerritt (she/they) Senior Development Officer, Community Giving Rainbow Railroad

[bigcatrescue]

April 2022 SAVE AWARD Winner was Diane Amison-Loring

Saving the African Golden Cat

If you don’t see Diane on property it’s because she’s out spreading our mission about the BCPSA to schools and online! She’s also in the social WP group dropping us funny cat-related jokes to make us smile! Between all that she likes to drop off treats to the keeper cafe to keep the humans at Big Cat enriched! She also proofreads & submits edits to the Big Cat Times for us before printing! Is there anything you can’t do?!! Thanks for all you do! Congratulations, Diane!

The April SAVE award donation of $1,000 is to Embaka. Embaka is a registered non-profit Community-Based Conservation Organization, located in Uganda that is working on threat reduction and conservation of the elusive African Golden Cat. They are a part of the newly created African golden cat Conservation Alliance and Working Group (AGCCA & WG), whose communal goal is to expand and oversee the conservation of the African golden cat across the entire species range. The African Golden Cat is Africa’s least known wild cat and is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list.

Embaka is currently working on a Smile for Conservation initiative where they provide local communities with health and financial aid in return for anti-poaching cooperation and involvement. This initiative is focused on communities who live around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a known residence of the African Golden Cat.

The initiative aims to have a poachers-to-protectors effect by providing local communities with the use of mobile dental clinics, the first of its kind in the region, to provide free oral health check-ups, pain relieving procedures, and oral health education. The households to benefit are selected at random via public and fully transparent lotteries from all households and are required to 1) have taken the pledge to support anti-poaching efforts either by committing to stop poaching and/or volunteer in the anti-poaching community policing groups and 2) are living not further than 1 km from the Bwindi boundary.

The outcome of this activity will be improved health and well-being for all age classes, women and men, and increased awareness about the importance of African golden cats. The pamphlets announcing the dental clinics will have the Embaka (African golden cat) logo and the service will be clearly tied to conservation and offered as a benefit/incentive to households that have pledged to voluntarily combat poaching within the community.

Read more about Embaka’s work here: https://www.savingafricangoldencat.com #conservation #bigcatrescue #insitu

[mahougirlmutualaid]

PLEASE HELP, URGENT MEDICAL CARE NEEDED AFTER LANDLORD POISONS TENANT

($15/100) ($15/600)

Ve/nmo

Casha/pp

paypa/l

GoFundM/e

Hello. This is a really disturbing update. The basics of the situation are that while I was gone for a week dealing with my landlord, who was threatening and harassing me and trying to force entry, Yazid was facing a much much worse landlord situation. He was admitted to the hospital for acute and severe illness on 2/12/22.

It seems (this is alleged and has not been proven legally but there's a LOT of evidence for this) that the landowners INTENTIONALLY POISONED HIM. This kindly, sweet orphanage caretaker who's kids need him so badly. Right as he's getting to finish school, a dream of his. All over $40 of the rent being late, too. I can't even fathom doing that.

The hospital is now denying Yazid treatment unless he pays for it. In total, he needs $)600, but he believes ANY amount can help, he thinks if we get about $100 they'll come around and be willing to wait, because that's how things usually work with hospitals in his area of Uganda.

Yazid already has had many health problems, which you can read about in other posts and updates, like liver failure, malaria and typhoid repeatedly, broke his leg and kept working on it, and straight up almost died from exhaustion once because of how hard he works. This has all been in just the past year and a half-ish. His body can't take anymore of this abuse. He's exhausted, in pain, sick, and terrified.

Please, if you have ANYTHING ANYTHING AT ALL to spare, you can make this situation go from impossible to something the orphanage and the volunteer staff can actually push and get through.

So please, help us get Yazid his treatment, if you can. Share this page. Share our update. Spread it to loved ones, followers on the Internet, to coworkers, helpful groups you know of, even total strangers you can find online while browsing, seriously, anyone!!!

I know talking to strangers online is hard, so I'll be posting a premade message in the Carrd you can copy and paste. There's also pages of proof linked there, but feel free to ask me or Yazid (contact info on carrd) any questions. We can give you every type of proof you ask for.

Hopeful,

-Maddie

[is-the-primate-vid-cute]

Have you heard of Liberia Chimpanzee Project? What are your thoughts? It's on tv right now and making me feel weird

We've had a few people express concern over the Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection mostly due to the organization allowing chimps close contact with domestic dogs, people in the project having unprotected contact with the chimps, and the founders being a white American couple. It's great that people are learning and being skeptical!

