The sum of the parts: what working together for children really means!

Have you ever had to study for a particularly hard exam, spending all night awake, drinking Colombia out of coffee and racking your brains over one particular question you just don’t seem to get? And how many new mums have felt so desperate when bedtime arrives and their tiny infant just doesn’t seem to want to settle down and go to sleep? “I should know what my child needs!” might race through your mind.

There are many moments in life when we feel alone in the face of a certain problem. So what do we do? Well, naturally, we would seek out the advice of someone who’s been in a similar situation. And how often do we actually find that we are not alone; that many of our classmates have found that topic difficult, or that all new mums have felt frustrated at some point? Someone might even suggest a simple solution, “Have you tried swaddling?” that suddenly makes our lives that much brighter.

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.”

Uganda Elections: the results are in, but what does this mean for children?

After much campaigning, debate and speculation, Yoweri Museveni has won the Ugandan Presidential Elections for the fourth time in a row. But what does this mean for 57% of Uganda’s population – its children...?

NOW in Kampala, Uganda: child-friendly voting!

This news is coming straight from Kampala where, as you read this, projects and churches from our partner network have taken to the streets to encourage voters to consider the rights and needs of Uganda's children.

In the light of the upcoming elections for a new President and government (Friday 18th February) the network are conducting an advocacy campaign encouraging citizens to think about children when they vote. They have been asking questions such as: Do you recognise the importance of today’s children? Will the person you vote for be the best person to lead the next generation into the future?

Viva Equip People journeys to Somalia’s frontline

Oketch Mukhwana, a soldier in the Ugandan Army, took part in Viva Equip People when he began working in the children’s department of a military hospital. “We are working with the children of soldiers” Oketch explains, “and there are so many special things about their lives we must understand if we want to help them properly. But before I did not have any experience of working with children, and there was so much I did not know. When I started on this Viva programme it was amazing how my eyes were opened.” Oketch was particularly struck by the module about understanding each child in his or her context, learning what exact risks children face and how to help them thrive despite the problems.

And so the student becomes the teacher

When Grace Nyiringabo took the Viva Equip People training two years ago she had no idea that she would one day end up actually teaching it!

In 2009, alongside 40 other project staff working with children at risk in Mbale, Uganda, Grace spent eight months gaining the key skills needed for effective and compassionate child care. “This course helped me so much” says Grace. “I feel that spiritually I have grown and my heart has been changed. I didn’t know how to handle children at my work place, and I was not doing my work from the bottom of my heart but really just to earn a living. Now I can confidently say that I am committed to seeing the lives of children changed and helping them become better people- all that God intended them to be.”

Abandoned Babies Part III - Interview

Viva interviews Rogers Mbaziira, who works with our city-wide network CRANE in Kampala, Uganda. Part of Rogers’ job is to work with a group of network members – churches, homes for abandoned babies and other projects – that are committed to putting abandoned babies into local families. (Learn more about this group, called Families For Children.) That means lots of networking between projects and churches and families, with some interesting results. Go ahead, listen in...

Viva: Rogers, you have an amazing job. Can you tell us what your normal day looks like?

RM: I used to visit the foster families a lot, but now more of my time is spent on ‘mobilisation’. Most parents call in and some email FFC for advice. I spend most of my time replying to them, and often that involves referring them to different agencies or projects that can help. That’s why it’s so important to work as a network, because we have these other contacts we can put them in touch with. 

Abandoned Babies Part II - Africa

Working at Viva’s office in Kampala, I hear a lot about abandoned babies through the city-wide network, CRANE (we’re in the same office!) Nearly 200 babies are abandoned every year in Kampala alone, the capital city of Uganda. One lady I’ve met, Grace, has a special story about an abandoned baby though – Grace became a mother when someone else didn’t want her child.

Grace remembers falling in love with baby Nabulungi as soon as she met her in the hospital where she works. Nabulungi was tiny – a premature baby of only a kilogram – and the fact that her mother had abandoned her at the hospital made her seem even smaller. “Seeing her arrive to the world, so vulnerable and small, I bonded with this little one that needed so much attention and care,” recalls Grace.

For the first few weeks of Nabulungi’s life, Grace’s job was to care for her. She wasn’t sure where it would lead. As the time drew near for Nabulungi to leave the hospital, Grace couldn’t face the fact that ‘her’ tiny baby would be going into an institution… she needed a family home. 

Switching it up - Police in for Child Questioning!

On my first day in Kampala, I was taken to the Old Taxi Park. It was a dizzying maze of hundreds of small minibuses, known locally as matatus, and we were trying to find the one that would take me to my placement hosts. There is seemingly no system of getting in and out, and I was actually knocked by the side mirror of one as it was squeezing past us to get out. I remember thinking ‘What have I done? Where have I come to?’ My sales job in the UK was, a week after finishing up with the company, a lifetime away.

Yet a month later I had mastered the matatu system and there I was navigating my way to Stand Up Uganda, a community organisation that helps disadvantaged people, all by myself. The organisation is a member of Viva’s partner network in Kampala, the Children at Risk Action Network (CRANE). They told me “Pick a taxi at the matatu stage and then after the big junction look for the small white sign, after the garage and opposite the white building”. After passing what I assumed was the big junction, panic rose within me as I saw a garage, and then a white building and then another garage, and then a white shop… but then, looking across the road, that small white sign gleamed at me. I had made it!

