Outreach projects in Uganda
Since July 2010, when our group of volunteers left Uganda, we have been lucky enough to fund some trips for the children from Raising up hope orphanage to visit UWEC, The Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre based in Entebbe. As we worked closely with the staff at UWEC during our trip, organising trips for the children with educational and therapeutic communication programs, we have been able to recruit a team of local staff and volunteers from Entebbe who have helped to run trips for the children while we are not there.
This was a great milestone for us as sustainability of our projects is a vital part of our work and the progress that we are making as an organisation.
The team was led by Patrick, William, Isacc, Mukassa, Harriet, Julie, Helen and many more of the team at UWEC who we wish to say a big congratulations to for doing such a great job.
The children were able to walk around the centre, learning about all of the animals with a specific focus on the chimpanzees, where Helen, one of the keepers, spoke intensely to the children about her own experiences and the chimpanzee’s traumas. The children were encouraged to choose a chimpanzee and write a story about them, winning a prize for getting the name of the chimp right and learning about their background.
After this the children were given lunch funded by Yebo and spent the afternoon with the UWEC team being creative with writing stories and drawing/painting about their experiences at the centre that day.
Right after food children were asked to do some animal sounds which was great and it sounded fantastic.
The children were asked to go and meet Helen again, Helen is the lady that works with and feeds the chimpazee’s. The children were more that happy to see Helen again. On the last trip, Helen made a friendship with the children and she had promised them sweets after they had answered questions that she asked them. All the children were very happy as they answered all of the questions correctly about primate conservation.
Helen started sharing with them the story of a chimpanzee called Matoke ” Matoke was rescued from the hunters who killed his parents in the forest, Matoke was loved by his parents so much, so when they were killed he couldnt believe that
they had sadly died, and he stayed with the body of his mother until one of the hunters came and cut one of his fingers off and took him away. They took Matoke to their home and he was always tied in one place and they never fed him. He was always sad and he had no friends, but one day some good people came to rescue Matoke from the bad guys, Matoke was confused about what was happening at this point due to the trauma that he had just suffered. Matoke was brought to UWEC zoo were he got good care, love and enough food. It took time for Matoke to get used to living here and to the keepers at the centre. It took time to learn to trust them but eventually he became very trusting and he is now happy with many other chimpanzee friends.
From this, the children were able to relate to this story as most of them have come from a very abusive background that is difficult for people to understand. They were also brought to the orphanage just as Matoke was brought to the orphanage of the UWEC zoo.
The children were very sad about what had happened to Matoke but happy that he was brought to UWEC zoo and many children sat down to thank Helen for what she is doing for Matoke.
Each of these days costs Yebo £150, and we are running out of funding to help run them. We are beginning to start our progress into our UK fundraising teams, but always need the extra help. If you would like to donate any amount of money then please do get in touch with us to really help make a difference in these children’s lives.
lisa.davies@yeboyes.org
By isaac mujaasi, November 18, 2010 @ 1:51 pm
thanks lisa, its a good piece