Tekera (Leah)

My second placement is at Tekera Resource Centre which is located 17km out of Masaka town. I reach Tekera via a bumpy dirt road on a boda boda “motorbike taxi”. I have found that a boda boda ride is one of my favorite things to do in Uganda, especially when you get to view lush green beautiful landscape on route. A Canadian couple who have lived in Uganda for 5 years created Tekera Resource Centre. It began as a medical clinic for people in the surrounding villages to access health care. It has no expanded into a dental clinic, primary school, community garden, and craft club with many locally made crafts available for sale and warm community. The Canadian couple is close to leaving the resource centre in Ugandan hands so it can be self sustainable and run by local people for local people. Please look at their website for more information http://www.ugandavillage.org/ I feel so welcome in this community and I really believe in this project. I see how it benefits many people who did not receive any medial treatment or schooling before they were there. I have been doing many home visits at Tekera , with the community liaison and program facilitator who is a Ugandan, he seems to know everyone in the village and takes time to say hello to everyone and ask how they are really doing. I have two home visits that really stand out for me and I feel as I could not do or say enough to help either of these families. One of these women has given birth 17 times and only 9 of her children are alive two of them are developmentally delayed. Her husband has left as he misuses alcohol and he no longer financially contributes to the family. Her mother is elderly and weak and can no longer work on the family farm. The family has food because they have a farm but they no longer have money for school fees for all of her children. She explained she is so tired from trying to sustain the little that the family has. I found it very hard to “help” this woman, all I could do was to give her encouraging words and empower her as the strong woman she is. I reminded her to put her faith in God (she is Catholic) and good times will be ahead. I have found that many people have a great faith in God no matter what religion they are. I think people find comfort and hope in God and praying when they cannot advance themselves financially.

On another home visit we met another woman, she is a 17 year old mother of two, one of her sons is 6 months old the other two and a half, born by different fathers. She is developmentally delayed but does her best to raise her children, she truly loves her babies, in a child like doll way. Her father works the family farm for food her mother is dead. Grandma also lives with them however she is very weak and has a soar leg that does not allow her rest properly. There is also another child that lives in this home, a girl that is 1 year old. This child was dropped off at their home, completely abandoned, by whom they do not know. This is a common accordance in village life; one cannot care for another child so they drop them off on the doorstep of someone else home. No such thing as foster care or child protection living in a village. None of these children were wearing clothes, they only had their Sunday best that they would wear to Tekera to the clinic. This abandoned child is severely malnourished and all children are living with malaria. This home was an image you would see in a world vision commercial. We decided to take the children and mother to the clinic to get treatment. Ugandans take great pride in their physical appearance, before we left Mother bathed herself and kids in two inches of water in a small wash basin and they all put on their only outfit they own. We carried the children back to the clinic so they could get malaria treatment, I carried one of the kids because they were too weak to walk because of malaria. I got peed on twice, apparently a blessing, kind of like when a bird poops on you!!! This family does not have much hope at advancing as the Mother has an enlarged spleen from multiple cases of untreated malaria this is not a promising future for her. After her death there will be no one accept the weak Grandmother to care for these children. It is hard to accept the circumstance of this family. However I feel like we did the best with what we had, the children received malaria treatment, we were able to get some of the children clothes and underwear. I tried my best to empower this mother and educate her about the importance of keeping herself healthy for her children; however she seems to only live in the present and has no concept of living in the future, which is understandable considering her family situation.

I have learnt in village life that people do the best with what they have got, they try and work together to share what they have. These people are so resilient and keep going despite what we perceive as a very poor lifestyle. However I can see the richness in these peoples lives, they have an amazing strength in family and in God. I have heard so many times “God is good God is great”, “he will help us if we keep praying”, “one day God will save us if we keep believing.” I admire their faith and have begun to develop and entire new understanding of faith that I have learned from people I have met in Uganda.

In Friendship,
Leah