On joining SOS, I expressed my enthusiasm in the interview to associate myself with such a growing organisation. Ten years down the road, I have contentedly seen SOS Uganda expanding from one Children’s Village at Kakiri to four Children’s Villages now. I have held various positions both at SOS Children’s Village Kakiri and Gulu. But little did I know then that I would witness the growing children becoming responsible adults and able to live a stable life.

Yes, I have seen both physical and programme expansion. I have also been lucky to grow with the organisation, from one position to another and from one location to another. All this has been good and satisfying. But I am deriving more satisfaction from the success stories of former SOS children, who get to live a happy life. My satisfaction is deeply entrenched in having participated in their upbringing on one hand and in the fact that they are also appreciative on the other hand.

I feel happy when former SOS children get employed and live independently. But I feel extremely happy when they get married. Last year, 2 former SOS children in SOS Children’s Village Kakiri introduced their future husbands in perfectly well organised ceremonies. This year, on 24th April 2010, another former SOS child, Proscovia, introduced her fiancé in a ceremony that left the guests agape. As if that was not enough, on 1st May 2010, the two lovebirds tied the knot in a wedding I regard to be so far the best in 2010. I doubt whether I will attend any other wedding as interesting as this one. It was glamorous, attended by people of class and whose reception was organised in one of the best hotels called Munyonyo Resort Beach hotel.

I looked at Proscovia’s SOS mother posing for a photo with the newlywed couple. She was filled with a lot of joy, which made her look even younger. Deep inside me, I reflected upon the SOS mothers’ incomparable contribution towards humanity. Bravo! SOS mothers! Without you we would not be proud of these success stories.

FSP Coordinator, Anne, was struggling with terminology but has finally found the answers.

Talk of the changing situation in the north. For a long time it was conflict and conflict and conflict. Now it is time for people to re-settle into their original homes. Over 70% of FSP beneficiaries were displaced into the municipality. And the FSP strategy of family strengthening provides for withdrawal of families who gain self reliance.

In the current situation, some families in Gulu are leaving the programme area to go back to their original homes. Will they also be reported to have been withdrawn? That can’t be. How about those who are uncooperative and all efforts to empower them have been received with cold hands?

This has been a battle in the programme and we finally settled for the following words:
Withdrawn for those who are phased off upon gaining self reliance.
Relocated for those who have gone back to their original homes.
Discontinued for those who are uncooperative or unwilling to work hard to gain self reliance as a family.

But that does not end the story; there are also those who have partly relocated but their children continue to study in town. They go to their village for holidays and this we refer to it as partial relocation.

On 31st January 2010, 14 Village Directors from 10 different countries converged at the SOS Regional Training and Resource Centre (RTRC) in Karen, Nairobi-Kenya to attend the first Continental Village Director Training, from 1st to 12th February 2010. Since our arrival, we have shared a lot of experiences and joys. To some of us it’s really a good opportunity, helping us to refresh our minds and to think outside the box as well.

I would like to share with you one experience, which will never leave our memories. This was a team building activity in which we were tasked to participate in several scary activities. On 2nd February, we boarded a minibus very early in the morning and went to a location about 100km north-east of Nairobi.

On reaching there, we were warmly received by Mr. Savage, the proprietor. At that moment, we could not figure out the kind of team building activities we were going to do. A team of 4 instructors came, divided us into two groups and briefed us on what we were going to do. In the morning we did activities like wall climbing, spider web, trust fall and land mine and in the afternoon we went for water rafting on the River Tana.

The morning activities were really hard. They required a lot of perseverance, planning and collective participation. They inflicted a lot of fear on most of us. We finally had to get out of our comfort zone to accomplish those difficult tasks.

But the morning activities were just an icebreaker. It’s when we were told to board the minibus to go for water rafting that we started getting worried. Although we were given life jackets and helmets to wear for our safety, we felt uncomfortable. Our discomfort grew from time to time, more so for some of us who had never stepped a foot in water to swim. We were all filled with unbearable fear: fear of water, fear of the unknown, fear of waterfalls and above all, fear of drowning in the water.

Yes, there was no way of escaping. As soon as the minibus dropped us to the starting point, it left. The only way to travel back to the camp site was by water, a journey that took us over 3 hours. Each one of us was given a paddle and told to enter the water. All of us had to paddle, following the instructions given by our leaders. We could at times paddle forward or backward, fall on the right or left of the raft and hold on the raft. All these actions had to be done collectively or else the raft could easily capsize.

Mr. Savage, like his name, is a bad-turned-into-good person. When we reached somewhere, he stubbornly and mercilessly sprinkled water with his paddle onto us that made us wet. As if that was not enough, he pushed us with his paddle, one by one, off the raft into the deep water. It was a shocking experience for me. The first time I nervously struggled to come afloat and ended up swallowing several litres of water. He did it to me the second and the third time as if he was only targeting me. But we were all treated alike by Mr. Savage. After rafting half the journey, we got used to it and the fear somehow reduced. We reached our destination and Mr. Savage finally turned out to be a good friend to everyone.
I no longer fear water. The experience has even motivated us to be adventurous and persevering. Just a pity I couldn’t take my camera onto the river!