Orphanage + Widows + Aids Awareness...

I have spent the last few days staying in Asayo's Wish Orphanage in Kabermaido.

I had met the project co-ordinator (Megan McMillan) from an organization called Trivani Foundation http://www.trivanifoundation.org/ in Soroti .We decided to link up with the possibilities of adding activities in Kabermaido to the ecotourism programme I am coming up with in the Teso region.

Trivani Foundation http://www.trivanifoundation.org/ are doing alot of good in the Kabermaido area working on various projects including :-

Asayo's Wish orphanage https://www.asayoswish.com - Founded by Sarah Asayo It contains has over 150 children and also a good medical clinic which is funded by other American sponsors.

It is very comfortable and well run, the children seem to be very happy. While there I set up a football tournament for the kids which was alot of fun. There is also a resident Crested Crane bird that lives on site (it is the national bird of Uganda)

Widows Necklace Programme - Widows are thought of as inferior by other community members. Trivani has come in to give them a chance to create a new sense of hope for themselves. 

They are trained how to make paper bead necklaces. These

are then sold either locally or in USA with alot of the profits being put back into developing the business further. There

are almost 1000 widows. While in Kabermaido, I took part in and photographed their celebrations and workshops.

Stay Alive - This is an AID's / HIV awareness programme run in several schools.

The children learn info and put it together into song, dance and drama. It is a great was to educate the children of risks, how to behave and what can be done to prevent the disease from spreading.

We visited a school for a very entertaining performance.

- On a side note, the best pork I have ever had and probably the best food in Uganda is from the small Pork hut in one of the back streets of Kabermaido village. It is a simple hut with grass roof - the guy kills a fresh pig most days, cooks it up with potatoes, tomatoes and onions and serves with fresh chillis from his chilli tree for the price of $2 per kg - a bargain and absolutley delicious!

If you are interested in helping, donating or even visiting and becoming a part of these projects follow the following website links and contact the organizations directly (mention that you were passed on by Sam D'Cruz - so that your inquiry is directed to the correct person)

http://www.trivanifoundation.org/

https://www.asayoswish.com

Ancient African Cave Paintings

Have been exploring the cave paintings at Nyero Cves the last couple of days.

The Nyero Cave’s are thought to have been inhabited centuries ago by a minority race of yellow skinned humans, very different from surrounding people. This rare race painted the walls of the caves with series of circles, boats and wildlife etc.




It is thought to be strange that that there are images of boats – the background of these people was thought to be cultivating land and cattle herding, due to the cave location not being near the water – however the paintings must have been done by people who fished the rivers or lakes.




Local belief has it that the tribe of yellow people visited the lake where the Basoga tribe lived and intermarried, this possibly resulted in the Bakenye tribe which still exists today in small numbers living along the water’s edge.



Eventually, it is believed that the Iteso people met the minority group at Nyero Caves and either drove them away or wiped them out.

Red Cross Uganda

Whilst in Katakwi doing research on the Lake Opeta Conservation site I got to know the Red Cross team for the region. They are doing a great job working on disaster reduction / prevention.

I went with them on one of the trips and can officially say I am now a Red Cross Volunteer (I staples the surveys together at the office).

In actual fact the Red Cross were working close to one of my project sites - Lake Bisina, so they dropped me off so I could do take a fishing boat into the lake to research it.

Anyway here are a few pics of them hard at work... and one of me stealing one of their bikes...