Delivering the Goats

Villagers in Kalalu keep goats in hand-constructed sheds to keep them safe at night. One of the goats donated through the Goats for Widows program.

On Wednesday, we delivered goats to two villagers through our Goats for Widows program. The first goat went to Samuel, who lives next door to the hut where we are staying in Kalalu. Samuel lives with his five children in a compound of mud huts and the newly-constructed goat shed. Neither he nor his children speak any English; students don't learn English until late primary school and secondary school, so many children and adults who have not had a chance to reach that level only speak Lusogo. The Reverend, who is the local leader in Kalalu, was kind enough to act as our translator.

The Reverend led the goats, tied to ropes, to their new homes.

We spoke with Samuel about his life in the village and what receiving a milk-producing goat means for his family's future. Samuel was born and raised in Kalalu. As a young man, he left the village in search of work in the city. He worked as a porter for several years and met his wife in the city. The couple decided to return to the village to raise a family. They had five children, whom we've had ample opportunity to play with. The oldest daughter, Lucy, has shown herself a talented frisbee player.

Tragically, Samuel's wife passed away, leaving him alone with five young children. Samuel developed arthritis, so it is difficult for him to work full shifts in the fields. He grows Cassava and potatoes on his four acres of land, but not enough to feed his family. He said that in the past year, he and each of his children have suffered acute malaria attacks, which further prevents them from growing crops to sustain them.

Samuel said that he likes his home and his community. It is clear that he has some help; when we walked by the Reverend's house today, we saw him sharing a lunch of beans and posho with Samuel. Although he receives some help, however, Samuel's lack of income will limit his children's opportunities.

Scovia's children. Scovia, another widow and goat recipient, hopes that her children will have brighter futures as a result of the program.

With the milk from his new goat, Samuel plans to provide his children with protein and sell any extra milk. Samuel hopes that the profits will be sufficient to send his children to school. With an education, the children will be able to get jobs outside of the village and take care of themselves. Samuel ended the meeting by thanking us profusely for the goat, saying he now saw a brighter future for his children.

~David Bridgman-Packer

Photographs by Anne Sherwood

Goats for Widows and Other Projects

After eight additional volunteers arrived to Entebbe Airport on Sunday, we traveled to Kalalu Monday morning, where we are staying to work in Iganga District for the rest of our trip.

On Monday, some of the volunteers met with Samuel and Scovia, who were chosen in August as the recipients of goats during this trip. Samuel is a widower with five children (ages five to 13). He works four acres of land as a farmer, but he is 65, and age and arthritis make it difficult for him to support his family. He repeatedly told us how grateful and happy he is to be receiving a goat that will produce milk. Scovia is a widow with eight children. Her husband died suddenly, she thinks from a heart attack. She is currently expecting another child.

The Vassar Uganda Project Goats for Widows program provides participants with one goat and veterinary care for one year. Participants in the program must construct a goat shed using donated grass, poles, and floor boards, as well as sticks they find in the village. They must undergo animal care training with a veterinarian and plant a special type of grass that will maximize milk production. The participants then breed the goats, and the first and third goats are donated back to the program to be given to other widows and widowers.

Today, preventive health volunteers John, David and Alex will accompany the Reverend to deliver the goats. They will also ensure that the mosquito nets we donated to them are being used properly to prevent malaria. On a preliminary examination, Samuel's mosquito net left a space between the mattress and the ground through which mosquitos could enter. We will ensure that Samuel is aware of its proper use.

The preventive health volunteers are also traveling to five households to assess whether their occupants will need mosquito nets.

Jared and Nicole are meeting with the village leaders, called local counselors, to make sure that people in that village are mobilized to receive mosquito nets at the end of this week.

The Emergency Medical Technician volunteers (Jacquie, Nicole Pontee, Ben, and John Garfinkel), as well as Medi and Anne, are traveling to two health centers to conduct needs and capacity assessments. The information they gather will allow us to train the ambulance responders for the eRanger program to take patients to health centers that have the capacity to help them.

Tomorrow, we will begin training medical professionals and citizen bystanders in CPR, first aid and preventive health. On Thursday alone, about 200 people will receive this training.

Stay tuned for updates and photographs about our programs and the experiences of individual volunteers - and be sure to scroll down to see photos from our journey north!

