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Manafwa Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Defiling Stepdaughter
(Mbale) – A High Court in Mbale has sentenced Fred Luke Wotsuna, a 37 year old man from Manafwa District, to 10 years in prison for the defilement of his 12 year old stepdaughter, Esther. Wotsuna’s sentence follows his guilty plea in a landmark virtual trial, marking a significant step forward for Uganda’s judicial system. Wotsuna had been in remand for seven years prior to this trial. He…
Volunteer Journal: Day 5 of Training (group 2)
Tsitoru, tsibili, induela, Go!
The day began with another Lugisu lesson, and under the guidance of Sylvia we learned the numbers one through ten. Some were easier to remember than others, with the number five sounding like serrano (ham in Spanish) which resulted in the instantaneous memorisation and increased hunger every time the number five was spoken out loud. As our confidence regarding the numbers one to ten grew, some got more daring with Shahid asking Laura to translate his phone number into Lugisu.
After Lugisu, Lilah taught us the final step of the safe water chain, which is the purification of water. Two methods were outlined: moringa seeds and SODIS, with the former being more effective for larger quantities, and the latter being better for smaller with both being approved by the WHO. It was really interesting to see how nature could act as a water purification method, with both morninga seeds and UV rays & heat for SODIS being amply available in Uganda. This means that boiling water or using chlorine tablets aren't the only effective water purification methods.
Next on the programme was ‘Top Tips’ in which Sylvia showed us (primarily Joe and myself) how to wash our clothes by hand, wash the dishes, mop the floor, set the kerosene lamp alight, and how to use the sigiri stove. Laura took copious notes, with one of her steps (there were four in total) for washing dishes literally stating: “Wash Dishes”.
After a lunch of fish and chips (although not the kind we are used to), we hopped into a taxi which took us to a local village where we could look at an LBA water tank and water source. Despite LBA’s best intentions, seat belts were nowhere to be found. While this did not pose a problem at first, as the roads got worse and worse, everyone was swaying from side to side and jumping up and down. That is, everyone besides Sara, who was in her own world of ‘Hey There Delilah’ and Latin vocabulary, which resulted in her having a blissful journey.
Once we arrived in the village, we were greeted by the local chairperson and then led to the water source. Although we largely thought the water source was well maintained, Sylvia's insights opened our eyes. The same went for the water tank. Overall, it was a very interesting, educating, and an enriching trip and we were left in awe by the artistic ability of the previous LBA group. That is something that is definitely missing from our group.
On the way back we were dropped off at an Internet café in Mbale. The slow internet frustrated many, most particularly Sara who was dying to see what her 30 notifications were all about. What a tough life she must live! While the Internet addicts remained at the café, Till, Joe and Afnane went to a local supermarket to buy some stuff for placement. It's safe to say we got some very weird looks from locals as we walked around with 30 rolls of toilet paper, 8 bars of soap, and 10 packets of pasta to name a few.
All in all, it was another very fun, challenging and educational day here in Mbale.
by Till, University of Oxford
Day 3 of Volunteer Training (Group 1 written by SVA)
Thursday became our first hands on day, getting to meet one of the local communities. The morning began with being ankle deep in mud and practising building the stoves we would be making in people’s houses later that day.
After lunch we were on our way to the village to build stoves where we stopped at a staff members house to see the stove her parents had had for ten years. Her parents were extremely welcoming showing us their animals and picking oranges for us.
By the time we arrived at the houses that needed stoves there was a huge crowd escorting and welcoming us. Throughout the building we had lots of help from the community especially the children who delighted in our efforts to speak their language. After successfully building all our stoves we tucked into a huge plate of matooke with Gnut sauce before heading home, exhausted, covered in mud but VERY fulfilled.
The Volunteer Journal 2016: Day 2 of Training (written by SID)
The first activity of the day was to continue learning Lugisu. We learnt how to properly enter someone’s house and introduce ourselves: Visitor- Ko-dee! Host- Karibu! We think our Ugandan language skills are coming along nicely ☺ and we have been practising with any locals that we have met.
Our next lesson was in health and safety. This was a lot to taken in! After learning about several ways to die on placement, we now want to wash our hands all the time.
We then learned all the steps, processes and equipment we needed in order to build two types of stove. This was hard to understand from the written instructions but we are now very excited to try it tomorrow in one of the local villages.
Photography was the last lesson of the day and everyone described is as “controversial”. We had to look at pictures of volunteers and decide if the picture was appropriate for social media. This really split the group because some pictures included children, churches etc and people were still discussing their different opinions later. Debs tricked us into thinking we were on a Ugandan persons Facebook and gauged our reactions- and the pictures she put up were not flattering!
Our night time entertainment was “mafia”- a game where you had to uncover secret identities given to players. We had a good team bond.
James’ highlight- the controversial debate surrounding photography.
Kirstie’s highlight- getting to the end of Mafia before being “killed”
Astrid- SID winning the quiz relating to culture in Uganda and winning a chocolate bar that we enjoyed later ☺
Ollie- After being pretty hungover from my 21st birthday celebrations the night before I missed dinner and spent the rest of the day after training sleeping - had a great sleep
Helen- playing Mafia was a really good way to come together and see how people interacted with each other, and Astrid was an amazing police woman. I also really liked the debate about the photos, it was a great way to see how people’s personalities came through.
The headmistress of Maresi Primary School & LBA's project coordinator checking out the school's new #watertank. The dome roof & tap cover will go on the #tank at the weekend after the walls have dried #water #sanitation #hygiene #Manafwa #Uganda #primary #school #education
Oda_uk #volunteers outside their house in Bumakhame #Manafwa #Mbale #Uganda
3 weeks: 2 completed #watertanks; 3 completed #protected #water sources; 1 tank & 1 source near completion & lots of stoves. It's been a busy time #Manafwa #Mbale #Uganda
@intervoluk #volunteers looking amazing & doing a fabulous job at Kaboole #Manafwa #Mbale #Uganda.
