Kibong

It feels in some way appropriate that the name of the 24^th and last school that we reached with the pads ministry this year has a certain ring of finality about it, “Kibong!”

Pads are handed out at Kibong Primary School.
The hill in the background feels closer than the picture shows.

As schools go it was rather pleasant; the school itself was fairly new and well maintained but the village is set on level ground nestling between a couple of rocky hills, giving it a more interesting aspect than almost all the others we have visited. Most of our schools are set in a relatively featureless, mainly flat landscape with only trees to draw the eye. It has to be said that the trees are often rather fine, in some ways reminiscent of an English woodland landscape only that, on closer inspection they are clearly not Oak, Ash or Chestnut. This is bush country, just a bit too dry to be jungle but allows a great variety of trees to flourish. So far, the agricultural land use is not so intensive that all the trees have been cleared; perhaps because the vast majority of land is still managed using man and woman power; oxen may be used for ploughing but are of no use for weeding or harvesting. There are currently still plenty of tracts of native bush, including mature trees, between the cultivated areas. Perhaps mechanisation or population pressure will change this in a generation or two. 

This man has sewn all but the first
small batch of pads this year!

But I digress. Whilst landscape and environment are important and interesting, it is the people that we are here to serve; for this work, that means schoolgirls. Now, I have explained at length before that equal opportunity in education for boys and girls is a good thing and this is really the first generation here in the rural North of Uganda that have had that opportunity; very many of the mothers of our girls and quite a lot of the fathers had no formal education at all. But when the girls come to puberty and get ambushed by their menstrual cycles, equality of opportunity begins to vaporise.

In the West, periods are a problem¹ to be managed, supported by an obliging sanitary hygiene industry. Here, for girls in the mixed schools of rural Uganda, that turns into a week at home, starting with potential embarrassment, maybe shame, every cycle. Sanitary pads are available but at the cost of around two days income. What chance do the girls have of reaching their academic potential in these circumstances?

What you see is what they get.

So this year we have manufactured 10,399 washable sanitary pads, using 138m of polyester fleece, 233m of PVC sheet and 43 bedsheets. We have bought 10,368 pairs of knickers in 7 trips to Lira. It takes a whole day to journey to and from Lira, about 3 hours away, for my colleague Milly. Travelling early in the back of a truck, she buys up to 130 dozen knickers from a number of traders and always comes back with exactly the required number, despite never writing anything down!

We have visited 24 schools, providing 4 pads and 4 pairs of knickers to 2647 girls². We have actually talked to 2200 girls; in every school there are some off sick, away at an athletics competition, excluded from failure to pay the PTA fee etc. And of course, at any time, there are some who are at home waiting for their period to pass.

All this was done as economically as possible, at a cost of £2.46 (3.68 $US) per child, paid for by interested individuals and churches in the UK, Australia and America. Thank you! You have helped these young people by solving one key life problem for them. They have plenty of other problems to face but solving this one gives them a good start in facing the others.

Notes.

1. Men tend to cautiously think that it is rather incorrect to call menstruation a 'problem', perhaps arguing it is a normal bodily function of healthy people; most women seem to disagree. I will go with the women on this!

2. If you do the maths you will find that dividing 10364 (knickers) by 4 gives 2591 girls, whereas we recorded 2647 girls. There were a very few cases when we arrived at a school and there were more girls than the school had informed us of and we had no backup stock. In these cases we reduced a few girls down to 3 and 3. This may account for the difference. But it remains an unsolved puzzle for the moment.

Posta!

Uganda Post Limited is a fine institution that was put in place in the colonial days. Its new 'corporate image' name is "Posta Uganda".

A Postbus, ready for the off.  I like the familiar colour!

Each of the older more well established towns have a post office and some host a post bank or even an internet centre. Post buses run from Kampala out to all the major towns where the Post Offices sort into post boxes that can be can be paid for and allocated, a precious post box key being entrusted to the owner. They carry passengers as a convenient complimentary business. There are no door to door post deliveries; most people do not get mail anyway. And in an age of mobile phones and increasing email use the Posta is feeling the squeeze.

