100 successful students graduate Viva Equip in Uganda!

“Children were lining up outside my office to confide in me!” An excited Macu tells a room full of smiling graduates, as she delivers a heartfelt speech at the recent Viva Equip People graduation ceremony on Saturday 26th March.

Macu, a recent Viva Equip graduate herself, is a Child Restoration Outreach Manager working in central Uganda. “I have been working with children for years, but before this training there were many grey areas where I just felt like I didn’t have the resources to help or protect children properly,” she explained to her fellow classmates, who were nodding in agreement. “But thanks to this training, my staff and I can now look after children much better. And what is most amazing is that the children are the first to notice the improvement.” She continued enthusiastically, “Never before have children queued so patiently at my door just for the opportunity to speak to me! But this is because they know now that there are people who will really listen to them and who think it is important to help them.” Her closing remarks beautifully summarise the overall benefit of the Viva Equip training: “I am a better person for it- I am a better worker, mother, neighbour, manager and friend and this will all now be reflected in my work with children; in how I treat them, care for them and protect them against the dangers that they have all had to face so far in their short lives.”

Macu is not the only one to feel this way. The ceremony has been an overwhelmingly positive event, with every conversation, speech and presentation reflecting the newfound confidence and ability of the 100 graduates in the room. When the course began, they were among the many people in Uganda willing to help children at risk but sometimes lacking the belief that they can help. Yet Viva believes in these people, and the VEP training is our way of making them believe in themselves. We want them to know that they can, do and will help thousands of children in their lifetime. And it’s not just theoretical, as David Nebali discovered…

David works in a community church in the mountains of Kabale, west Uganda, and through his role as Child Development Officer he has implemented the Child Protection Policy that they were taught to devise at VEP and can already demonstrate the big change seen in the way church members operate in his community: “For the first time a church worker reported a child protection issue to me, something that has never happened before!” A 16 year old girl from the community had abandoned her home and studies to marry an older man. “We encouraged her that it is so important for her to finish her studies.” David is still working with the girl, counselling her and encouraging her to move back home with her parents. “Thank goodness it was not just buried in the community, as it would have been before. Now I think we will soon see a breakthrough, as she is beginning to realise the enormity of her actions.”

Viva Equip People is not just having a local effect, transforming individuals, but it’s gaining national recognition: the government of Uganda insisted on sending a representative to honour the graduation ceremony. The Guest of Honour, Mondo Kyateka, Commissioner for Youth and Children’s Affairs in Uganda, closed the event by giving an encouraging speech to the graduates: “There is no better calling than working with and supporting children; they constitute the future. I want to thank Viva and the network for initiating the professionalisation of working with children in this country.”

If you would like more information on the benefits that Viva Equip brings to organisations, their workers and children everywhere, or you would like to support the work then click here.