Photographs from Our Journey

Inspired by the Vassar Uganda Project, international photographer Anne Sherwood (www.annesherwood.com) accompanied us to Uganda to donate her craft. She took the following photographs in Purongo, the site of the one functioning eRanger motorcycle ambulance program in Uganda (see previous blog and www.eranger.com); Kaberamaido, where the children of the Asayo's Wish Children's Village Orphanage live; and Iganga, the District where Vassar Uganda Project volunteers are currently working.


This little girl, outside the internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Purongo, continued to look somber even as we tried to make her laugh. As we pulled away waving, she finally rewarded us with a hint of a smile.


Jacquie with the children outside of the IDP camp at Purongo health center. We played ball with a wad of plastic bags the children had put together for this purpose.





The eRanger motorcycle ambulance in Purongo. Medi, our translator, posed as the patient, while the ambulance driver and Jacquie looked on.





Children playing at the IDP camp in Purongo.


The children at the Children's Village Orphanage in Kaberamaido clap after their peers perform a song. Despite the hardship they have endured, many of the children were very cheerful. We stayed until after dark to distribute holiday gifts (dolls, bubbles, books and more) and dance in celebration of the New Year.







Delighted by the children's performances, one of the orphanage matrons laughs. The little girl in her arms is her daughter.







A boy at the Children's Village Orphanage stares intensely at the camera.






A child on the street in Iganga, the major city of Iganga District, where the Vassar Uganda Project is working.

From the North to the South to the East

Back from the North!!

We got back from Northern Uganda yesterday, and man are we excited!!! We were able to see the Asayo's Wish Foundation Orphanage children in Kaberamaido, Uganda on January 1st, and then traveled to Purongo, Uganda in Gulu District to see the CPAR eRanger Ambulance, in preparation for setting up an Emergency Medical Services System in Ignaga District in conjunction with the Uganda Village Project and the District Health Offices.

The Asayo's Wish Children

Because of a delayed bag at the airport, we were only able to spend a few hours with the children in Kaberamaido, after 9 1/2 hours of driving to reach them... but it was the best few hours for which we could have hoped. The children began by welcoming us through the National Anthem and a prayer, then singing and dancing that lasted for the better part of an hour and a half!! What talented children they are. Most of the children recognized both Jamie and Jacquie, and were really excited to meet Anne, the mzungu taking snaps (pictures). Following their presentation, we were able to share a belated Christmas and New Year's together, blowed lots of bubbles together, and danced to the music of a local radio station. The children all expressed a desire to know of their mother, Sarah Asayo, AWF founder, and were pleased to hear that she was doing well. They also enquired of the other Vassar Uganda Project volunteers, and were thrilled to hear that some of them will be returning as a part of the Asayo's Wish Foundation in March. How we had, and now again do, miss those children.

The eRanger

Gulu District was one of the districts heavily affected by the Civil War in Northern Uganda. While Uganda has been relatively peaceful for the past 2-3 years, there are still several thousand Internally Displaced People (IDPs) that live in and around Gulu District. Purongo is a village located on Arua Road, between Arua and Gulu. While it is small, the health center serves several thousand IDPs in addition to many local villagers. Blessed by the purchase of an eRanger ambulance (motorcycle ambulance made in S. Africa... check out ranger.com for more information, or our website: www.vassarugandaproject.org) by the Canadian Physician's for Aid and Relief (CPAR), Purongo Health Center is now able to transport expectant mothers in labor to and from villages to the health center and from the Purongo Health Center to larger health centers in nearby villages. Through our conversations with the driver of the eRanger, the nurse at Purongo Health Center, and the sub-county district health official, we were able to see first-hand how the program worked and what a difference it has made.

As to its success, in the past month the Purongo eRanger has helped save the lives of 11 women experiencing complications of pregnancy, and 1 victim of a motor vehicle accident, in addition to transferring vaccines to a nearby hospital with a generator when the Purongo health center experienced a power outage.

With a much better understanding of how the eRanger has worked from another group in Uganda, and hearing how it has helped save lives within the past few weeks, we are committed to making a viable EMS Program work in Iganga. If you'd like more information, email us!

We're off to pick up the rest of the volunteers at the Entebbe Airport in about 1/2 an hour! We're excited for their arrival, and have an intense list of things to accomplish following it.

Thank you for everyone who has sent us emails of support, and commented on our blog. Stay tuned for pictures (Tuesday), and more updates!