Pader town, alas, is neither major nor old and the bus stops at Kitgum, nearly 2 hours away. From there, post for Pader is forwarded by other means. Or it was until April; then the owner of the rented building in Pader locked the door over a dispute and the Office was shut up (possibly with some items of post still inside).

Some Current Uganda Stamps

Since then our post has piled up in Kitgum with the other Pader mail. A few weeks ago week we managed to liberate ours from Kitgum Post Office and I was able to read some birthday cards as well as some real letters! Thank you R & M, S & R and S.Bi for taking the trouble to use snail mail. It is great to get it...eventually.

Since it does not look as though the Pader office is going to open again any time soon, we have decided to open a Kitgum PO Box. So if you are still dedicated to snail mail (and I hope you are) then our new address is:

Emmanuel International,

Pader Restoration Resource Centre,

P.O Box 12,

Kitgum,

UGANDA.

We think we will probably be able to pick it up from Kitgum at least once a month; which is better than the Pader lockout. But nothing urgent please!

Barbara Rivera,
1963 - 1994

Remembered

Emmanuel International (EI), the organisation I work with, has been in existence since 1975 in Canada, when it was formed out of the experiences of the Ethiopian Famine. The UK arm was started in 1978. Since then many people have gone out to third world countries with EI and worked in places that are mostly 'off the map'. EI has an ethos blending 'Mission' with relief and development, avoiding separating the one from the other. And we strongly prefer to work alongside local church partners.

Of the many ex-patriots that have been with EI over the years, a few stay long term but many work for a year or two and move on. Many are young people starting out on their lives, making the few oldies feel either young or ancient, depending on their energy levels at the time!

The old EI Compound in Patongo today.
The burned out garage on the left, accommodation on the right

Back in 1983 EI established a base in Northern Uganda in a small town called Patongo among the Acholi people, who were suffering the effects of internal strife, coupled with lack of development, and geographical and political remoteness from the capital, Kampala.

The EI work of health education and care, agricultural development, relief in famine and war continued from the Patongo base until 2002 when the LRA rebel group attacked the EI compound, burning the vehicle garage with the vehicles inside. No one was hurt in the attack but EI decided to withdraw. The LRA, known for their gruesome brutality were completely unpredictable; sometimes polite, sometimes murderous.

When it comes to getting people out to remote places and later getting them back again, EI has an amazingly good safety record. Only one EI person has ever died in the field; Barbara Rivera.

Barbara joined the EI team in Patongo in 1992. Born in the Philippines in 1963, her father moved to London with his work when she was 10. She joined EI with experience of teaching Sunday School and a degree in Herbal Medicine. She wrote of herself in 1994 “I like visiting people but am actually quite shy and not always talkative! (more of a listener than a talker) I prefer practical / manual work to written desk work and can be quite creative when I'm in the mood. I enjoy being with people but also like my own company.” In Patongo, Barbara seems to have concentrated on the children. She taught a regular Sunday school class. The two photos of her were taken on a day when she and the district nurse were shepherding children through the bush to keep them safe from a rebel incursion (they would have abducted the boys as soldiers).

The route from Lira.
Ignor the time; Google does not compute dirt roads!

On 11^th June 1994, just over 20 years ago, Barbara and her sister, who was visiting from the UK, were in Lira, the nearest big town to the south, looking for transport to take them the 106 km, 3 or 4 hours to the North East over dirt roads, back to Patongo. They found transport in the form of a small petrol driven local truck. As is normal even today, the polite Africans made space for the two Mzungu (white people) in the cab and the other passengers rode in the open back. The driver had been drinking. The truck's fuel pump had failed and the fuel was being gravity fed into the engine's carburettor from a jerry can in the cab.

The driver was in a hurry; about half way, passing through Rackoko, he did not decelarate as they descended the shallow valley after the town. The passengers in the back shouted to the driver to slow down but he did not react. At the rough and muddy spot at the valley bottom he lost control, the vehicle left the road and rolled several times, settling on its side. Amazingly everyone survived the crash but petrol from the lashed up jerrycan had leaked out. The driver clambered out in a panic and ran away. The petrol ignited. Barbara, pushing from below, helped the others in the cab escape but could not get out herself and was overcome. Some youths from the back pulled her out of the cab; she was hurried to hospital in Lira but did not survive. A tragic and devastating loss.

