September Newsletter

The Meaningful Shop Launches

Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to announce the launch of its Meaningful Shop website.

What is the Meaningful Shop?  The Meaningful Shop is a 100% non-profit website that supports developing communities in  many ways. 

• An online presence for craft groups around the world
  We already have two craft groups join our shop.  Grassroots Uganda and the Payawpao Orchids (based in the Philippines).  You can log in now and buy many beautiful crafts from these groups including: necklaces, earrings, bags, key rings, bowls, handbags... The list goes on!  And what's best is that 100% of the profits are returned to the ladies!
   
• Child Sponsorship
  You can also sponsor children via the Meaningful Shop.  At the moment, we have 139 Filipino children who need your help with school fees, school supplies, lunch programs and clothing.  As Meaningful Volunteer expands into the Mbale region of Uganda, Ugandan children and customized sponsorship options will be added.
   
• Sponsor Community Workers
  The developing world is awash with community workers (read volunteers) who work tirelessly in their communities for little or no reward.  Barangay (village) healthcare workers in the Philippines are a good example.  We think these people are wonderful and deserve all the help they can get.  The Meaningful shop allows for sponsorship options such as food packs and piggery projects.  More workers will be added in Uganda.
   
• Projects
  Meaningful Volunteer is involved in many projects around the world: Some big, some small.  The Meaningful Shop is a way for us to gather funds for these projects.  We currently have school projects in the Philippines and Uganda, as well a married couple in the Philippines suffering under the burden of gangrenous debt.
   
• Support Volunteer Programs
  Wanna help out Meaningful Volunteer, but just can't make the commitment to travel to a developing country?  Then check out the options on the Meaningful Shop website for ways that you can help.

All of us here at Meaningful Volunteer are excited about the Meaningful Shop.  So, log on, check out the myriad of meaningful options we have on offer and be safe in the knowledge that anything you do on the Meaningful Shop will have a positive impact on developing countries.

Target District Identified

Meaningful Volunteer has been working hard to identify the areas of Uganda where its programs will be most effective.  We've traveled far and wide to places such as Kampala, Jinja, Mukono, Miytana, Iganga, Mblae and Sironko.

We have settled on the Sironko region.  As per our project plan, we had a specific set of criteria that we were looking for.  Sironko meets the criteria in the following ways:

• Reliable Electricity
  The area has quite reliable electricity and is usually on for most of the day.  The area is perfect for solar areas and this may be looked at in the future for the dormitory
   
• Access to the Internet
  There is a new product in Uganda called MTN Mobile Internet.  This product can access the internet wherever there is a cell phone signal.  This product will be used extensively.  There are also internet shops in the nearby township of Mbale.
   
• A short trip to townships
  Mbale is one of the bigger cities in Uganda and is about 30 minutes away via public transport.  This is less than ideal.
   
• Accommodation
  Meaningful Volunteer has identifies a house in the district that will serve both as a dormitory for volunteers and an office for Meaningful Volunteer.  It has three bedrooms, a living area, an outside kitchen, and four small rooms out back that can serve as bedrooms.
   
• Educational Facilities
  It is suspected that the illiteracy rates are very high in the area.  Meaningful Volunteer will be conducted surveys to confirm this observation.  The schools are scattered.  The community has been kind enough to offer us some land to build both an orphanage and a school on the land.
   
• Great need and great locals
  Sironko was formally part of the Mbale, but has recently broken away and formed its own district.  It is often ignored by international NGO (non-government organizations) and to some extent by its own national government.  As a result, the poverty levels are very high.  We have already met many HIV+ groups and have already heard many heart-breaking stories.  Meaningful Volunteer will conduct a census of our targeted village to get a better understanding of the needs of the community.

Meaningful Volunteer arrives in Uganda

Meaningful Volunteer is delighted to announce its arrival in Uganda.  After our successes in the Philippines, we could not be more excited to arrive in the Pearl of Africa.

We'll initially be launching into out Heart of Uganda project plan to find the places that Meaningful Volunteer will be of most use.  Once we have found the sweet spot, we'll be starting our RYE School initiative and then onto many more exciting human rights projects.

Why not volunteer with us and help us to effect real and meaningful change in Uganda?

Meaningfully Empowered 

Way back in September 2008 (see the entry on my personal blog here) , I had an idea to start an online shop that would empower Ugandan women. 

My search for something to sell led me to the village of Namukuma.  Namukuma has no electricity and is a one hour car ride down a dirt road, followed by a half hour motorcycle road down something that might be generously called a goat track. I'd given my usual "What crafts do you have?" speech to the community.  The lack of forthcoming crafts was frustrating enough for me to advance my ever receding hairline.  I was almost ready to give up.

Then Alaisa Nandudu came along.

Alaisa had been up all night and making this seed bracelet.  I was suitably impressed.  Alaisa was living in a small house with her husband, four of her own kids, two HIV orphaned nephews, and a bunch of chickens.  Alaisa and her family were eating maybe one meal a day.  She had it rough.

One thing led to another and I eventually released GrassRootsUganda.com.  One village I knew I had to go back to introduce GrassRootsUganda.com was Namukuma. 