We want people to recognize red flags but it is important to note that our blog has a largely Western focus and that while some practices are always unethical, many are context dependant.

The founders of LCRP are Jenny and Jimmy Desmond, and while they are white Americans, their work in Africa started years before they founded LCRP. They began in 1999 by visiting an orangutan sanctuary, and spent the next few years volunteering at multiple sites in Africa and Asia to both help wildlife and learn how wildlife rescue organizations operate successfully. They helped rehabilitate an orphaned chimp for the first time in 2000 with the Uganda Wildlife Education Center and the success of helping Matooke the chimp solidified their ambition. They returned to the United States and Jimmy entered vet school while Jenny worked in non-profit marketting and fundraising.

It wasn't until 2010 that they began working directly with chimpanzees in Africa again in various countries, and they did so in conjunction with reputable orgs such as The Jane Goodall Institute, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, EcoHealth Alliance, Smithsonian Institute, and the Uganda Wildlife Education Center. The Desmonds moved to Liberia at the request of the Humane Society of the United States in 2015 to care for a group of 66 chimpanzees that had been retired from medical research and since abandonned. This was the true start of the LCRP that we know today as word spread that the Desmonds could care for chimps and orphans were brought to them.

While pictures of the founders and their dog snuggling with baby chimps may look alarming to those atuned to the red flags we talk about on this blog, the sanctuary itself operates with the aim of prioritizing the type of lives chimps have in the wild. Orphans are taken care of by the Desmonds' as infants and integrated into family groups when they are independant enough, and they have had great success with this.

Additionally, LCRP is a driving force in partnering and working with local and international orgs to create better policy and practices for protecting wildlife. A major component of this is the creation of an anti-wildlife trafficking task force that confiscates wildlife that has been poached to be rehabilitated and returned to their natural habitat. The list of the LCRP's acheivments is a mile long and the work they do on the scale of individual chimps, working with local people and organizations, to international policy and protocol is nothing short of incredible. The Desmonds' are experts who have dedicated their lives to a cause, and it shows.

As professionals in this industry, they should absolutely do better to post content that does not misconstrue their mission or indirectly contribute to the desire for pet chimps. We hope they do better on this front, but their work in whole is strong!

So when you see photos or videos from LCRP, these aren't random chimp snugglers who are posing as a sanctuary to get photos of apes posing with their dog, these are people who have been working since the 90s to secure a future for chimps in Liberia. You can learn more and donate on their website!

Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection is super amazing!

[pbandjesse]

Another day I am completely exhausted. My legs are aching so bad. But I am alright. Soon I will sleep and tomorrow I will feel better.

I had a pretty good day. It just started really stressful.

I slept okay but when James alarms went off I wasn't able to fall back asleep. So I was just sort of laying there and dozing for an hour.

When I got up for real I felt okay. But I was just a little miserable. The morning was hard on me.

James sent me off and I was trying to be in a good mood but when I got to camp and realized half of my breakfast wasn't in my bag I was just so sad.

And I had so much to do. Sarah had put all the boxes at each site but nothing actually got set up. Which is fine. But I was having a ton of trouble remembering stuff so I had to make multiple full camp drives on the gator. I am really glad I took the gator though because doing this just walking probably would have killed me.

I was really stressed out and it got really warm and I knew it was going to get warm but it still surprises me that it was so warm so early. And I was feeling very stressed and stupid for all the things I was forgetting.

At 9 I was finally over at the lodge getting my laptop set up and I heard a parent pull up. We had a ton of chaperones today. And they were all really nice. But there was a whole lot of them.

The first half hour I was mostly just talking to the parent station volunteers. And eventually I walked them to their sites. I was excited about this group and they seemed like they were going to do a really good job. I was really stressed still and was not doing the best at walking them through the programs because I thought they had a handle on it since they weren't asking questions. This would bite me later when one of the teachers told me that twl of the stations don't think they have enough stuff to do and 35 minutes is to long for the programs. But 25 and 30 minutes people complain is to short. I cannot win or make everyone happy. Ugh.

But everyone was great. The school would be about 15 minutes late. But I am very good at my job and was able to get everyone in, and run through my intro, and put in their groups before 1030. I'm amazing.

Like I said there were a lot of chaperones. But it didn't feel like a big deal. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Sarah hung out with me all day to try and get a feel for leading this program. Because every day me and James are in Uganda they are having this field trip. Welp. But Sarah is also very good at her job so I am not worried.

