Global Youth Service Day -Uganda

Culmination Day

It feels like I have been at this for a whole year. And I think I could write a novel about the high commitment and enthusiasm that I have seen in this group of children and youth over the past 4 weeks to their cause. This is also one of those things from which I can say that I have gained a rich personal experience this year. I could not blog on Sunday because I didn’t find the time to, given the very demanding coordinating role that I had to execute. I had to be ‘all over the place’ literally speaking and when I finally got back home at the end of the long day -I collapsed into a recliner chair- every bit of my body was just so tired! In retrospect, I think we have had such a successful service project.

The global youth service children and youth at Muzinda were not disappointing in the least. Everyone delivered on their part. The morning on Sunday was spent spraying 10 households on the village for mosquito eggs, lava and adult insects. In the afternoon of the same day, the official culmination event began at about 2.00pm. Old colleagues Andrew and Terah joined us on the culmination event as well (I have never been happier to see that duo again -men clearly impassioned for community development). There was a conglomeration of local leaders from in and around the community; health officials; school-teachers and other types whose roles I didn’t quite ascertain at the time. My only concern was that the children and youth remained in charge of the event at all times -It was their culmination event after all- I speak this way because I have had experiences in various African community settings whereby most adults when given a microphone to speak, never want to set it down or hand it back to the event MC. It’s little wonder therefore when leaders in these parts of the world find it hard too, to hand over the mantles of power when that time comes; very obviously, it starts from such small things as microphones and gradually grows in such bigger things like the presidency. However, like I said in one of my earlier posts at this blog, to straighten the shoot, one has got to start young.

Through the 2008 GYSD, this group of children and youth in Muzinda have been active participants (right from the problem identification, to choosing what strategies would work best to solve it) in a community development process that directly affects their lives, to raising community awareness on malaria through youth service; rather than being the passive recipients of development interventions conceived and implemented by development agencies, as is usually the case in many countries under the ‘developing world’ classification. For me, that is something to be proud of for this group. During the culmination event on Sunday, I was impressed by the way the members of the group committee handled the time issue. Joan Birungi, particularly, made for a brilliant event MC. We had the PEDN E.D. and Ashoka fellow, Irene, officiate at the event as chief guest. In her speech to the gathering, she emphasised the role of youth empowerment and leadership within their communities. Irene came in from the city with her little son, Sam, who had his own version of youth service; a recently turned 6-year old lad, Sam insisted on getting together the little children under 5 and teaching them his version of Maths and English -He had a good turn up of 8 avid students- I was amazed to see them appear so attentive to an almost inaudible teacher not more than 2 years their senior. Sam came adequately prepared for this role as well; with his ‘teaching bag’ collection: an assortment of chalk and other teaching aids. Not to mention, he supplied his ‘students’ with pencil and paper, each one. Certainly every bit a promising leader, little Sam surely is! The same group of children and youth donated mosquito nets that were purchased during the service project, towards various members of the community whom they had earlier chosen as aid-recipients basing on the fact that they (the recipients of these items) were coming from the most economically desperate households in the village that they also considered through their own assessment exercise, most at risk of catching malaria. Later, Faridah Nakijjoba, the youth club vice president spoke on behalf of the whole group: “…Our proudest moments during this service event were whenever we would go into the households of the poorest people that were unable to help themselves and gave them our best service to help keep them safe from malaria… the looks on their faces when we were eventually finished with our service…” There is promise of good leadership in this 15-year old girl in every aspect! In Muzinda village is certainly a group of children and youth with very good cause. To put it in the words of Jeremy Fisher, “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything”. This group stood up against malaria in their village through the GYSD, an activity that has served greater purpose than mere fun and games. In my opinion, each of these individuals has certainly been a winner in their own right. And personally, they have all gained my respect. On the same day, I received an appreciation certificate that said, “…Zack Lwanga, in recognition of outstanding accomplishment and active contribution during the 2008 GYSD…”. It was a humbling moment for me and I am thankful for that as well. God be glorified in everything.

I cannot summarise all that this group of children and youth have done over the past week into a simple blog post. It has truly been incredible. My blog is not the official GYSD site. You can however, find more GYSD information coming in from around the world on the official GYSD site here. My intention in keeping this blog was/is to share with the world my cogitations and opinions on this brand of community service -giving our bit to eradicate malaria- through the GYSD and even more, to raise awareness about a group of orphaned children in Muzinda village, that are being cared for under a community initiative. Many times, in the developmental work amphitheatre, we tend to group people with common terms such as ‘orphans and vulnerable children’ (OVC) and in our own minds tend to lessen the gravity of the situation that they face with our imposed more familiar term(s). Although the majority of these children are perceived by tmany as ‘helpless’ orphans, while I engaged with them in this service project over the past 4 weeks, the children and youth, I fond out, are also such enterprising individuals. Through this project, they have proved a richness of resolve and commitment to getting things done! It is certainly a group that I would recommend without hesitation for future developmental support should another similar chance come by. And from my 5-year experience in development work now, I have found that the best performing interventions for child support are those that protect and fulfil the rights of vulnerable children by not singling out the children as vulnerable (e.g. orphans) because of one reason or other; such a focus can be detrimental to the children by exacerbating the stigma that is attached to the reason for their vulnerability, e.g. losing one’s parents in the case of orphans

