As members know, for several years Winchester Rotary has supported a number of health and education projects in the Kasese region of south west Uganda, in partnership with Great Lakes Peace Centre (GLPC) and the Rotary Club of Kasese Snow Peaks. Two years ago, a party of eight visited Uganda to see the projects at first hand. A further visit was made recently by a group of five (all of whom had made the earlier trip): President Paul Russell, Gill Russell and Dr Kordo Saeed, together with Kordo’s wife Naz and son Zephan (13) returned after a 15-day visit on Sunday 12 January. Unfortunately, recent events prevented Nick Bell from coming along.
As well as the project visits, we were also delighted to attend two fellowship meetings of Kasese Snow Peaks Rotary, as guests of their indefatigable President, GLPC CE, and our host, Afan Abdallah. During our time in Kasese, Afan and his family and colleagues looked after us wonderfully.
A report on the trip, written by the youngest team member, follows:
“On Boxing Day, I travelled over 6,000 miles to a small country in Africa called Rwanda. The flight took 8 and a half hours, but it did give to the time to watch a ton of films on the video screens.
I go to Romsey School and my form tutor Miss Downer and my Head of School Mrs Eagle (a geography teacher) were both supportive of me to go. They knew that this trip was not going to be a holiday but more of an opportunity to learn more about other countries and cultures.
We arrived in Kigali on a rather warm morning to be greeted by visa and border control staff who were friendly and kind. We met our friends then after a quick Fanta and some chips, we hit the road for the long drive to Kasese in Uganda. The scenery in Rwanda was amazing with lots of rolling hills and banana plants growing everywhere.
After passing through the border at Gatuna, we began the 4-hour drive to Kasese stopping on the way to waterproof the luggage on the roof from the coming rainstorm which passed quickly. We finally arrived at the hotel and hit the restaurant to have the best masala chips! (Chips covered in a spicy sauce) and then bed!
The next few days went by so quickly for me, even though I missed my pet chicken at home, but I got to see my Ugandan friends again and together we all visited a few projects that GLPC have been sponsoring. We got to visit some schools both in Kasese and in the surrounding hills too. One school was designed especially for children with a range of physical disabilities, and we learned how the school encourage the children to help each other in their daily lives as the school was for boarders. I thought this was a great idea and it really encouraged people to look after one another. We visited a school called Tahweed which had been building a classroom to make the school bigger 2 years ago. The classroom was now finished, and the school were able to use it for the P6 year group. This classroom was funded by Winchester Rotary who are big supporters of GLPC the organisation we had been visiting with.
We also visited a project where music was being taught in small groups by a man named Oxford, to children who were from poor backgrounds. The reason why he was doing this was to teach the children a skill so that they could use it in the future to earn themselves money playing in bars etc.
I helped to dig some foundations to a new toilet block in a secondary school in the centre of Kasese and got quite a bit of dirt in my shoes that took some time to get off!
One of the saddest things I did see was a resettlement camp that had been set up by GLPC to help people who had been displaced because of a river flooding in the area just north of Kasese. These people had lost their homes and all their belongings and had managed to escape with just the clothes on their backs. We took lots of clothes and bedding material to this camp and it was given out to those who needed it. It looks like nearly everyone needed it to be honest and we could have taken much more if we had the space. It seems so unfair that people have been left with nothing.
The whole trip was a real eye opener for me. It made me appreciate so much about my life. It made me feel so glad that I go to a good school with resources for everyone and lots of teachers who are knowledgeable in their chosen subject. It made me grateful for the friends that I have, the wardrobe full of clothes, a comfortable bed to sleep in and the roof over my head. Some people don’t have any of these things.
Zephan Saeed”
As well as the team visiting existing projects and learning about future prospects, Kordo and Naz, together with Arafat Bwambale of GLPC, held a well-attended scientific training day, at which Rotarians and GLPC staff assisted – see separate blog article by Kordo.
For a gallery of photos, click here – we continue to add!
Brilliant report. Well done Zephan.
Thank you 🙏🙏