We would spend the half hours of each program doing laps. Getting the invoice settled. There was some confusion because they had made this feildtrip before we changed the price so we were all confused about how much they were paying but we figured it out. Only slightly embarrassing.

I would bring my knitting over to the pioneer tables and Sarah worked on a bracelet while I knit. We would periodically make loops to check on the groups. But everyone seemed good. And I was very happy.

The weather was beautiful. And a lot of my stress from the morning had gone away. I still was a little upset inside. But at least I was outside.

We had our lunch break in the office. I spilled Indian food on myself multiple times and just gave up on eating that. Had half an apple instead. And soon it was time to check on with the groups again.

The last two programs went smoothly. I got really nauseous for a bit and had to sit in the shade. But Sarah was awesome and would go help get bean bags off the roof when I could not. And everyone seemed to be having a really good day.

The group would come back together and I did a little debrief and some questions. And it was just really weekend to see the kids all lit up and happy about what they learned. And that felt really nice.

They said thank you and got on their buses to go back to school. And I would start packing up things, while Sarah started cleaning. I would clean the bathrooms and collect trash. I threw the entire tied bags over the railing because I thought it would be fun and I am very lucky it didn't explode but it also was very fun.

Once everything was clean I would walk around to all the stations to make sure they were put away well. And I spent a little time just making sure everything was in a good spot.

I would get a little overtired form walking in the sun. I had two boxes to bring to the office but I couldn't carry them both so instead I went to the office for the gator and drove them back to where they needed to be.

I was so tired at this point. I would sit and talk with Heather for a bit about the journal I made and some edits for accessibility. And we talked about shampoo and how for some reason the one I use is $17 now?? And the other has been discontinued. So my plan was to go find some at Marshalls.

I left and went to Hunt Valley. And I was not having the best luck.

The shampoos were really expensive there too! The one I wanted was $40!! What!! I ended up finding a clearance one that was $8 that is a brand I am already comfortable with. But man. Why is everything expensive.

I wild get myself a new mug that I absolutely did not need but I really like. And I got a new cord for the car and it actually works again! Amazing. I can use the car screen.

I let James know I was on my way home. I had a pretty intense nose bleed and was pretty upset and a little unsettled. And that I would like dinner asap so they would start making me a salad before I got home.

There was a lot of traffic on the way back. But I got home at 515. Very sore and very tired.

James and me had dinner on the couch. The back door was open and the sun was shining. And I felt miserable. My whole person hurt. I thought coming upstairs and showering would help. It did a little bit I was still unhappy.

James would help me fold clothes to put in storage. And I tried on a few things and it was good. But I was still really tired.

I would paint my toes. And Sweetp came and laid with me. And now James is here too. They made us more cake. And it was good. I liked the cake better last time when it didn't have vanilla in it. But that's okay. Still good and very appreciated. Love my husband.

I am very very ready to sleep now. I hope you all have a great night. I love you all. Goodnight!!

[cryingoflot49]

Book Review

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town

by Paul Theroux

Two decades ago, the novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux took an overland trip through Africa, starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa. This certainly isn’t the safest or the most comfortable means of experiencing the supposed “dark continent”, but it makes for some interesting experiences and insights. Keeping in mind that Theroux’s observations are just one point of view among many, his resulting book Dark Star provides a unique look at a region of the world that holds a permanent place off the beaten path.

While Dark Star is an easy book to read, breaking it down into its individual elements is a good way to approach its merits and examine its flaws. The first element of importance is Theroux’s sense of place. Wherever he goes, the author describes what he sees and the vibe he gets from his surroundings. Starting on the tourist trail in Egypt, he heads south through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, and South Africa. You quickly get a sense of what he appreciates and what he doesn’t. He doesn’t like sites that are swarmed with tourists, nor does he like cities with their concentrations of crime and poverty. He also doesn’t like the “death traps” as he calls public transportation which are usually over-croded minivans driven at dangerous speeds on poorly maintained roads, pockmarked with hippopotamus-sized potholes. If you’ve ever traveled in a Third World country, you will know exaclt what he is talking about.

The places that Theroux does like are usually rural, especially farm lands or jungle villages. These are the places where he sees Africans at their best, meaning Africans being Africans in the absence of corrupt and filthy cities built up on the foundations of European colonialism. Some of the book’s best passages involve descriptions of the pyramids in Sudan which are rarely seen by tourists, a boat trip across Lake Victoria, another boat trip from Malawi across the Zambezi over the border into Zimbabwe, and the pristine countrysides of Zimbabwe and South Africa. All places, whether Theroux likes them or not, are described with language that is clear, simple, and direct, making it easy to visualize what he sees.

