As our days in Gulu come to a close and we reflect on all the things we’ve seen, the conversations we’ve had, and the people we’ve met, we keep coming back to a common theme: Ugandans have a deep understanding of their own problems and a solid grasp on what needs to be done to fix them.  There are obviously many challenges, funding being the biggest, and much that needs to be done, but the knowledge and understanding here, on the ground is much further along than the international community assumes.

In our time here, we’ve seen so many things that make it obvious that Ugandans are extremely dedicated to their country’s progress.  Obviously many of the NGOs run by other countries are doing good work, but we’ve been most impressed by the Ugandan run organizations and entirely local efforts.  People wear sensitization shirts that read important messages like “wash your hands after using the latrine,” and “stop gender violence for happy, healthy families.”  TV and radio commercials promote condom use and have slogans like “get off the sexual network and live a healthy life with your partner.”   A few communities that we’ve visited have performed their own dramas displaying their understanding of human rights, what these rights entitle you to, and why everyone should consider them in daily life.  There are anti-malaria campaigns in which trucks drive around, playing music, handing out information about preventing malaria, and selling well-priced bed nets and mosquito zappers. 

More than these general observations, the leaders in the community that we’ve met have given us great hope.  People like Pamela (GWED-G founder and director) are entirely dedicated to their people and Uganda’s development and have already made great progress in their work.  After speaking with the Speaker of the District, Osaira Martin Metendezi whose last name actually means “revolutionary,” it was obvious that he understood the needs of his own people, understood the reasons that they aren’t getting what they need, and had every intention of making change in the coming year as he runs for District Chairman, which is analogous to our mayor.  We have been amazed as to how many people here are involved in some sort of development work, whether it be through working for NGOs or volunteering in the community.  In an effort to plan our bee keeping income-generating project, we met with Samuel today.  In the last three years, Samuel has taken it upon himself to become a bee expert, and he now has big plans to become “a pilot person in his community” by getting people involved in this income generating projects by consulting them with all the necessary information.  All the local doctors that we’ve met have been involved in some form of community outreach and are willing to work with NGO’s to plan more in future.  For example, Dr. Joseph from the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital has offered to come with us on Monday as we visit the parish where we plan to implement our HIV/AIDS education and treatment campaign.

Despite all the hardship we’ve seen, this message of hope is such an uplifting, encouraging thought to leave Uganda with.  The people on the ground really know what they need and what needs to be done to get there.  This recurring message has really made us believe in GlobeMed’s partnership model and has made us so grateful for our relationship with GWED-G.  GWED-G has great plans for the future and has the impressive staff and strong presence in the community necessary to really make change.  We’re so happy and also proud to work with them.  Countries like Uganda obviously need the help of the international community, but it’s important that the international community also recognizes all the work already being done and the impressive progress being made by the Ugandans themselves.  After all, Northern Uganda is recovering from twenty-five years of war.  They need time to get back on their feet.  The ideas and dedication are there; it’s support and funding that is missing.  

Singing along to 90’s American music all along the way, off-roading to find a lion!, asking our wildlife guide “What’s the gun for?” and hearing him say “To guide you” with no further explanation, watching a hungry elephant knock down a tree, seeing a giraffe pee for a ridiculous amount of time, and eating as much as possible at the fixed-[over] priced lunch buffet.  What a day.

Us and some giraffes… 

We’re planning an all-American BBQ for the GWED-G staff and all the friends we have made here in Gulu for tonight.  Wish us luck as we try our best to morph Ugandan local foods into something that resembles a BBQ.

No ground beef so we’re planning to aggressively chop, no mayonnaise so we’ll make a nice cabbage and carrot salad and call it “coleslaw,” definitely no cheese so hamburgers it is, corn on the cob made with maize… we’ll just have to sprinkle some sugar on top so it resembles our American sweet corn, and some baked beans that will be fried.  And finally, the grand finale—there’s no grill, so we’ll be using a grate atop a traditional, open fire cooking pot. 

We’re so grateful that beer is popular internationally.  It might be Bell (the locally brewed beer,) not Budweiser, but we know everyone will enjoy.  

Before we left, the GROW team approached Columbia global health professor Alastair Ager for some research advice that would help us develop our projects.  Being already familiar with Gulu and public health initiatives, he suggested an exercise we could conduct in a short time and without extensive research experience.  The result was the prioritization activity that we did with members of Loyobo Village. 

The point of the activity is to get a sense of what people find most important and why.  While it’s obvious that access to clean water, medical care, nutritious food, and education are vital, the ranking of these resources varies greatly along with the justification for the order.  Instead of assuming that we know which issues are most important to northern Ugandans, the exercise allowed members of a GWED-G beneficiary community to voice their own opinions.  And instead of simply talking about these issues in a formal interview setting, we used physical objects to represent priorities.  This made it fun and interactive but also extremely informative.  In our case, a jerry-can symbolized water, a rock symbolized land, a notebook symbolized education, a cassava symbolized food, and pills symbolized healthcare.  

 After arriving in Loyobo and introducing ourselves to the community, we drew a line in the dirt and the numbers 1-5, explaining that each number represented spots for the five items.  We divided the community members into groups of five, and varied the groups by age and gender to see if these factors affected responses.  

The first group consisted of five middle-aged women who seemed to be vocal members of the group.  Laying the objects on the ground in front of them, we explained that we were most interested in the reasoning behind their ordering and that each participant was entitled to her own opinion.  Each woman put the five objects in a different order and each had an equally convincing justification for her decisions.  For instance, one woman who placed the rock first argued that with land comes both food and money associated with crops.  Another defended her decision of prioritizing water by explaining that without safe and reliable water, children are not healthy enough to attend school or able to take medications properly.

