Working with the Street children…the real story

Out in Uganda, near Kampala are many different fancy and expensive hotels, along with several tourist attractions, clean beds, good food and good entertainment. However, not far from where these hotels and lavish food , lies the devastating life and living conditions of the slums.

It is filled with families and young street children living here, sleeping in the dirt and sewage, not being able to eat anything apart from the waste from the local garbage collection points and the bins from the hotels (the food we leave on our plate when we are full up!)

Many of the children here have lost their parents to illness such as Aids , so are now living alone on the streets, looking after their siblings from a young age, and having to work to get money for food, rather than going to school. Many of the young girls fall into the devastating world of prostitution to earn their living, as early as 13 years of age.

On their last visit to the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre with the Yebo team, we spent a great day with them, and this year we will be working even more with them. At the end of the first day that they spent with us away from their home on the streets, one young girl, aged around 14, told our volunteers that tonight when she went back to where she stayed in the slums, she would be working as a prostitue to get money for food and her siblings as her parents were no longer alive.  This is especially sad, as the reality hits us after our fun and moving day with them, that we cannot  take the bad things out of their life, but we are able to try and make a difference in a positive way.

The children are also victims to serious illness from wounds and cuts that they have from their lifestyle and where they live. They are victims of physical abuse, being beaten and abused on a regular basis.  Their life is ‘The slums’ and with no education, and no chance of gaining one, their futures could only be changed by those more fortunate and willing to help.

Allowing these children to experience wildlife, have a day out from the streets and to be educated on conservation, as well as therapeutic and creative activities, is something that we are working hard to acheive into a sustainable year long project for them.

Patrick and William, who run the orphanage and charity ‘Raising up hope for Uganda’ also work with the children on the streets, going to see them, trying to provide them with a hot meal, playing fun games with them and washing and dressing their wounds.  Just a young man himself, at the age of 20, Patrick is doing a remarkable job in his quest to help and support all of these children, as he himself was once living on the streets.

Below is an article written for us to share with you by Patrick from a recent day spent in the slums with the children.

“Exactly 10am in the morning and I was already in Kisenyi slum trying to work with the street
children, like always the children were so excited to see me immediately and a couple of the children started showing me their wounds that they got in various cases, I went and purchased things that I will use such as gauze, and some other things that we use to clean the wounds, many wounds are
treated such as in the picture.

After this, I encouraged them to go and have a bath which worked out very well though some they dont want to. After that, the children were given some fresh fruits such as mangoes and some drinks. all were told to go and play soccer which was good.”

Patrick, 2011

Yebo FREE Training and information days

7th and 8th May 2011

The Yebo training and information weekend this year will take place on 7th an 8th May 2011. It runs over the weekend and covers the following topics:

Topics covered

Art therapy-Claire O’Donoghue, Art therapist
Music Therapy- Catrin Piears-Banton, music theapist
Play therapy- Veronica Etherington , Play therapist
Equine assisted therapy- Wendy Price
Volunteers experiences- Volunteers of 2010
Childhood bereavement and trauma- Heather Tilley
Primate behaviour and conservation- Ian Redmond/ Alasdair Davies
Street children in Uganda- Patrick Ssenyonjo
The work of a children’s orphanage in Uganda- Patrick Ssenyonjo

More details

ALL welcome

You may attend one or both days

You will receive a certificate of attendance

FREE of charge

Venue: Chestnut lodge, Loseley Park, Artington, Guildford, Surrey

Contact us or get involved:

If you would like to attend then you can show your interest in the following ways:

Join our facebook event group:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147959201930088

Fill out a form:

http://www.yeboyes.org/machform/view.php?id=9

or for more information please contact lisa.davies@yeboyes.org

Last year was a great success, lots of fun and was a great opportunity to get involved in the organisation and learn more about our work.

It was also a great place to meet other volunteers with interests similar to your own.

This year we are adding topics that weren’t covered last year.