So, what happened next?

Well, firstly GrassRootsUganda.com has gone from strength to strength in my absence thanks to dedicated volunteers on the ground in Uganda.

Alaisa herself has made great progress.  With a little extra help from a volunteer, and the money she has earned from GrassRootsUganda.com Alaisa has moved out her her one room "home", bought land and built a brand spanking new home.  It's not quite finished.  It needs doors, windows, a concrete floor, and a little work on the roof.   Out back, Alaisa has a little farm that she uses for both for food and a cash crop.  See here and here.

Here in Africa, one sometimes feels like bashing one's head against a wall with all the poverty and corruption and people seeming to be working for poverty.  Then I remember Alaisa and I get up and try again.

* Just for interest's sake, here is Alasia's orginal biography from the GrassRootsUganda.com site.

Alaisa lives in a single room with her husband and three of their own children.  Her sister and her brother-in-law both died of AIDS and Alaisa is looking after their two children as well.  Her nephew is HIV positive - he is very prone to malaria and misses many days of school.

Her husband can sometimes get work digging the soil on other people's farm for ush1,000 ($US0.54) a day.  He is happy to get ten days of work every month, but would like more.

Her husband is also a trained tailor.  Alaisa often pleads with other tailors in the area to rent their sewing machines for ush5,000 ($US2.70) a month.  They cannot afford to buy material to convert into clothes, so they can only perform simple repairs for between ush200 and ush300 ($US0.11 and $US0.16).

Alaisa use to own thirty chickens, but twelve died because she couldn't afford to feed them properly.  One kilo of maize bran (chicken food) costs ush300 ($US0.11).  The chickens sleep in the same one room apartment that Alaisa and her family live in because Alaisa fears they will get stolen again.  They eat some of the eggs and sell some for ush100 ($US 0.05) per egg.  She hopes to sell some of the chickens to raise school fees.

At the moment, they are managing to keep the children in school.  They are paying ush15,000 ($US 8.18) per year for each of the children to go to school.  Alaisa wishes she could send at least some of her children to a boarding school, but cannot afford the fees.

Malaria is a problem in Alaisa's home, much like everyone else's in her village of Namukama. 

Alaisa can only afford to feed her family once per day.  Sometimes they cannot afford to eat at all and they go hungry.

Alaisa walks a five kilometer round trip every day to fetch the five jerry cans of water her family needs.  The water is unsafe for drinking and needs boiling.

She hopes that many Namukama necklaces are sold on GrassRootsUganda.com because she wants some capital to pay for school fees and uniforms.  She would also use the money to rent a bigger home and purchase a sewing machine.

She wished that her husband could have a permanent job and the Namukama could get electricity one day.
 

Developing Countries: The Good and the Bad

Check out this house.  Nice huh?  That'll cost you the princely sum of 1,000,000 Filipino pesos, which is about $US20,000.

So why wouldn't you want to move here?  The houses are cheap, the people are wonderful and the weather balmy.

One of the best things about life in developing countries is th cost of living.  Everything is so cheap!  The bad things include education, security and healthcare.  They're all terrible!

Take healthcare for example.  My 62 year old mother^* recently volunteered in the Philippines.  My mum's a diabetic and managed to get her toe infected, which is a very serious thing for a diabetic.  She may yet lose her toe.  Being the dutiful son that I am, I decided to get her to the hospital.  This is where the problems start.  I had to send a friend Jen Jen (who was wonderfully helpful throughout) to get a tricycle to get my mother to the hospital.  Getting into one of those things is hard at the best of times, let alone when you have an infected toe.   The staff at the hospital were awesome and did everything possible to help my mum. No complaints there.  The hospital didn't have a well supplied pharmacy, so Jen Jen and I had to dash out to get the required medicine.  We had to go to four different pharmacies to get it all - one of which was in a neighboring town!  Even getting her back home was an issue.  We had to hire some peddle-powered tricycles to get her home, though - truth be told - I think she quite enjoyed that experience! 

It is interesting to note that a Filipino nurse working in the States earns ten times as much as a doctor in the Philippines. 

Security is also an issue in developing countries.  2010 is an election year in the Philippines.  The current president recently tried to change the constitution to allow her to rule for more than two terms.  There is also a small chance that she will declare martial law to maintain power.  Regardless of what the president does, there will be violence in 2010.  The double whammy of presidential and mayoral elections guarantees it.  Candidates will be shot, there will be violence protests, and banks will be robbed to raise bribe money. 

And education is also - alas - pretty terrible.  Only the very lucky students on Tablas island (where Meaningful Volunteer is based) will get to go to university.  Most will finish elementary school, but some of those will emerge illiterate. At a guess, I'd say about 50% will finish high school.  There are a dearth of reasons why education is so poor on Tablas.  Poor governance, bad roads preventing access to schools, under resourced classrooms, disillusioned teachers... the list goes on.

So, if the low cost of living good enough to offset the educational, healthcare and security issues?  Come on over and check it out first hand and make up your own mind!

^* If she can, why can't you?