Mothers or Missiles

16

16 lives

16 hearts

16 mothers

16

Sixteen is the number of women who bleed to death during childbirth every day in Uganda. On June 11th 2012, a group of brave women took their concerns about this epidemic to the supreme court in Kampala. Global eyes turned to the nation when Jennifer Anguko a mother of three bled to death while waiting to give birth in a government hospital in October 2010. While the maternal mortality rate in Uganda has decreased significantly the nation still remains one of the most dangerous place in the world for expecting mothers. For every dollar the Ugandan government receives in foreign aid it decreases national spending by 57 cents, and hundreds of medical positions in the nation remain vacant.

Reading story after story about this tragedy plaguing the nation of Uganda I cannot help but think of all of the children at Humble who told me they wanted to grow up to become doctors and nurses. Yet many of the students leaving their p7 classrooms this year across the country will never have the privilege of stepping foot into a classroom again.

From http://thefeministwire.com/

Maternal mortality, like malaria or HIV/AIDS is not something that a quick fix will solve. The answers are not easy or simple. But what we know above any other variable thought to improve quality of life, education is the most important factor in improving the the social and economic welfare of a nation. http://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/reducing_mm.pdf

Blog Traffic

SO I have been struggling to garner more blog traffic....I am not an avid blogger, or a very good one :-S BUT this is a cause that is near and dear to my heart and one I would give a kidney to support if I had to. I hope to keep both my kidneys in tact for the time being, but I did take out an advertisement on facebook! So look for the Humble School facebook ad between 6/15-6/22 :-) 

Boys of Humble play director

Every parent hopes to have a happy and healthy child from the moment they find out they are welcoming a new bundle of joy well past the day their 18th birthday. Despite all of the hardships the children at Humble face every day, the faculty and staff do any amazing job making sure each and every student that steps foot in the school is happy and healthy. The smiles on the faces of those children is a sight I hope to never forget and I cannot wait to see again. After school play time was the time our group enjoyed the most, wether doing hair, playing soccer, jumping rope or directing movies--the afternoon dismissal bell meant it was time to have some fun!  Not every blog post is light spirited or happy, but I believe it is important to remember how happy and hopeful these amazing children are so today I will share a movie a came across while looking through my flip cam over the weekend. I would have liked to share one from the girls and one from the boys, but unfortunately the girls were not as skilled behind the camera ;-) 

Today I would like to take some time to share with you again what my vision is for my 2013 trip to Uganda. As I have said before some of the children who leave humble after grade seven will never again step foot inside a classroom. This is something that as Americans we often take for granted. I was a rarity in that I always loved school but my peers more often than not cheered for missing school. This is something you will not find in the children at Humble! They love to learn, they want to learn, they are eager to learn and they understand that an education is not only a privilege but likely their only opportunity to be the change they want to see for their community. For those of you who do not know, information technology is a BOOMING industry in many developing countries. Think back to the United States circa 1989-1995, that is where many developing nations are today. There are a multitude of opportunities for growth and development and the children are infatuated with the technology visitors bring from the states. When I arrived in Mukono I was knee deep in my pursuit of a certificate in web publishing, and spending time with all of the children had Lindsay and I reminiscing about Oregon Trail day in our computer class. Then a light went off, why do these children not have access to real computers where they can play educational games and learn everything from word processing to html coding, the way we did in elementary school. I could not help but think how these skills would help the children communicate with others around the world, garner support for their secondary education and provide marketable skills for them to enter the work force with. I have been working with textbook vendors, computer manufactures and local nonprofits to bring ten desk top computers with non-internet dependent educational software to the children at Humble. Ester and I spent some time doing the math and with these computers each child would get computer time every week. Their time in the lab would fit in with the core curriculum and the older student would have the opportunity to learn advanced skills after school. Ideally I will be there for 8-10 weeks with another volunteer (who is a bit more tech savvy) to teach the children and staff at humble not only how to use the computers but how to fix them if they break--making the program more self sustaining. All of the money I raise will be going to support this effort which the administration at Humble is very excited about! For now I leave you with some images of the "computers" the children have now. I believe they have 5 of them, and while they are a phenomenal resource the older children in particular need experience with fully operational full sized computers.

Message from Ester

I have been busy busy busy in my US life since I've returned from Uganda. Although I am not able to actively campaign for support as much as I would like to, there is rarely a moment I am not thinking about my beautiful babies working hard at school on the otherside of the world. In fact, one of the most exciting parts of my days are any time I have the opportunity to tell people about my time in Uganda and my plans to return in the spring. With all of the hecticness of my day to day life I finally got the opportunity to sit down and write to Ester, Humble's head mistress. I was excited when she replied and I would like to share that message with you now,

Hello Judith,

Apologies for delaying to respond to your mail. I have been quite busy with processing Visas for thye scouts team that will be coming to Atlanta in June, and also organising for the Annual conference that ended a few days back. Am so delighted that you are still thinking about coming back to HUMBLE next Feb. We shall keep you in prayer and thanks for sharing your blog with us. I will share thais with the kids and staff at school. I hope it helps out on the students who do not have a chance yet to join secondary school.

We love you Judy and regards to your friends and family.

Esther

I know how much of a privilege it is for all of them to visit the states. Many of the children will tell you they love hot dogs, pizza or hamburgers ( horrible choice health wise but I'll over look that for the time being). Please keep the scouts traveling and their amazing scout leader Mohammed in your thoughts and wish them a safe and swift journey to america.  

This is one of my favorite pictures! The scout leader and one of the boys taking time to have some fun!

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

As I watch this amazing man who was certainly taken from the lives of his children and students too soon, I am reminded of the need to never stop dreaming and never stop doing!

I recommend that everyone watch this video it is an hour and 45 minutes well spent, and time I like to personally take out at least every few months! For you readers out there I would laso highly encourage the book, and I hope to share this speech with some of the children at Humble when I return in 2013.

Here are a few memorable quotes the never fail to give me goosebumps!

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” 


“The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. Time is all you have and may find one day you have less than you think” 


“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.” 

And a few on dreams, but before I list them I would like to take a brief moment to talk about my dream. My dream is to get back to Humble, get back to the place where I felt home from the minute I set foot inside those gates and to bring as much joy and education I can to every child I encounter in my time there. I feel privileged to be able to share those dreams with you, and I cannot wait to watch those dreams come to fruition. 

“It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how to lead your life, ... If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.” 

“Its important to have specific dreams. Dream Big. Dream without fear.” 

“Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids' dreams too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes."

We've passed our P7 exams...now what?

Since the opening of Humble in 2004 the money sent to the school has gone to not only running the school on a daily basis for those who attend Humble as a day school as well as those who board there about 9 months out of the year, but also to help to alleviate the costs of secondary school for students who pass their P7 exams. While the school is typically running in the red, every year there has been enough money left to pay for the school fees for the Humble graduates. As humble grows the number of students leaving Humble increases, and while this is a fantastic accomplishment it also means that there are more students ready for secondary school but not more money. Sadly 2012 was the first year since opening its doors that Humble was not able to pay for the tuition of all of its graduates. It costs approximately $1500 US dollars a year for a student to go to secondary school. The children who did not receive sponsorship were asked to write letters about what they are doing now. I am having some trouble getting all of the letters up, but in the meantime here are just a few.