Viva at the All African Bishops Conference

If you were paying close attention, you may have heard that 398 Anglican Bishops from dioceses all around Africa met from the 23rd to the 29th of August in Entebbe, just outside Kampala. The theme for this All Africa Bishops Conference was ‘Unlocking Potential and Securing our Future’. Viva was invited to share a stall with World Vision representatives at the conference, and as Viva’s Regional Director for the Africa region, I took up the challenge.

It was a great opportunity to bring the issues facing Africa’s children to the attention of the Anglican Church, and right on topic: we at Viva happen to believe that children are the key to unlocking potential, and the embodiment of our future! It seems they listened. In their Conference Statement, released at the end of the conference, the bishops added a little something proposed by Viva and World Vision:

“The children and the youth are the embodiment of the future and the church seeks to unlock the inherent potential in this generation. Therefore, the Church in Africa commits itself to providing biblical upbringing of children and youth and give a special attention to their needs and rights.”

Why Does a Zebra Cross the Road?

To keep children safe, of course!

This summer dozens of children from Viva's network of projects in Kampala, Uganda took to the streets - one street in particular - to engage in community advocacy.  What does that look like?  This:

Roads in Kampala can be difficult even for grown-up pedestrians to navigate, especially in poorer areas where most children at risk live.  Just crossing the street can be a life-threatening activity for a child in these neighbourhoods!  So a few projects put their heads together and decided to make their neighbourhood safer for the children in their care and those living in the area.  They painted a zebra crossing.

Donning safety vests, these children took turns painting the stripes of the crossing and handing out lollipops and leaflets - taking advantage of the traffic caused by their work to teach passing drivers and pedestrians about child rights and child protection.  

This was a great way for children to make new friends, learn to advocate for themselves, and take responsibility for the safety of their neighbourhood.  We're hoping to bring more zebra crossings to other neighbourhoods throughout the city!

Take a look at the rest of the pictures on Viva's Facebook page.

Attention World!

Over our World Weekend of Prayer, more than 2000 vulnerable kids from Viva’s network of projects around Cochabamba, Bolivia flooded the streets of their city.

First they met for a prayer meeting in the stadium, then they unleashed their advocating power by marching through the city with banners and balloons. Everyone noticed! Local authorities, businesses, and government bodies ‘woke up’ and started asking questions about the kids living on their own streets.  

A few thousand kids who have caught the spirit of advocacy are literally changing their entire country.

MDG's Part 3: Combating HIV/AIDS

Newspapers and scientists sometimes brings us terrifying predictions of worldwide epidemics like SARS, and various kinds of flu from different animals like birds and swine. How about the one that’s already raging across every continent – AIDS? It’s deadly enough to have been included in the Millennium Development Goals … but death isn’t the only result of this disease. The people suffering with AIDS, especially children, are often ostracised and discriminated against because of cultural myths and factual misconceptions. Even schoolchildren whose parents have AIDS suffer this social stigma.

Good thing Viva has teamed up with more than ten international charities to begin to change that! We’re working with World Vision, Compassion, Tearfund and others to deliver training called ‘Let Your Light Shine’ to hundreds of adults who care for children. Let Your Light Shine uses a DVD that teaches caregivers how to provide the best support and care for children suffering under the personal or societal effects of HIV and AIDS. Let Your Light Shine has been specially designed to be useful to churches, orphanages, schools, communities and individual caregivers. 

Lukas goes to Uganda

Last week I went to Uganda on business, something I do a fair bit. But this time I brought my eight-year-old son Lukas along with me. The idea was to show Lukas how people live in other parts of the world, and teach him to be compassionate. Our trip was filled with lessons even before we left – having to get shots before you go to a place is a major lesson in the physical challenges facing the world’s poor!

“Dad, what’s typhoid?”
“Well, it’s a preventable and curable disease that kills 600,000 people every year, and these shots will make sure we don’t catch it.”

While I ran about between meetings in a suit in 30˚ weather, Lukas was working at Sanyu Babies Home (a long-standing member of our Kampala network of projects) helping take care of 16 abandoned babies. Having the CEO of a charity for a dad means you hear lots about orphanages, but actually being in one changed Lukas’ life. Not only was he overwhelmed with the concept of babies having been abandoned by their parents, but he was overwhelmed with the task of taking care of all of them! He spent a day and a half playing with the babies and doing crowd control while the Sanyu ladies fed them. “How was it?” I asked him at the end of the day. “Noisy, but well-managed” was his very serious reply!

Community Albums

“I wish all adults, and parents, and all guardians, would give respect to children because at one time in the future they’ll be big, and very useful people in our communities.” ~ This is the voice of Norbert, grinning as he speaks for the children of Kampala through his very own Community Album...

A month into my stay in Kampala, things are getting really exciting. Last week I had the opportunity to meet two guys who flew here from the UK to start something called Community Albums with our network projects. Through the group of 113 projects we have linked up here in Kampala, Viva is hosting Community Albums on its first venture outside of the UK.

Arriving in Uganda

It takes 18 hours to fly from my hometown to Kampala. That’s a lot of time to consider what you’re getting yourself into. If someone mentioned Uganda you might think of things like the Lord’s Resistance Army, child soldiers or AIDS orphans. Those things are all appropriate, but I was thinking more about what I can do to help! I’m going to Kampala to volunteer with Viva and help improve children’s lives, and I can’t wait.