We are staying in Namagoma village,
at the top of a large hill in a lovely
guesthouse. The sound travels far from the other hills,
so we can hear people singing from miles away! With the exception of some rain last week,
the weather has been sunny and perfect.
Some of our team members are working to provide extra
after school care to students at Summer Junior School.
They entertain the kids and teach them games and songs. So far,
their favorite songs are “What’s
Up” by Four Non Blondes and “Twist and Shout” by the Beatles. The kids learn songs and dances very quickly!
Every day I realize
more and more how important
it is for RAVT to come as close to decolonized aid as possible. It is frustrating to see projects
that have been essentially forced into dependence from foreign aid and projects
with a foreign administration that do not fairly compensate their on-‐the-‐ground
native staff. I see internalized racism in a lot of people too, from centuries
of being told by colonizers that they aren’t good
enough to run their own country. Even though we are still small,
I hope that RAVT is doing its part to promote
social change with its entirely
Ugandan administration and its
commitment to decolonizing aid by empowering the ideas and projects
of local social
service leaders.
 |
|
From left to right: Priscilla, Micheal, and Richard. Priscilla and
Micheal lead the administration at Summer
Junior School and
are committed to
sustainability and independence. Richard is RAVT’s
founder and
project coordinator. He is responsible for RAVT’s
mission, vision, goals, and day-‐to-‐day administration.
|
It has been a tremendous honor to work with a number of ambitious project
leaders. At our other partner
project, the Workshop,
we did most of our work prior to leaving
for Uganda. At their request,
we used the funds from our Davis fundraisers to give them money for sewing machines
for their vocational school. They then invited some of our team to take a small manual
sewing machine lesson
and learn about
Ugandan language and culture. It was rewarding to see the sewing machines
and to get more education about the region.
Comments
Post a Comment