Adobe Stoves

In 2008, we built 35 stoves.

25 of these stoves were built at primary schools and each serves 300-1000 students daily.

5 of these stoves were built with women's groups, which resulted in the women building 16 stoves on their own.

150 people were trained as experts in stove construction and are now spreading this project throughout the community.

- Amber Coles, Uganda 2008 volunteer

Square-Foot Gardens

10 SFGs built by HELP with partners as examples

10 SFGs built by partners while HELP was still in Lugazi

100 SFGs were pledged to be built

Hundreds of thousands of seeds distributed

Public Health

Uganda volunteers have the opprotunity to work in a government hospital located in Lugazi. In 2008, volunteers set up public health seminars and volunteered in the maternity, infant, dental, and female wards.

In addition, we always have projects dealing with HIV/AIDS. In 2008, we taught 9 HIV-positive individuals tactics for keeping themselves healthy with a damaged immune system. We also taught them community mobilization skills, which they used to start support groups in their own communities. This brought services to AIDS-affected villagers who otherwise would not recieve help, because they live too far from the hospital. It also brought a sense of empowerment and purpose to those who we mentored to create the support groups. This project was initiated by Ashley Ward, a public health intern from Utah Valley University.

In 2007, HELP volunteers visited high school classes an taught AIDS awareness. One volunteer recalls:

"I absolutely loved teaching the HIV/AIDS classes to the youth. I truly felt that it was making a difference. All you would need to do is sit in on one of the question and answer sessions and you would understand how much our educating them is helping. Such sessions revealed a lot about the teen-culture. It truly was invigorating. I feel that the true measure on if a class it taught effectively is if questions are asked by the students at the end of the lecture. This really happened. We loved working with the kids."

-Alicia White, Uganda 2007 volunteer

Teaching English

In 2008, we taught English through our women's groups. We worked with three previously-established women's groups and taught them English through interesting lesson topics that were chosen by the women's group. These included: business training, nutrition, basic hygiene, stove construction, goal setting, sewing bags, painting toe nails, and making banana pancakes.

"The women loved each other and cared about the well-being of every member of the group.  They all wanted every member to benefit and they all pitched in whatever they could to make it happen.  These women were awesome."

- Amber Coles, Uganda 2008 volunteer

Construction

In 2008, HELP International built 3 class rooms. 2 of these class rooms were built at Seya Primary School. The school is located in a rural village, and previously held classes outside. By building a structure, classes were able to be held more regularly and didn't have to be postponed do to bad weather. Additionally, the classrooms provided space for teachers to use as a blackboard which greatly advanced teaching techniques.

The other room was built at Ssanyu Promary School. This school was designed to take in poor children from the community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend school. In addition, the school is a partial boarding school for girls who do not have a safe place to stay. HELP International provided 90% of the resources for construction, while the community provided the other 10% (which included locally made bricks). One of our volunteers worked with a local expert to design the structure. The school provided most of the labor by enlisting interested parents and community members. The classroom has allowed the school to add a new grade level, serving 60 new students.

We also had a volunteer who is majoring in construction management work with a local vocational school that was training young boys to be carpenters. The school was supported by revenues gained from student work, but was struggling because input costs were so high. The HELP volunteer taught the instructor and the students to draft their own designs, ending their dependance on purchasing professional designs in the capital, and giving them a competitive edge.

Libraries

We built a library at Lugazi Hillview, which is a new secondary school that now serves 50 students, but will be expanding over the next few years to serve roughly 200. The school was started by a member of Town Council because he saw the need to provide quality education to children of low-income families. In an after-school club that we held with the children once a week, we learned that none of them had access to books. After talking with the headmaster and the student we decided to build a library in the back of one of the classrooms. We partitioned the room and built selves on two of the sides. With the students, we painted a mural on one of the walls to create atmosphere and get them excited about the books. After speaking with the headmaster, we decided on the books we wanted to place in the library. The list was comprised of mostly classics as well as some popular literature like Harry Potter. In total, we placed 300 books at Lugazi Hillview and created a catalog system.

We also built a library at Little Angels Primary School. Because of the contact we were given with the LDS missionaries we were able to get many children's books donated. These included anthologies and class-sets. Additionally, we purchased some books to make the selection more complete. We wanted to maximize the number of students that had access to the library, so we invited four other primary schools (Trio, Biyenzika, Ssanyu, and Truelight) to participate in a meeting where all parties worked out a system to make the library communal among the local primary schools. We placed 1,800 books with these schools and created a catalog system.

Business

We worked closely with 8 businessmen to improve their business models, bookkeeping, employee standards, costumer service, ect.

We taught 30 women through a women's group. We taught how to create small income-generating projects from home, and how to manage such projects by separating business and personal funds.

We also taught two one-day seminars with a total of 40 small businessmen.

Additionally, HELP volunteers took two separate trips to refugee camps in Norther Uganda. Our 147 participants have been living off foriegn and government aid for the last 10 years. We worked w now planning to move back to villages, we taught basic business skills to help them make transition to self-reliance.

Children with Disabilities

In 2008, HELP volunteers started a support group for 33 mothers and their children with disabilities. Every Thursday, families would meet to learn topics from effective communication to nutrition. HELP trained local caregivers to visit families of children with disabilities. They would visit each family once a week to set goals and encourage family bonding. In accordance with the goals set and achieved by families, HELP International was able to place 3 wheelchairs, 4 walking aids, and 6 mattresses with children in the group.

A volunteer who helped head this project recounted an particularly profound experience he had with one of our group members, Sam:

"Sam suffers from hydrocephalus. He is also blind and has no ability to walk due to severe deformities in his legs. Sam is very poor and his family cannot afford a new wheelchair for him to use. Through our home visits, Sam has learned how to crawl. As a result of reaching this goal, HELP was able to provide Sam with a new wheelchair customized to his body and conditions. Now, Sam can crawl to his new wheelchair, and use the wheelchair all by himself, giving him the freedom of mobility. One thing I learned from Sam: In America, we see the wheelchair as a form of confinement, but in Africa, the wheelchair sets someone free."

- James Brown, Uganda 2008 Volunteer