Outreach with CRO - Adriana

**This post was written last week. Due to some events and computer issues it was posted today….

My time here is Masaka is quickly coming to an end. I have only one week left until I leave Masaka and say good bye to CRO. It will be the most difficult to say good bye to the children and youth with whom I have been spending my days with. There is something very different and special amongst these youth and they have shown me things and ways of life that I have never experienced at home. It has been a real privilege to be able to share space and time in their city and their center. Their smiles are contagious and often shown, even when perhaps one may think there is nothing to smile about. Their enthusiasm for schooling and the sense of communal living is very prevalent amongst the children and youth that I have met. Their endurance to keep moving and push ahead is very inspiring, even though most have no parents at home to tell them to do so; and most often they do not even have a home to go back to. While street life for the youth has shown to be a very tough and exploitive experience, I have heard many stories in which they take care of each other and often travel together; in body and in spirit.
Over these past couple months I have been exposed to a variety of things with CRO and have gotten to see how some of their processing works. I have noticed many similarities here at CRO in regards to the work done and the problems the youth face compared to the work and the issues at home (in regards to working with street youth).

One similarity that I feel is very important for the work here and back home is the outreach component. During my stay with CRO I have had a couple opportunities to go out with the social workers into the community for a number of different reasons. My first out reach, as mentioned before in the Girls and Grasshppers Blog, was for a “slum walk” in the streets of Nyendo. That was most eye opening. It was especially interesting for me to observe the social worker speak with a “boss” of one particular young lady. It reminded me of my work at home in terms of exploited youth and the struggle to survive on the streets. Similarly to back home, many of the street girls here in Masaka are picked up by other people to work as sex trade workers. I have been told that this is a major problem with the girls on the streets and also one reason as to why the street girls are not as noticeable as the boys are. Not only are these street girls getting picked up to be put into sex trade but they are also taken in as house girls and maids. That was one difference that I noticed between here and at home; I am unaware of teenage girls back home becoming house girls in efforts to survive.

Another outreach opportunity that I had been to assist in taking a male youth to the psychiatric ward at the hospital up the street; Masaka Referral Hospital. Luckily for me my colleagues were working at the hospital and I have already had some experience spending time there. The hospital can prove to be rather shocking at first for someone who has never been. The boy, lets call him Steve, was displaying some rather odd and unusual behaviors while at the center. These behaviors had been present during even his first visits there and the staff was unsure what was going on with him. I had noticed his behaviors right away as well. In regards to confidentiality I will not go into details concerning his behaviors, other than they were strong enough to warrant a visit to the psychiatric ward at the hospital. When we arrived at the ward with the youth, and his friend (CRO requested that we bring his only friend with him as it will provide an easier transition to get him there and for him to speak to the doctors) the ward was filled with people waiting to see the doctor, along with, waiting to get their medications. After a bit of wait we were in with the doctor. In the office there were the two boys, the doctor, the social worker, myself and another volunteer from CRO. This seems to be a lot of people in one office for this kind of important visit, although it was allowed and I am under the impression that it may be normal to have many people in the office during a visit with the doctor; sometimes it’s even the person or people who are next in line. Privacy here appears to be a little different than at home. So during this meeting I was able to observe the intake process along with the diagnosis and administration of medications. After approximately 1 hour with the doctor, the youth was diagnosed with conduct disorder along with alcohol and drug abuse and was prescribed two different types of medications. The doctor also said that it appears this youth may be experiencing signs and symptoms that will lead into schizophrenia as he matures. To be honest, I left the meeting rather confused with the process and the diagnosis, but I understand that I am a foreigner here and I am not privy to a lot of things in terms of certain processes and cultural understandings. I can have my own ideas and opinions that are based on my experiences and comparisons from back home, but I know that they are not good here as this is a completely different way of life. After speaking with the social worker though, it seemed to me that he also did not fully understand how this youth got these diagnoses. He told me that he does not think the youth abuses drugs and that the youth was honest about his alcohol use which was described as very infrequent and little. I thoroughly enjoyed this one time experience and wished there was an opportunity to spend more time with a psychiatric doctor who works with youth. But unfortunately, if a youth is suffering from any form of mental illness, there is no youth psychiatric ward; they are put in and assessed with the adults.

Another outreach visit that I took part in was a follow up home visit. After the youth is successfully placed back in the home of a relative or parent, the social worker will conduct follow up visits to monitor the situation. When a child is resettled in a home, CRO will provide funding for the child or youth to continue schooling which also helps alleviate some of the financial pressures that may be placed on the relative for taking the child in. This is another reason why CRO will conduct follow up visits, because they want to ensure that the child or youth is attending school and has not gone back to work on the streets. It has also been stated that on occasion CRO will offer little financial supplements for the family to help with the stressors of extra costs for having the child. On top of this, the family members are allowed to access health care services from the Nurse at CRO at no cost. So I was able to take part in a follow up visit for a youth that was re settled with his grandfather 45 minutes away outside of Masaka District in a neighboring district and village. (A district here could be compared to a large city back home with different regions – or villages as called here.) At first I was surprised to see that CRO will work so far outside of Masaka town (town, not district – there is Masaka District (ie large city) and then Masaka town which is a town inside the district (where we live)) But then I was told that they will travel far away, even outside of Masaka district, if that is what is needed to re settle a ‘child in the home of a relative’. (Sounds a bit familiar?) Like home, CRO works towards sending the kids back home to a relative or family member. I was told that CRO does not believe in setting up group homes for the streets kids to live in because then they will never go back home – and the main purpose of CRO is to “restore and reconcile them with God and with their families”. This is another example of how ingrained the sense of communal living and the importance of families are shown [to me] here in Masaka. The families may need to be reminded, as said by CRO, that their responsibility is to take care of their child family members – even if you cannot afford it. There have been many other examples shown to me also in where family members will take care of each other, even when they have no money to do so. At times, some are even taking care of other street children or orphans even when they have little to no money for their own selves or kids. So the idea to have a group home seems rather oppositional to the belief that the people here need to take care of each other and their children. CRO’s points for not allowing group homes seem well proven, although there is always a defense for the other side.

