Above is a map of the South-east of Uganda.  We will be spending the majority of our time in Uganda in the districts of Tororo and Mayuge, next to Iganga (circled). Our team of 18 will be splitting in two, and each team will spend a week working on both sites (To learn more about our programme, click here).  We are hoping to do various projects in the two places, and have been planning our stay for a very long time now.  Below is a detailed account of what we hope to do in both Mayuge and Tororo.

Tororo

Tororo is a Ugandan district to the south of Mount Elgon.  It is a more developed district, which we visited in 2000, and we have two main projects, along with several minor projects, that we would like to put into action there.

Firstly, is to rebuild the playground in the town centre.  The playground used to have swings, see-saws and a number of other pieces of equipment provided by the local 'Lions Club' but, unfortunately, due to a lack of security and fencing the playground was reduced to a pile of rubble and a swing frame. We plan to replace the playground equipment so that the local children have an area to play, as at the moment it is very dangerous for them. Playground equipment can be bought locally in Uganda and we can also pay for installation. However, there are also local metal workers that would be able to make the equipment to our specification that could then be assembled and welded on site. We will also be providing a fence to border the playground and help protect the equipment. We have spoken to the mayor of the town about the playground project and he was very enthusiastic. He also promised to provide a security patrol to protect the playground and stop people stealing from it. The Tororo District Scout team also suggested that they could make a small charge for local families to use the playground, thus providing revenue to the local Scouts for additional projects.

Our second main project in Tororo is to help fund a a new District Scout Town Centre site. The Tororo Scouts have already been given a plot of land in the Town Hall grounds measuring approximately 150 x 50 feet, which boarders a road containing water, sewage and electricity services. They have also been given permission to use the Town Hall grounds for occasional camping and similar activities. We agreed to fund the legal requirements to obtain the land, estimated at about £150. The Scouts also wish to obtain title deeds for the land to secure their ownership of it, at an estimated cost of £120. The District Scouts' plan is to build a large multistory building on the plot costing well in excess of £10,000. We have applied for a grant through Comic Relief but for the moment we are assuming that it will not be successful. We have opened a bank account in Tororo with £200 in to start up the project, which can be accessed with to two of any three signatures from the core District Scout team. Additional funding will be required to complete the legal requirements and to fully obtain the title deeds. The Tororo Scouts have agreed to try to build a toilet block connected to the water and sewage supplies, at a cost of £1,000. When we arrive in August, we hope start digging and cementing the foundations for a four story building. This will initially be a single store building but we hope that, in the future when more funding is available, the additional floors will be added.

We also have several minor projects that we wish to fund and incorporate into our visit. Firstly, we hope to purchase pre printed T-shirts, badges and scarves to give to the Scouts in Tororo who will participate in the projects (approximately 1000), because many Scouts in Uganda are unable to afford the scout uniforms. Our second minor project is to continue working with a school that we donated money to in 2000. The school is based in an army compound and in 2000 we donated just £8.00 which funded a tree planting project, which meant that the school had fuel and shelter from the wind which frequently blew the school

roof off! When we visited in 2002, the project had progressed remarkably and we donated a further£8.00 to develop the planting. Because the trees have a four year coppicing cycle, the school would much appreciate further funding for a third year of trees. We would also like to continue funding a project at a primary school, where they have a small allotment of fast growing vegetables. We donated £8.00 in 2000, and additional funding this August would be most welcome. We also visited a school near Mifumi (in Tororo), where a Non Government Organization is successfully operating and providing a school and clinic. A donation of £8.00 there would help continue the project and help it to progress in future years. There are many other schools and minor projects in Tororo, where a small start-up funding of £8.00 would be welcomed for a revenue project.

Mayuge

Mayuge is a rural district in Iganga, North of Lake Victoria. It has few facilities, and so our major projects involve providing the community with fuel and water. We also have some smaller projects that we would like to support while we are out in Uganda.

Our first main project in Mayuge is to support a tree planting project to provide fuel and shelter for the village.  The Mayuge District Scouts wish to plant trees in about 30 schools and in up to 10 civic centres to provide shade, wind protection and wood for fuel and building material.  Each location has been assessed by experts as to what type and mixture of trees are appropriate for the specified area.  Our wish is to raise enough money to plant 200 trees in each location, and at the moment it looks like we will achieve our target.  However, because the best time to plant trees in Uganda is July, the trees will be planted before our arrival in August by the Mayuge Scouts so that they have the best chance of surviving the year.  We will still visit some of the sites, however, to see how well the project is progressing and to talk to the Scouts who planted the trees.

We also wish to provide safe water of the Mayuge people.  At the moment, there are a number of very poor villages that do not have a safe water supply within 1 mile of them.  Rather than walk over a mile to get water, the villages instead drink from unsafe springs and so get diseases such as Cholera.  Therefore, we decided that it would be a worthwhile project to build protected springs in some of the poorer villages.  As none of us going are expert builders, we have arranged for professionals to come and help build the springs.  We will be doing the manual labour of carrying, digging mixing concrete etc, and we also hope to learn a few extra skills from the Ugandan's too, such as brick laying!  The local water authority found that when the villagers pay for the springs and take an active role in building the springs, they are more likely to look after the spring as it is something that they have worked for.  Therefore, we will be involving the villagers in the construction of the springs and we may also ask the villages if they can put a small donation towards their spring. We have so far raised enough money for 4 of these protected springs, and we hope that come August we may have raised enough money for more.

The minor projects that we wish to perform when out in Uganda include supporting a District Scout centre in Mayuge, as well as purchasing Uniforms for the Scouts and revisiting a senior school that we worked with in 2000.  The District Scout Centre will be much the same as in Tororo, expect that it will be on a smaller scale as Mayuge is more rural than Tororo.  We expect to be involved in the acquisition of land and legal documents, and we may also help build foundations for a small building and possibly an adventure playground.  One of the major priorities, however, will be to provide pit latrines (at around £400)!  When out in Mayuge, we also wish to provide badges, scarves and T-shirts for the Scouts that we work with, as few Scouts are able to afford these items.  The last of our intended projects while out in Uganda is to revisit a senior school that we visited in 2000. It had been open for 3 months when we arrived, and was the only senior school in the area.  It also catered for students with special needs, including the blind deaf and lame.  The school was in the middle of construction, and several windows had been bashed out of the walls.  The students were making their own bricks and took part in building the school, so that in just 3 months a lot of progress had been made.  We were so impressed with the work that we responded to a request of a £100 donation for science books and a promise to visit them this year.