The Street children – Side by side with wildlife. Outreach 2011
On the 18th November 2011, Yebo supported Children living on the street and at the safe house of Raising up Hope orphanage in Uganda.
31 children aged between 4-16 years of age, attended the day, to learn, be creative and to meet wildlife. The group are led in Uganda at the Ugandan wildlife education centre by members of staff from the centre who work tirelessly and passionately to support the projects and the children through their experiences.
The group was up by 5AM and started preparing for the day in 
anticipation of excitement at seeing animals, eating good food, play and creativity, and the fun of traveling away from the safe house and streets where they are living. As they made a brief clean up of the safe house, their joy increased on seeing the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre bus and started their journey at 8AM
At exactly 10AM the group arrived at UWEC and were welcomed by the program coordinator, Isaac, who led them to the conference room, where 8 UWEC staff greeted them, and were equally excited to share the experience with them
The children were all asked to meet their expectations of the day 
which were:
– To see the animals
– To feed the 
chimpanzees
– To sing and dance
– To swim
– To eat good food
– To sleep in the dormitory
The children had a wonderful day and explored many ways to learn and to grow as people in a positive way.
During the day the children went around all of the animal exhibits at the centre, led by the UWEC 
staff that have been assigned to the project. The children were able to have a question and answer session on all of the animals as they went around to see them all and always focus on the chimpanzees as a point of reflection.
They were also given a lot of reflection time that was focused on having fun and experimental learning at UWEC. This is something that Yebo is aiming to achieve, allowing the children to learn in a creative and reflective way, looking at all wildlife and primates, seeing the knowledge and similarities there are between humans and the animals, and how we can protect them.
It is also an aim to allow the children to understand that they have worth in their life and that they can feel a sense of belonging, share a ray of light and be able to realise that they are able to have the same worth as any other child in the world. This is linked with the wildlife and the mistreatment that happens to animals in the wild, and the things that humans can do to protect and conserve them.
The children used their creativity and mimed, sung and danced to different local music, putting their skills and imagination into all of their achievements, and allowing their talent to show through.
Many of the children that Yebo volunteers have met in the past when out in Uganda, volunteering with the children are the talents of each individual child in so many different things. These children are incredibly intelligent and VERY talented in ways such as art, creating pieces of work such as necklaces, learning other languages from their own, designing stories and projects of their own and many more. We would love for this to be shown in the work and learning that they are doing with such wonderful local staff members at UWEC.
Breaks and lunch was provided with numerous refreshments which we fund for the children to eat well in their day. We are aware that the children do sometimes go without food where they live and we know that when they are at the centre, the food that they are given is good and nutritious for them.
An evaluation was conducted at the end of their day in pictures where they could show what they had learnt on the day, which will help at the next day the children have at the centre.
The next visit will be a Christmas party at the centre, using the same concept and giving the children a chance to celebrate Christmas in a good and positive way, aswell as achieving their aims and objectives.
We are proud to support such wonderful children, a wonderful Wildlife Education Centre and would like to pay thanks to the staff that helped the children on the day including Isaac Mujassi,Helen Atim, Meble Nabitosi, Charles Isiko, and the staff at Raising up Hope, Patrick and William.
Thank you to Yebo’s fundraising team who volunteer their time and efforts in making these days happen. We are looking forward to the Christmas party which will take place on 30th November.
By Tanya Morris, November 27, 2011 @ 1:06 am
Well done to all the people who are involved in this, I always follow the work of Yebo and I am so happy when I see a thing like this that has happened, I live in the USA and follow you through friends on Facebook…keep it up!
By Roger Mallins, November 28, 2011 @ 12:32 pm
I agree with the sentiments expressed by Tanya Morris.A valuable experience it seems was achieved by all.The expressions on their faces says everything.Well done