Soft Power

4/23/10 12:40PM
Uganda; day 115

We are at the end of another week, which brings us one week closer to the teams arrival! Yesterday Kurt and I volunteered with an organization called Soft Power. We heard about them about a week ago and it seemed like a good use of our time. They have a program where you can volunteer anywhere from one day to three months. After touring one of their preschools and their education center I have to say it’s the most organized thing I’ve seen in Uganda. They originated out of England about 10 years ago so they’ve had some time to get things together but I was impressed non the less with everything they are doing. They have multiple projects, they have two preschools, an education center where they offer training for local trades, computers, agriculture and various other things. They also work with 45 primary schools (middle school) they rotate the students through the education center for their special training, and they also refurbish, or if necessary add to the buildings, as well as keep up the maintenance on them. And they do community work teaching family planning, conservation, hygiene and health classes. Needless to say it’s a huge project. They have quite a few universities that participate in their volunteer program and it appears that’s where most of the funds come from, as each volunteer is asked to make a donation to help cover the cost of the work they’ll be doing and they have about 1,000 volunteers a year. So after we toured the facilities we spent a few hours at one of the schools they work with in Bugembe painting a classroom. We got a good tip for making a mud stove for the home that will cut the firewood usage down about 75%. So it made for an interesting day, and a good learning experience.

-Brandi