Week 8 - Personal

01/04/2012

I knew that when I chose to come to Uganda for my international placement I was not just concerned about gaining an experience of another education system but I also wanted to gain an overall perspective of what it was like to live in Africa.  Alongside this I hoped to get an insight into some of the organisations that help the 2.5 million orphaned children which live in Uganda.  It is possible to visit Kampala and never fully appreciate the vast poverty which is so prominent in this city, but I wanted to see first hand the inequalities faced by these orphans.  Upon finishing our teaching placement we knew that we had some free time this week so we decided to volunteer at Bulrushes Baby Home in Kampala.

We found out about bulrushes through Watoto church which we have been attending here on a regular basis.  Watoto is a community based church which reaches out to the needs of Kampala in many different ways.  They have established three babies homes in Uganda along with several children’s villages in response to the overwhelming number of orphaned children in Uganda.  As an organisation they “rescue an individual, raise each one as a leader in their chosen sphere of life so that they in turn will rebuild their nation.” (Watoto,2010)

A baby disguised in a cow outfit

When our friends Katie, Ashleigh and Kelsey helped us to get involved with volunteering in Bulrushes for a week we were both excited and quite apprehensive at potentially looking after such small and sometimes sick babies.  When I walked in on the first day I didn’t really know what to expect, this made me quite nervous as it would be my first time working with babies.  I was placed with the babies who were aged below three months for the first few days before I was moved into the room with the babies aged 3-6 months.  There are around 15 babies placed in each room, this often became quite hectic which I soon realised once feeding time arrived.  When one baby cries it often spurred the others to turn it into a competition.  Therefore, multitasking quickly became the key skill which was required to deal with the daily routines of feeding, changing, bathing and nursing.  I have really loved this opportunity to observe and be involved with the amazing things that Watoto they are doing for these babies.  They are indeed “giving them the best possible start in life.”(Watoto,2010)

After spending some time in the babies’ home it was clear that these babies were truly loved and cared for by the nannies assigned to them.  It is wonderful to see how far these babies have progressed physically in such a short space of time.  It was hard to believe that some of these happy, healthy babies were once abused, premature or abandoned because they had serious medical conditions.  Spending a week in bulrushes has really opened my eyes to the need in Kampala and I have been able to appreciate first hand the impact of the work by Watoto in providing basic needs for these babies.  This much needed care is helping towards abolishing poverty and ultimately shows compassion to those who need it most.

References

Watoto, (2010) “Watoto;Baby Watoto,Watoto Africa, Uganda.