Our music and art therapy topics will be workshops this year and great fun.

We again have some fantastic speakers and are looking forward to meeting you if you decide to attend.

A day away from the orphanage to learn about chimpanzees

Today we visited the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre with 43 children from Raising up hope Orphanage in Uganda. The children arrived at around 9.30 in the morning and were very excited about the day.

We were warmly welcomed and the day was part of the support programs that are funded by Yebo and run as an outreach project by the staff from the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre.

The children started the day by singing songs about wildlife which they enjoyed alot.  They were then asked to draw pictures of wildlife that they had seen on their last visit so they all drew pictures of their favourite animals, which was great fun and the children all got really involved in the activities.

The children then had a break with some food and drink which they always thoroughly enjoy.

The children were then given a tour of the chimpanzee sanctuary and were taught all about the food that the chimpanzees get given.  The children all appear to love these chimpanzees now as they get to know each one of them more every time they visit UWEC.

Helen, who works as a care giver to the chimpanzees, works with the children every time they come to the centre and helps them learn more about the chimpanzees each time.  She showed them how she feeds the chimpanzees and what they like to eat at the different times of the day.

Esther, who is a 13 year old girl, used to live in the slums and suffered alot of difficulties in her life.  She now lives safely at the orphanage and is seen in the picture learning how to feed the chimpanzees.

The children were then able to eat their own lunch and had some drinks which they all enjoyed.  They watched other wildlife around them while they ate.

The children have 2 favourite chimpanzees at UWEC called Chan and Matoke.  Patrick, who is the manager of the orphanage tells us that the children have found a lot of similarities in the chimpanzees stories to that of their own personal ones. He said this helps them to understand more about the chimpanzees lives, the way that they are feeling, and also that they are not alone.

After lunch, the children were asked to go back to the chimpanzee sanctuary to learn more about the chimps. We are really fortunate that every time we go to UWEC, we learn something new and different from the previous visit.  For example, this time, Helen, the caregiver of the chimpanzees, told us that every morning chimps are given sugar canes to brush their teeth which we found really interesting.

We have found that the children are really wanting to help the chimpanzees and are gaining a bigger interest in their care and how they arrived at the sanctuary due to their history and backgrounds.  For Yebo, this is great as we feel it is a good step in one of our aims of supporting primate conservation education within the Yebo projects.

Our aim is to continue these outreach projects and expand them every month so that the children are given more opportuities.  The money for this particular day was donated by a previous volunteer who fundraised.

When our group of volunteers visit for 1 month in July 2011 we will aim to work together with Raising up hope orphanage and the sanctuaries further to increase the amount of support we are able to provide in various educational and therapeutic ways.

Outreach projects in Uganda

Since July 2010, when our group of volunteers left Uganda, we have been lucky enough to fund some trips for the children from Raising up hope orphanage to visit UWEC, The Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre based in Entebbe.  As we worked closely with the staff at UWEC during our trip, organising trips for the children with educational and therapeutic communication programs, we have been able to recruit a team of local staff and volunteers from Entebbe who have helped to run trips for the children while we are not there.

This was a great milestone for us as sustainability of our projects is a vital part of our work and the progress that we are making as an organisation.

The team was led by Patrick, William, Isacc, Mukassa, Harriet, Julie, Helen and many more of the team at UWEC who we wish to say a big congratulations to for doing such a great job.

The children were able to walk around the centre, learning about all of the animals with a specific focus on the chimpanzees, where Helen, one of the keepers, spoke intensely to the children about her own experiences and the chimpanzee’s traumas.  The children were encouraged to choose a chimpanzee and write a story about them, winning a prize for getting the name of the chimp right and learning about their background.

After this the children were given lunch funded by Yebo and spent the afternoon with the UWEC team being creative with writing stories and drawing/painting about their experiences at the centre that day.