It quickly became clear to us that the five resources we focused on were parts of a complex cause-and-effect web where everything is related.  The diversity of responses within and across the groups revealed that it is impossible to isolate any single issue as the most important since nearly all aspects of welfare are related.  The conversations among the participants also showed that everything was relative, and several people rearranged their priorities after hearing the explanations of others. 

Although responses differed from person to person, we noticed some trends in priorities based on age.  One of the groups of five consisted of primary school-aged children, fresh out of class and still in their uniforms.  During their exercise, land was consistently ranked as least important, while resources like education and food were generally ranked higher.  We inferred that while land ownership and harvesting directly affect adults who farm, children are much more removed from these issues and find day-to-day food and school needs most vital. 

On the other end of the age spectrum, there was a group of four women and an eighty-year-old man (see below).  After each of the women made their rankings, he would move the cassava up to the first position and push the pills to the end of the line.  The women finally became annoyed and, after a good laugh, reasoned that he was preoccupied with food because he was so old and only wanted to enjoy himself before he died.  Curious, we then asked him to prioritize based on community instead of personal needs.  Just as the women predicted, he then ranked medical access higher than food, recognizing that healthcare was a significant need for the rest of his village.  It was a humorous display showing the effect of age on priorities as well as considerations of individual needs versus larger community ones.  

The exercise was a great opportunity for us to observe how people view their needs and the relations between various resources.  We left with a much better understanding of the ways different development initiatives can indirectly affect each other and the old man got to keep the cassava.  Win-win situation.

Exciting days here at GWED-G. Maya left this morning, but the rest of the team remains for another week and in these final days we’ve begun developing projects for next year in conjunction with Pamela and the rest of the team. After conducting some interviews within the community, we identified HIV prevention and treatment as a recurring issue for Northern Ugandans. In the past our projects have focused on income generation through goat raising and farming, through which families are able to rise above abject poverty, and improve their quality of life, health included but not prioritized. In the coming year our focus on health equity will be more direct. The plan is to implement a program of HIV education, along with free, in-village HIV testing, and free condom distribution. Following this first tier of wide-spread education, focus will be given to HIV positive pregnant women. These women (and their husbands) will receive personal home visits with education on antenatal care. Finally, the women identified as most vulnerable from the group who received home visits will be given an income generating beekeeping project including hives, training and necessary equipment. Priority will be given to pregnant mothers and to women who have little means of personal financial support, and do not have the strength to take part in more labor intensive forms of self-support such as farming. So that’s the plan. It’s amazing how quickly things come together, and how excited we all are to get back to school and get to work.

We’re sorry that it’s taken a while to get this post up. Since last Saturday, we’ve been busy visiting the seven families who were beneficiaries of the goat-raising income generation project we funded this year.  We’ve now visited all of the families; we’ve seen a baby goat named “Hope” and seven pregnant females. We’ve witnessed an epic chicken capture and received two chickens as gifts of appreciation. Best of all we’ve seen the beginning of the project’s effect on our partner communities and the areas in which there is still so much more to do.  

Throughout our campaign, we emphasized the tangible, personal impact that this project would have, and in these last few days, we’ve witnessed this impact ourselves.  First, we want to thank all of our donors who made our campaign so successful, far surpassing the project’s fundraising goal of $2,500. Thanks to GWED-G’s meticulous planning and implementation, every dollar you gave has brought these seven families closer to being able to pay school fees, afford medical care, purchase clothing, and have an adequate amount of nutritious food. As Pamela, the director of GWED-G, said to us, the income that the goats provide will bring these struggling families closer to accessing their human right to food, education, and health.

How can the gift of a few goats accomplish all of this?  

In our project, each family received at least 2 female goats and 1 male. Every family now has at least 1 pregnant goat, and a few of the females have already given birth.

 It turns out that goats and goat meat are very valuable.  Because the meat is considered tastier than beef or chicken, it is one of the most expensive on the local market. When the female goats reproduce, the offspring or meat can be sold for between 50,000 and 100,000 Ugandan shillings. To put that in perspective:

Consultation with a doctor at a private hospital: 5,000 shillings

1 kg of beans: 2,000 shillings

1 bundle of Bo (kale-like vegetable): 500-2,000 shillings (depending on the season)

1 secondhand outfit for a child: 10,000 shillings

1 semester of primary school for a child in a rural village: 30,000-50,000 shillings

(2,000 Ugandan shillings = approximately $1)

Goat’s milk can play a key role in meeting the crucial nutritional needs of young children, and the meat can feed the entire family. Goats are easy to raise, even for young kids and the elderly; they are nearly self-sufficient, requiring only grass to graze, water to drink, and occasional veterinary care if they get sick. To help the families deal with this expense, GWED-G vaccinated all of the goats before distributing them and brings a vet to the visit the families in the field.

For most of the families, the income and nutrition that the goats provide will give them a major foothold as they work to pull themselves out the poverty trap. However, for others, especially those headed by widowed grandmothers, the trap is so deep that more support is needed.  Stay tuned as we introduce you to some of the project’s families in coming posts!  

GROW team: “What’s your name?”

Ugandan child: “I’m fine.”

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After we do something stupid like spill water on ourselves:

Ugandan: “I’m sorry.”

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Ugandan in any and every situation: “Nnn. Nnnnnnnn.”

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GROW team: “Do you want ____?”

Ugandan: “Yes please. No.” (that means “no,” btw) 

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Ugandan: (while pointing at us) “Muzungo!!!!!” (Acholi for white person)