Mother and child

Cooking chipati for a living

One thing that saddens me in my daily life here is the sight of so many child-mothers - girls barely reaching the age of puberty (ages 12 to 15) back-carrying their infants.  Sundays in church is a place where I see too many of them. Reports say

The care

that child-mothers is an off-shoot of poverty - not only in terms of material things but also of educational deprivation.  I learned that girls are easily enticed to have sexual relationship because they are promised financial support, something that they could not get from their family.

The pride

Most of these child-mothers are not formally married because to get married, the groom has to pay a dowry in cash and in kind to the bride's family.  And that could run into millions of shillings.

The joy

But whatever the circumstances are, the joy, pride, and care that a mother bestows a child are universal.

Children should not forget their mothers' birth-pangs.

Volunteers at work

That's me explaining SWOT analysis

Volunteers are told that we will probably come across many Africans during our volunteer time who are as skilled as we

Pius and his chicks

are, but may not have been exposed to the latest techniques for getting the job at hand done. 

Sandra in action

An important job in Africa is often that of the teacher rather than the do-er.  If we can teach 20 engineers a new technique for building safer bridges, we will have really made a difference - compare this to just building a bridge and not sharing our knowledge.  Pius works

Out of the poultry

at the Northern Uganda Youth Development Center.  It is a vocational school that trains the youth some skills such as carpentry, tailoring, catering, brick-making, metal fabrication, farming.

Martin, the one-legged volunteer

Hopefully, the youth will pick-up the skills and consequently engage in sustainable livelihood activities.

Vols at the Comboni Vocational School

VSO brings people together to share skills, creativity and learning to build a fairer world.