Right after food children were asked to do some animal sounds which was great and it sounded fantastic.
The children were asked to go and meet Helen again, Helen  is the lady that works with and feeds the chimpazee’s. The children were more that happy to see Helen again. On the last trip, Helen made a friendship with the children and she had promised them sweets after they had answered questions that she asked them.  All the children were very happy as they answered all of the questions correctly about primate conservation.

Helen started sharing with them the story of a chimpanzee called Matoke ” Matoke was rescued from  the hunters who killed his parents in the forest, Matoke was loved by his parents so much, so when they were killed  he couldnt believe that
they had sadly died,  and he stayed with the body of his mother until one of the hunters came and cut one of his fingers off and took him away. They took Matoke to their home and he was always tied in one place and they never fed him. He was always sad and he had no friends, but one day some good people came to rescue Matoke from the bad guys, Matoke was confused about what was happening at this point due to the trauma that he had just suffered. Matoke was brought to UWEC zoo were he got good care, love and enough food. It took time for Matoke to get used to living here and to the keepers at the centre.  It took time to learn to trust them but eventually he became very trusting and he is now happy with many other chimpanzee friends.

From this, the children were able to relate to this story as most of them have come from a  very abusive background that is difficult for people to understand.  They were also brought to the orphanage just as Matoke was brought to the orphanage of the UWEC zoo.

The children were very sad about what had happened to Matoke but happy that he was brought to UWEC  zoo and many children sat down to thank Helen for what she is doing for Matoke.

Each of these days costs Yebo £150, and we are running out of funding to help run them.  We are beginning to start our progress into our UK fundraising teams, but always need the extra help.  If you would like to donate any amount of money then please do get in touch with us to really help make a difference in these children’s lives.

lisa.davies@yeboyes.org

Chimpanzee Eden with the children

Today we went to Chimpanzee Eden with some of the older children from Letaba school.  Chimpanzee Eden is a Jane Goodall institute. It is the first and only chimpanzee sanctuary in South Africa and takes in chimpanzees that have been misplaced from their natural habitats, abused and used in circus’s etc.

Phillip, the director of the sanctuary helped us to make the visit possible for some of the children who were very keen on having the experience of meeting the chimpanzees, Phillip and hearing about the sanctuary and some of the things that they did there.

We were also very keen to visit with the children because of the link to the children’s book, ‘My sanctuary, a place called home’  written by Doreen Ingram, who has visited the sanctuary on many occasions.  She wanted to write a book that explained in detail some of the chimpanzees stories that could be understood by children, and at the same time, educating people about chimpanzee conservation.

This book has been used by Yebo and the children that we work with, and has been a great help to some of our activities. We have been in touch with Doreen a lot who has also been very supportive of our work with book donations and encouragement.  We are very thankful to Doreen for writing such a great book and for the support and help.

The children that we chose to go to the sanctuary were more, able bodied older children, who we picked due to their understanding, but also their commitment to helping us as volunteers with the younger children that we have been working with over the past 2 weeks.  They have also been a great support to us in our work, and are very resposible young people, despite their disabilities.  They are learners at Letaba school, very good friends and supportive of eachother, and very accepting of their disabilities.  One of the learners that we took had very poor eye site but could still see the chimpanzees when closer to the enclosures.  He also said he liked listening to the sound of their different calls, panthoots etc! He was taking pictures of them on his mobile phone and was very responsive to watching them, despite his eyesite problems.  The other learners also enjoyed the visit and had a lot of questions for Phillip.

They also compared some of the differnt personalities of the chimpanzees to some of the children that they know at the school, and found this very funny.  They were also interested to hear that the chimpanzees were all orphans and were being looked after in this sanctuary.  We also compared some of the cheekiness and fighting of the chimps to their school sometimes.

We thank Phillip, Doreen and all those who made it possible for us to bring the children and our volunteers to the sanctuary for the day.  We are now looking into sponsorship for the school to bring more of the learners here on a regular basis, and to help them with their education and self esteem.

Observations of the children by Yebo volunteers

Today we were lucky enough to again work with 2 groups of children from Letaba school. Although this turned in to 2 groups of children with added extras!