On Monday morning I met with a journalist from the country’s leading daily. She wanted to have a review of what had transpired during the GYSD event. She mentioned to me that along with her photographer they had failed to locate the culmination event venue the previous day because they had left their directions behind and had therefore driven back after an hour of fruitlessly searching. When we had talked on phone then, I was disappointed to learn that she had instead preferred to meet with me later in the evening or early in the morning the next day in the city as opposed to finding her way back to the event venue then with my directions; and therefore being able to see the children and youth highlight their service at culmination event. I felt that meeting with her (the journalist) would instead shift the focus of the service project from the children and youth to myself and if she had missed being a part of the event, then she (and the newspaper that she represented, alongside with her) would have missed something truly magical. Nonetheless I commend her effort for making the attempt to get in touch.  However, it’s also the same thing that I had earlier emphasised to a section of the adults at the culmination event who had insisted on ‘helping’ the children with handling the catering for the guests. “No”, I had said finally, “It’s about the children. I don’t care if they make mistakes as they go about it, we adequately prepared for this and every activity has got a youth-led team that’s in charge of implementing it. There is certainly room for mistakes, so the children/youth can learn to do a better job next time”. And I can’t say the children under performed. If anything, they out-did themselves. To re-iterate myself, it was such a brilliant performance from all of them. For all the effort that the children and youth have been involved in over the past week, fighting malaria, the # 1 killer in the country and in Africa, the media represented the service project under the “News in brief” category. See online article. Well at least they got Faridah’s name spelled right.

I joined the same group of children and youth for an evaluation meeting the next day and everybody was all smiles and praises for the day, “It was amazing last Sunday ‘uncle Zack’, I loved the fact that people listened to us” Jane, an 8-year old member of the group told me later. At some point during the service project, I left Jane my umbrella after she convinced me that she indeed had to endure rainy mornings too on her way to school sometimes. The next day, her mother came over to me and gave me a very big ‘thank you’ hug. That’s the kind of love that you find in this place. “What I liked about the whole GYSD is that we achieved our goal”, William the club president said in his own evaluation. “I wasn’t happy with the fact that the DJ closed down the music when the event was over… I expected him to stay on through the night”, Mary-Daphne, the group Treasurer said in hers. Prossy, one of the group leaders was lost for words herself, “Eh…eh…eh…hmm…”, was all she could muster at the time. Everyone seemed to agree unanimously though, that they enjoyed the entire service project and learned quite a number of useful lessons from too. “I wouldn’t change a thing if I were to do it all over again”, Samuel, another member of the group said. When I am asked the question, ‘what do you love in life?’, I always respond, ‘I love to see people happy’; in that moment for me, time could have stalled and I wouldn’t have another care in the world when I looked at the over 50 bright smiles facing in my direction.

Way forward

The bigger challenge for this group of children and youth now remains the fact that there is still a high number of desperately poor people in their village that could do with some more support to enable them fight malaria in their households as well. During this service project, although a considerable number of people were supported to do this, the need among many others is also quite prevalent and stands out like a sore thumb. In the words of Oliver Twist, (they) need more! Whatever can be done to support this group to continue to fight malaria can still be done! Through the GYSD, the children and youth showed the adults in their village what could be done to avert the danger of malaria in their community and that where there is a will, there certainly is a way. GYSD has also left important structures and polished individuals of all the children and youth that have been involved in this service project. The same group could certainly be up to another community-focused developmental task. After we finished our evaluation meeting, I went out of my way to support the same group develop their own rules and guidelines to enable them keep their new-found assets as a group and together we also developed templates that the club would use in managing their (future) finances. I must say again, I’ve never met a group so eager to learn before, as this one! As I left their village, I was very happy to see that some of the youth were also engaged in some kind of economic activity as well. Mike and Kenneth; the latter being the only member of the group with a (functional) mobile phone incidentally, were making ‘chapatti‘ -an Indian flat bread delicacy, for sale in the little trading centre. Of course I couldn’t resist buying off him all that they had just made. In turn, I passed on my purchase to William and Grace to take with them back home and share with the rest of everyone. “Thank you”, both had said. Once again, it was a repeat of that moment I had only last Saturday with Faridah when she had said the same, albeit for a different purpose. Now I can start to write my own report of the event, a task that might keep me busy over the next two nights. As you can see, GYSD is still far from over.

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I want to say thank-you to all those that have been involved with me over the implementation of the GYSD in Uganda. To those who have taken the time to read from this blog. I am humbled by the thought that such a small thing could yet be so big in only just a short while. GYSD was a first for the children in Muzinda but from the look of things, it has certainly left a permanent footprint in their village. I want to say thank you as well to all our sponsors both locally in Uganda and in the United States. Thank you to all that have become involved and I hope that we can take this bond into the future. GYSD event reviews from around the world shall be available at this website at the end of June 2008. I attended my last meeting with my GYSD colleagues on Monday afternoon. But before I’m finally gone, I shall post some more photos within these pages to share with all of you some of the precious memories of the GYSD service project now that the group members have signed the photo release forms. Until another time… God bless you all.

Cheers,

Zack Lwanga