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.”

You voted for it: Caring for Workers

In last week's poll we asked you what child care workers need most.  Of course the people who care for vulnerable children need many more things than what we listed, but if we started including things like 'malaria pills' you'd never be able to choose.

6% of our readers thought child care workers need more money,

68% thought they need better training,

and 25% of you thought they need a vacation.

You're all right.  Although it sounds materialistic to say child care workers need more money, they certainly do!  Not only for themselves, but simply to run the projects properly.  Many of the projects Viva works with are just generous people who open their homes to orphans, or give their time to care for disabled children.  They try to stretch their income to cover the costs and elicit donations from others in their community, but funds are usually hard to come by.