Uganda Team (Monday): We hit the streets and we see why we are here!

Today we visited club house for the first time. The club house is part of Retrak who aim to provide the children on the streets a safe, friendly place to go where they can have catch up lessons and move into foster care if they wish.

Some of the things we saw in clubhouse were difficult to process.  We saw six year old boys high off glue who, when half of our team went on the outreach walk with the leader, were brought back to clubhouse.

You could never imagine seeing someone so young, so helpless, being so unaware of their surroundings due to the impact of drugs.  This is the purpose of why we are here.

We spent the day at clubhouse, Bulamu and Tudabejja javing a tour of the retrak organsitions and playing games with the children.  When having the tour around the club house and Bulamu we saw the children had no belongings for themselves.  Their bedrooms and classrooms were bland and plain.  Whereas in Tudabejja you can see that more work and guidance to achieve their goals and work towards owning their own belongings.  By the end of the week we hope we can put the same love and compasion into helping clubhouse and Bulamu achieve the same goals, and Tudabejja.

The smiles on their faces when they saw us made all the struggles and emotions throughout the day worth while.  Tommorow we start our lessons and hope that the smiles and enjoyment can carry on and will make a difference to these children's lives.

Chelsea and Abi

Today was such an emotional roller coaster, some of the sights we saw were unbelievable. The Tudabejja team started out by going on a outreach walk and we saw where some of the homes of the street children which was extremely hard to face, the things we saw were unbelievable.

However we then got to visit Tudabejja and it was such a difference. I could hardly believe that these children were living on the streets not that long ago. The transformation from seeing the street kids using drugs, to all of the children dressed in clothes which were not ripped, with a bit of an education, and with a smile on their face.

As soon as we got there, they performed a few dances for us to welcome us. Just seeing their smiles while they were singing and dancing, made the whole room light up. It was such a positive and joyful atmosphere, everyone was smiling and happy. I started talking to one of the boys there and he was telling me all about why he was on the streets.  It was so upsetting but knowing that he was on track to get back with his family and was finally happy, made me overwhelmed with happiness.

I had such an amazing time playing games with the children while they were teaching us their dance moves. I just cannot wait to see them tomorrow and try and help them with their journey and to keep the smiles on their faces!

Sarah