We are gradually trying to focus our activities more on feelings and  animals as we go along which also helps with our observations.  These are now being written up for Susan, the deputy head teacher, so that she will be able to use these and share them with the teachers.

A lot of the work today was around using sock puppets and drama/stories.  Some great work was being done in the 2 groups.

Our observations have interested us over the past 2 weeks. Each day we debrief on the work we have been doing.  We have managed to identify the children that have needed one to one care and attention which we have made our best efforts to give.

Some of the children are very able and very confident, always wanting to get involved in the activities, others are less confident and need help to join in.  Below are just a few copies of some of our observations from the past 2 weeks, all names have been changed for confidentiality. All of the photos on this page are not linked in anyway with the notes/observations of children.

Greg

Has a lot of confidence and likes to join in with activities.  Always appears to share with his friends and is very independant.  Does not like you to help him.

Thomas

Very withdrawn, does not speak.  Needs help to do painting and gets involved.  Doesn’t like to sing but smiles when others do. Has head turned away at the start of every session but will begin to move it round by he end of each one.  Appears to not like being around or near the other children but likes one to one in the corner of the room where he responds better.

Sarah

Very sad eyes, takes a while for her to smile.  Is happy when given a lot of attention and needs help with building confidence.  Appears quite shy and needs help to interact with activities although is very able bodied.  Loves making ‘girly’ activities such as necklaces.  Was very shy around the animals and swimming but appeared to enjoy it alot.

Clark

Very challenging behaviour.  Bites hand, can hit other children, very hyperactive, has a very short attention span.  Gets very frustrated when attention not given to him.  Needs one to one.  Likes to do activities when prompted and very proud to show others his work.  Very kind at times and will help others.  Does understand when spoken to, liked animals, very gentle and loved swimming.  Lots of energy.  Very challenging to work with.  Likes singing and will join in with songs. Cries when  frustrated and gets angry very quickly.

Susie

Very quiet.  Can speak well.  When in large groups becomes very shy, and comes out of herself more when working closely with a volunteer.  Looks worried and doesn’t like to have eye contact. Makes very creative pictures and activities.   Gets upset and very shy if you try to make/encourage her do something.  Likes to be given options but struggles when around other children.

Vincent

Very independent and has a good sense of humour.  Although gets annoyed when given too much attention.  Likes to be around his friends and those who understand his disability. Likes to be helped by his friends, and laughs when volunteers approach him with caution.  Very bright, has learned to adapt well to his physical disabilities and thinks it is funny when people presume he cannot do things for himself. Smiles alot.  Does like to join in, but on his terms only.  Likes to watch others doing activities.

Sulley

Appears to be very attention seeking and never wants to leave your side, always wants to steal everything you have on you such as a phone or a camera and loves you telling him he is cheeky but will always give things back.  Very happy when able to express himself though dancing, likes a large space to do activities.  Was very outgoing and not so attention seeking when out of his school at other activity environments.  When in this situation, his personality and behaviours appear to be completely different and alot more positive. Appears very caring and enjoys singing.  Very good at dancing!

Mary

Likes to be on own and doesn’t like any physical contact with volunteers or children.  Won’t join in activities if asked or encouraged to do so.  If left on own, will do an activity when you are not giving her any attention. As soon as you look at her she will stop and sit in the corner.  Can say yes or no but very quietly and goes in and out of the classroom at her own accord.  Likes to watch and observe others.  Doesn’t interact with the other children.

Creative

Very shy, does not give eye contact, was very scared of animals and of volunteers.  Would stay with one of the teachers but did not want to interact with any activities or be around anyone.

Our volunteers reflect

Although sometimes our work can be frustrating, it has been very beneficial to the children, teachers, carers and to the volunteers in this challenging environment.  The volunteers on this trip have worked very hard in all of the activities and days spent on this trip. This had been a great experience to learn, and give at the same time.