Namuwongo Clean-Up

VSO volunteers in any given country are grouped into 'clusters' to enable them to meet and have a say in the way the VSO programme is run in the country. Each cluster is also allocated a sum of money (typically £250) to use in the organising of a community project - something that will be of benefit to the community in which the VSO volunteers are based and which will also give them a chance to work as a team outside of their day jobs.

The Kampala VSO cluster decided to choose a project in the Namuwongo 'slum' which is next-door to the leafy suburb where VSO has its office. The "Als" - Alison and Alan Cowan, members of the VSO cluster live on the edge of Namuwongo and they introduced us to the most amazing community group you could ever wish to meet. This group - "Touch Namuwongo" has 140 community-based volunteers and their main purpose is to do outreach work in the community in order to get people to take HIV tests as well as promoting safer sex. When the group is not busy with that, they also organise wider public health days. We discovered from the "Als" that they wanted to do a community clean up - the drainage ditches in Namuwongo were badly clogged and with recent heavy rain they overflowed allowing sewerage to flow freely around people's houses and there had been an outbreak of cholera. However the Touch Namuwongo group were concerned that without proper tools and protective clothing they wouldn't be able to mobilize the community to get involved.Ruth, the amazing mobiliser / organiser of "Touch Namuwongo"

The Kampala VSO cluster was asked to get involved, and so Alan and Ian (as the 'cluster' chair) had a meeting with Ruth, the organiser of the Touch Namuwongo group, to see how we could assist. After listening to Ruth we agreed to ask the Kampala cluster to commit £250 towards the purchase of tools and protective clothing and also to turn up on Saturday 25th September to work shoulder-to-shoulder with residents in cleaning up the paths and ditches running through the community.

So, with just a degree of trepidation, fifteen or so VSO volunteers showed up at 9.00 am to be overwhelmed by the site of hundreds of residents ready and waiting to get stuck in!Here's Renate improvising with some bucket lids as shovels
A group of amazing women volunteers from the "Touch Namuwongo" group - who, we discovered later, had mobilized over 400 residents to get involved!
This railway line (along which we dragged the collected rubbish) runs from Kampala City Centre, through Namuwongo, to Port Bell on Lake Victoria - three goods trains a week use the line
A view from the railway line down to an area of the community that's freshly cleaned!
A group of volunteers and residents hard at it
Our neighbour Bob (a Dutch VSO volunteer) getting down and very dirty in the drainage ditch - which as can be seen is now clean and clear
Here's a huge lump of concrete that somehow people managed to lift from the drainage ditch - no wonder the ditch got blocked quite easily!
After the clean-up everyone went to the local Parish Chair's compound for a bit of a celebration - here the entertainment is some vigorous dancing and drumming - the tools bought by the VSO cluster can be seen in the foreground
After the dancing, the troupe (all members of Touch Namuwongo) presented a 'play' about the dangers of HIV / AIDS - funny, sad, angry, emotional - brilliant! Here's a dramatic moment . .
The audience is rapt - and here Alison Cowan (a VSO volunteer medical doctor at the International Hospital) sits with her three daughters - all of whom worked their socks off during the clean-up
A Namuwongo resident enjoys an extremely well-earned ice lolly
And these three seem quite pleased about it all as well!