Catch Up since last post

Cluster Chair
Ian was a bit slow to leave the room at one of the first Kampala volunteers 'cluster' meetings he attended and found himself elected chair of the 'Cluster' - not too onerous except for the responsibility of ensuring volunteers are involved is discussing security issues and acting as a link with the VSO Uganda office.

Shortly after taking the chair, Ian was contacted by one of the VSO volunteers in the Kampala Cluster who actually lives and works in Masaka - 135km to the southwest of Kampala. Rajgopal Swaminathan - from VSO India - is managing the Masaka Vocational Rehabilitation Centre. He invited us to travel to Masaka for a weekend away a few weeks back so that we could see the Centre and get to know something of his role - he's day-to-day manger as well as being responsible for marketing and development. Six of us went in our Toyota "Noah" micro bus and had a great time - we were all very impressed with the progress the Centre's making under his stewardship. Here's a photograph of some of the kids at the Centre who had made toy trucks from plastic bottles.
Fund raising challenge update
In an earlier post I mentioned exploring the setting up of a UK-based Trust to support the MARPs Network secure the funding it needs to carry out it's work. Following further discussions and a couple of very helpful replies from blog readers this idea is 'on hold' until core funding has been secured from a Ugandan source. Getting core funding is key to building strong foundations for the Network's work. The team are working hard now to complete our first annual report and our first business plan. These two documents draw significantly on the findings from the Network's public dialogue project - a consultation carried out with over 100 civil society organisations (mostly small community-based organisations) who are working with Most At-Risk Populations in terms of HIV / AIDS. The team are developing a funding strategy and hope to secure success in gaining core funding within the next few months - this strategy will be under-pinned by the business plan but also by the outcomes from the World AIDS conference held in Vienna in July - a key message from this conference was that greater focus should be given to working with Most At-Risk Populations.

Visit from VSO and placement extension
A few weeks back the MARPs Network received a visit from the Programme Manager at VSO Uganda - Abigail Akirapa - to discuss progress with Ian's placement. Everyone felt that it was progressing positively and agreement was reached to extend the placement from 6 months to a year! Yippee - we are not going to be homeless - our house in Marlcliffe Road, Sheffield is rented out for a year and if Ian was to finish his placement this month we'd have to go travelling! Here's a photograph of Ian and Geoffrey Mujisha (Ian's boss) with Ruby (a visitor from VSO London) and Abigail from VSO Uganda.