Back to the home visit – So we traveled 45 minutes outside of Masaka district on a long, dusty and very bumpy highway in a bus like vehicle. (Luckily we were just one to a seat as that was not the case on the way home.) We got off – in what seemed like the middle of no where [to me], crossed the highway and found a small dirt road that lead into a small village. We were very close to the equator – so it was incredibly hot – and off in the distance we could see the beautiful and very large, Lake Victoria. It was explained to me that this youth was lead into street life by another peer to the attraction of making money by selling things. This is also another example of why the children turn to the streets; often their family cannot afford to feed them so they find other ways to feed themselves like working on the streets. The youth was found by CRO on the streets in Nyendo selling foods and recruited back to the CRO center. After some time it was discovered that while the youth did not get along with his father – for reasons unknown to me – he decided that street life was more appealing. When the youth was later resettled, it was in the home of the grandfather as opposed to the father. Again, there is a lot that I am unaware of due to concepts and discussions that were lost in translation and or not discussed with me. When we reached the small and very spread out village, the social worker decided to visit the house of the father as it was on the way to the grandfather. When we got there it was discovered that the youth was in school and still living with his grandfather. To my understanding this was a successful visit as that is what the social worker was looking to hear. We did not in fact see the youth as he was in school during that time and as the school was very far away we returned back to Masaka town. (PS, the ride home was not as comfy – we got into a ‘matatu’ which is a bus that would hold approx 11 people but which often will hold double – like in this case. I was sitting on a woman’s lap with my head slouched over – luckily there was no livestock on the bus ;)

Another outreach visit that I took part in was visiting a women’s group in Nyendo; once with the nurse and once with the social worker. Both the nurse and the social worker run women’s groups in Nyendo which address specific needs around health, life skills and family support. These groups seem to have an underlying tone of how to assist their children and the street children in Nyendo. My first visit was with the nurse. I was able to observe her speak to these women (who meet once a week; and once a month with the nurse) about health issues for the kids and youth. The nurse described, what may seem to one back home, as basic ideas and topics around healthy up bringing for the children and youth. She discussed ways to support the child during child hood and then offered ideas of support for the pre-adolescent and the older youth. She talked about hormones, sexuality, hygiene and the importance of explaining to the child and youth the life development stages that the child will go through. She provided examples of herself growing up and shared stories to help get the points across. Luckily for me one of the women was able to interpret, although it always feels like I miss out on certain things that get lost in translation. It was a real pleasure for me though to watch the nurse explain and talk to the group of women and then watch the facial and body reactions of the women. It seems to me, when I am observing conversations and groups such as these, that people here are full of expression and body movement when they speak; especially if they are trying to get a point across. At times I find myself thinking that it is such a beautiful language and I really wish I understood what was being said around me.

The second visit to the women's group was with the social worker, and I was the main presenter. The day before when I was speaking with the social worker during one of our outings, I started to talk to her about fetal alcohol syndrome. I was told that some women here believe that it is okay to drink while pregnant and that also, some women believe that drinking while pregnant will help produce healthy skin on the baby. We spoke about this topic for about one hour and she was thoroughly enjoying the learning – and teaching. She asked if I could attend the women’s group with her the next day and speak with them about the dangers of drinking while pregnant, and I gladly accepted. So the following morning I prepared some basic notes on poster paper and went to work. I sat down with her and explained what I had prepared and went over everything with her. She said that while she studied social work / psychology, this topic was never presented. Later that afternoon we went to the group, after a ‘slum walk’ in Nyendo, and I presented what I had prepared with her interpreting for me. I started off the group by explaining to them that this is a current issue that we are facing at home in Vancouver with some of our children and youth and I wanted to share incase it held any validity for the people here (in a more user friendly language). Some of the women seemed really interested and started asking questions right away. One of the inquiries was about the idea that consuming alcohol while pregnant produces nice skin for the baby. This discussion about the nice skin went on for about five minutes. My interpretation was that perhaps some where not believing what I was saying and that it was a shock to them that my information went against the grain of what was believed here. I tried to make it clear that I am not a doctor, or a nurse but rather a social worker and I am just here to share what I have learned back home. Another question involved a comparison to having HIV while pregnant. She asked why is it that when pregnant and having HIV the only time the baby can contract HIV is during the birth and not the pregnancy – that is why they believe that the alcohol does not contact the baby during pregnancy. She told me that they believe that the mother and the baby grow separately and that is why the baby will not contract HIV while in the womb. I was honest and told her that I did not know enough about HIV to discuss and compare how that process works but that I do know about how the alcohol enters the womb and reaches the baby and went on to share those details. I was also asked how to help the children that may have these symptoms or problems – especially how to help them when they are addicted by drugs. I discussed some of the things that we do at home and tried to keep it simple and culturally appropriate to what I have learned about life here. Overall I felt the group was quite successful and the social worker thanked me for sharing. Before I left I acknowledged the women for what they are doing and coming together to discuss important topics such as this. I told them that this is a huge step into helping their children and youth in the village of Nyendo. The women thanked me and we were on our way.