Another element that is done to near perfection is writings about the people. Theroux talks with tour guides, people on the streets and in the villages, farmers, nuns, educators, government officials, Indian businessmen, prostitutes, authors, intellectuals, and ordinary people. Just like with the places he goes, he describes these people vividly with precision so that you feel like you quickly get to know them. But not everyone is to his liking. He gets into small argument with a fanatical Rastafarian in Ethiopia, a little ornery with physically fit young men who refuse to work, government officials who demand bribes to do their jobs, and he really gives a hard time to a young American missionary woman about the psychological damage that her evangelical ministry is doing to the local people. There is also plenty of anger directed at clueless tourists as well as NGO and charity workers who he sees as being the Westerners who do the most damage to Africa.

The third element of importance is the author, Paul Theroux himself, and his thoughts and commentaries on everything he sees. Before getting into this subject, it should be mentioned that Theroux had a purpose to his journey. In the 1960s he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching in Malawi. After getting involved with a Leftist political group, he got fired then accepted a teaching position at a college in Uganda. He wanted to return and see what results, if any, his contributions to Africa grew into. What he found was a major disappointment. The charming campuses and villages where he had lived were in ruins and instead of a thriving civilization, he saw emaciated beggars, starving children, an ignorant populace, and chronically corrupt politicians. Shops that were formerly owned by Indian immigrants were abandoned and burnt to the ground, the result of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. African people wanted to buy from shops owned by Africans, but Africans never took control over the businesses after the Indians were killed or chased away. They resorted to begging, theft, petty crime, prostitution, and laziness instead of making an effort to build better villages for themselves. Due to the hopelessness of African society, the most educated citizens fled to America or Europe instead of staying in their home countries where they were most needed.

Throughout his travels in Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi, Theroux gets increasingly bitter and cynical. He wanted to see Africans thriving and they weren’t. He directs all his wrath towards the Western charities and NGOs who he says are making the local people dependent on aid rather than learning how to run their societies for themselves. Even worse, these organizations work by bribing corrupt politicians to allow them to do work there, keeping greedy and psychotic leaders in positions of power they don’t deserve. Theroux points out that rural people who have given up on the hopeless market economy and returned to subsistence farming are the happiest and healthiest Africans he encounters. Heecomes close to advocating for a type of post-capitalist agrarian anarchism.

Some readers have criticized Theroux for his pessimistic views on contemporary Africa, but he does cite studies that support what he says. He also encounters a lot of Africans in several different countries that agree with him. To make sense of his negativity, you also have to remember that traveling overland through Africa is not exactly stress free. Anybody who has been on an extended backpacking trip anywhere in the world will tell you that traveler’s fatigue is a real thing. Theroux took a longer than average trip through one of the most underdeveloped regions in the world, got shot at by Somali bandits, stuck in the middle of nowhere when his transportation broke down, and got sick with food poisoning, magnifying his traveler’s fatigue to a outsize extent. These circumstances would make you grouchy too. But even in the darkest times, Theroux never loses his appreciation for Africa, the wildlife, the landscapes, and the people who are trying to make the best of their situations. Besides, by the time he crosses the river from Malawi into Zimbabwe, his mood really lightens up.

Dark Star is an engaging travelogue that should be read both critically and with an open mind. All the while, remember that this is Paul Theroux’s singular point of view. That doesn’t make it wrong; that just means that there are other points of view to take into account that may go against what he says even if they don’t necessarily invalidate his opinions. He saw what he saw and he expresses it well. This is raw and honest travel writing and if you haven’t been tough enough to make the same kind of journey, you’re not in a good place to be judgmental of the conclusions he draws.

[govolunteerafrica]

GET 𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐑 YOUR PROJECTS

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Champion of the gorillas: the vet fighting to save Uganda’s great apes | Conservation | The Guardian

Instead of parachuting in outsiders, local volunteering has been key to its success. This empowers the Bwindi people and encourages them to be stewards of their own environment. To keep the gorillas away from those bananas, Kalema-Zikusoka formed the Gorilla Guardians – local volunteers to herd gorillas back to the national park. Twenty years on, Bwindi’s 119 gorilla guardians are “a source of pride to the community,” she says.

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Back with the boda-bodas, criss-crossing Kampala

8th—9th March 2023

8th—9th March 2023

Our journey from the east back to the centre was relatively straightforward and only took about 4 ½ hours. On arrival at a familiar hotel, the Duomo, we could get straight to work on the daily tasks of the report for JF, and thinking about the blog and whether we had the energy to write it at that moment!