~ Jacquie Law and Jamie Rosen

In Dubai... and on the way

So we're in Dubai... 7 hours of airport waiting down, 5 hours left to go. It's actually kind of nice to sit and think about the upcoming days - traveling to the North to visit the children of Kaberamaido and the eRanger Ambulance in Gulu, which will begin on the 31st (Happy New Year's eve everyone).

During our first trip in March, we were privileged to work with the Asayo's Wish Foundation of preventative and direct healthcare. AWF runs an orphanage, the Children's Village, in Kaberamaido, Uganda, an area heavily affected by the war. The children definitely made an impression on us... and I miss them often. There are a few I think of all the time - 5 year old Peace (yes, that is her name), with an attitude like a 13 year old, 11 year old Moses, known fondly as "Punk", who frequently enticed us to chase him round and round the Orphanage, and a little boy who I spent a total of 10 minutes with, after he found me in a crowd full of village children. He was the saddest soul I'd ever met... he wouldn't speak, wouldn't laugh, wouldn't speak. All he wanted was to be held, and it broke my heart.

I'm excited to share that we'll be returning to Kaberamaido for a couple days on the way to the North to check out an eRanger (motorcycle) ambulance, and that we will get to spend some quality time with the children. Convinced that I remember this little boy for a reason, a good friend, Echibu Moses, is searching the village and surrounding rural areas to try and find him. *hoping, and praying*

How thankful I am for the gift of children... one day, when I have my degree and have finished the missions immediately placed before me, I hope to have a large family of my own. Having worked in Uganda, I realize what a great blessing it is to live in an area of the world with such incredible medical care. Once I am in a position to be preparing to have my own family, I know that I'll have all the care I need, and have a variety of options from which I can choose. In Uganda, where on average a woman has 7 children, many districts lack the infrastructure to provide healthcare to all women and children. In addition to the enormous burden of sheer numbers per health center or hospital, there are seldom the transport mechanisms that would allow the people in rural villages to reach health care facilities during labor, resulting in high maternal and neonatal mortality rates.

I can talk about this reality in terms of statistics, but I think that doesn't do it justice. Those "maternal and neonatal mortality rates" are lives, precious lives. When a mother dies, she quite frequently leaves several children behind, forced to help raise themselves and each other. They are required to grow up so quickly. I met a family like this in Iganga District. A mother, in addition to raising her 7 children, had taken in 8 orphans. When she died in childbirth, she left 16 children behind, including her newborn. I can't imagine being the eldest of 15, still a child myself, and trying to raise all my siblings as the sole care provider. I truly believe that childhood should be protected - a time to grow, and learn, and play. The death of a mother is so often not just the death of a mother, but the death of many other futures.

In a conversation Tina, Kristyn, and I had with Iganga Assistant District Health Officer, Dr. Peter Waiswa, he fleshed out the challenges the DHO faces: 1) Ambulances are expensive to fuel. 2) Ambulanes are too bulky to reach rural villages not on any main road. 3) Lack of training in emergency response. 4) Not enough supplies. 5) No centralized communication cetner. Yet, despite these difficulties, the DHO officials in Iganga are dedicated to their calls, and they worked with us to try and find a solution. Together, we found a program called eRanger, a motorcycle ambulance that runs on 10-20% of the fuel of a normal ambulance, is light-weight and able to reach rural villages.

Our new partnership between the Vassar Uganda Project, the Uganda Village Project, and the Iganga District Health Office, is working towards bringing a pilot eRanger Program to the subcounty of Bugweri in Iganga District, with its primary focus of transporting expectant mothers experiencing complicationg to local health centers or the Iganga Hospital as needed.

How excited we are to be participating in such an innovative solution... and how much it teaches me about what incredible people there are in the world from which I am blessed to learn.

We should learn from each other, work together, help each other. And how thankful I am to be learning from the eRanger Program in Purongo, founded by the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief. We're heading to Gulu on January 1st to watch them in action. Send us good thoughts... and we'll keep you updated!

~ Jacquie Law

March, August and Beyond

Check back here for updates from our January trip to Uganda. Postings should be available by New Year's Day 2009.

In the meantime, check out past entries from March 2008 here or updates from our August 2008 trip at http://www.vassarugandaproject2.blogspot.com/.

Our website has more information about our past trips: http://vassarugandaproject.org/projects.aspx.

Gloucester County Times article

Check out a great article about Vassar College senior Sarah Heathcote's experiences in Uganda: http://blog.nj.com/southjerseylife/2008/04/making_a_difference_1.html.