Clear roads 😃

Thursday 9th

The Kampala traffic is a wonder to behold. How is it, we ask ourselves, that so many vehicles of almost every kind, can drive so close to each other and not crash? Sometimes even coming the wrong way up a dual carriageway. Much of the driving is extraordinarily skilful in its own way.

We criss-crossed the city a few times in search of education, hospitalisation, coordination and accommodation. 

First stop of the day we were with Mathias, head of the Psychiatric Clinical Officer (PCO) Training School. You met our first graduate this week – Amuron – and we have five more coming through the school to graduate in due course. 

This is a strategic education initiative on our part, investing for the future leadership of mental health teams. If you have made a donation to Jamie’s Fund, you are part of this investment, and we thank you. 

Sponsors of these young people are important. Mathias and his colleagues like JF because our treasurer John is meticulous in paying the bills. Not all sponsors and families have been able to do that in these times of economic stringency. There are big debts on the books. 

Our students are doing well. When they move out to the world of clinical work, they will be key leaders in developing mental health services across Uganda. They are likely to stay in-country as PCO is a local qualification, not recognised elsewhere. The PCOs we already work with are a joy, with their enthusiasm and commitment. We think the group coming through are going to be good too. 

Occasionally as we crawl though the city we dip into a mall for a bit of shopping (water, nuts. lunch). On one such foray at the entry checkpoint, the stern looking female security guard approached Ewan and asked “ And, sir, did you cook for your wife last night?” then dissolved into giggles. This week we all celebrated International Women’s Day.

Boda boda drivers waiting for a passenger or five.

Our ‘hospitalisation’ stop was partly my visit to Dr Juliet, Executive Director of Butabika, the big mental hospital which is the key referral  centre for challenging or difficult-to-diagnose patients (adults and children) with mental illness, personality disorder, intellectual disability, and conditions which may have led to trouble with the law.

We had a good chat – she is always very kind to us. It’s important that we in JF keep up with trends and challenges in the mental health scene in Uganda. 

How many jerry cans can you get on the back of a motor bike? 78 I think.

This year there are undoubtedly more attempted and completed suicides, we hear that from all our partners. JF recently sponsored a workshop on the subject of suicide, which was well received by the delegates. 

We are also hearing about a worrying increase in drug abuse using prescribed medicines such as pethidine and tramadol, another strong pain reliever, even in poor rural areas surprisingly. In response to this there are a number of rehabilitation centres springing up around the country. We have no idea about the qualifications and experiences of the proprietors. 

As we parted, I mentioned that I am secretly very fond of the old asylums in UK because I learnt so much from my time there as a young trainee and when I was first a consultant.  Dr Juliet suggested I come back as a volunteer consultant at Butabika and spend a month with them. Oh! That would be interesting….

And Dr Juliet’s final comment as I told her there was snow and ice in UK, was “Well, make sure you have some fun in the sun here!”

Off for some fun in the sun?

Meanwhile Ewan was visiting another, small, hospital, Benedict Medical Centre. Our second graduated PCO is now finding his place there. They are quite near Butabika so many patients go straight to the asylum. The Benedict team are working out how best to serve the mental health needs of a poorer urban sprawl centre population.

The ‘coordination’ aspect of our day was to join Dr Ronald, medical Director of the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau. This body coordinates the work of all the Catholic hospitals in Uganda, providing strategic direction, continuing education (for all staff, not just the clinical people) and representation at national level. We have a high regard for Dr Ronald and his team, and it’s always a pleasure to talk with him. It’s also quite stimulating, too, so talk tends to go on for some time!

JF plans to hold a 4 day Continuing Professional Development workshop for some of our partners in the autumn. The last one, pre- covid in 2019, was very enthusiastically received, some delegates enjoying their first postgraduate training in the ten years after qualifying. They also love getting together.

Where to hold it? Somewhere clean and comfortable with good facilities, appropriate and tasty food, economically priced and near the centre of town. We didn’t get it quite right last time.

Dr Ronald recommended a Catholic centre run by nuns, and duly sent us off to see it. At the ARU, the Association of the Religious in Uganda, we found Sister Lydia and her colleagues who gave us both a characteristically gracious and cheerful welcome and a conducted tour. We think this centre will suit us very well as the price is also very reasonable for such a central location.

We then wove our way back to the hotel through the traffic. It can take a while.

Dr Africa seems to offer a variety of services, with the golf course behind.