Children have long memories; and they grow up. Today Barbara's Sunday school children have grown into responsible adults, knowing that part of who they are was formed by Barbara. Some of them have gone into local politics, others into administration, many are no doubt ordinary town and village folk, most are churchgoers; but they have not forgotten. Patongo needed another Secondary School and the old Sunday school friends and the older EI staff who knew Barbara got together and are on the school board. They have named it the Barbara Rivera Secondary School. It is a local initiative, a work in progress but it is happening and is a fitting tribute to a herbalist from London, young woman with a heart for children, a gentle teller of Bible stories.

The information in this article was gathered from published EI material, EI personnel and from an eyewitness, one of the youth in the rear of the vehicle. If you know any further information or corrections, please let me know.

Pads, End of Term

 Report.

I last posted in April at the end of the first (Ugandan) term when we had visited our first school for the year.

Since then, in the second term up to August, we have visited 11 more Primary Schools, bringing the total number of girls we have helped this year up to 977. Each girl gets 4 washable pads and 4 pairs of knickers. Most of the girls possess neither before we come. Those who attend our session get taught some biology, a lot of practical wisdom on how to deal with their periods and get encouragement from the Bible to see their intrinsic, worth as unique people. Girls are not much valued in most African societies and they know that very well, so any encouragement that helps them keep their dignity can be life changing.

Individuals of great value.

We take the names of absentees and package pads and knickers for each one. (When you think about it, on any day we visit there are some going to be some absent due to …...!)

The tailor at work

We have had to develop a fairly slick buying, shipping, marking, cutting and sewing operation to keep up with the demand for pads. This has got so efficient that, as I write, we already have most the pads finished that we expect will be needed next (3rd) term and we have over bought on the pad cloth and plastic sheet; oops, I applied the brake too late!

Soon after we started this year, in April, it became apparent that we could produce pads quickly enough and visit schools frequently enough to aim for 24 schools in the year rather than 12 as originally planned. But it would cost twice as much. All the while, funding has been steadily coming in from UK supporters, with a good single donation from the US and another larger one from EI Australia which assisted us in getting discounts through bulk buying. If funds continue then we should reach our 24 school target this coming term and have a good stock of material ready for next year, if we continue. The cost per girl has been kept to £2.83, about 4.62 $US.

One new and encouraging aspect that has emerged, is that that some head teachers are getting really interested in the possibilities of what we are doing. Their reason for this is that they want their girls to perform well but for years have been frustrated by the girls missing days of school every month and not reaching their potential. They can see that providing the girls with pads, giving them the confidence to stay in school, makes a real difference. So they are beginning to ask the question; how can the schools ensure that the girls are always provided for? They realise that we will not be here for their foreseeable future. It may seem simple to us but believe me the problems posed by the poverty and culture of the families and inadequate government funding are formidable. But then some of the head teachers are formidable people!

You're doing what!?

Milly with the first few pads
in the tailor's shop.

About a month ago I was sitting at a dining table in Kampala with a hospitable English family I have got to know. I explained what I had come back to  Uganda to do and the daughter of the house, a grown woman who had been in aerospace recruitment, asked me a question that went something like this:

"What made you give up a job as an engineer in the UK aerospace industry so that you could distribute sanitary pads to rural schoolgirls in Northern Uganda?"

It is an excellent question and I laughed loud and long when I heard it. It does seem to be a remarkable change of career. But it also seems to contain an assumption that somehow the aerospace industry is sophisticated, modern and exciting, whilst distributing sanitary pads somehow sounds like a job for a janitor. Be that as it may, that is what I am doing!

After 3 months or so of home leave, including the birth of my third grandchild, Mary Anna, I am living  in the Northern Uganda town of Pader again. The Northern Region is generally poorly developed, has poor communication links and is in recovery from decades of deadly cattle raiding, a brutal rebel insurgency and brutal military responses. 

Not to speak of a 10% HIV rate and a (Uganda wide) median age of 15 years; there are more children than adults. Thankfully there is peace now but the regional 'post traumatic stress' will take a generation or more to recover from.

I wrote in "Sowing Pads" last December about the problems girls face in education and our small scale and local solution to it. Well now that I am back my task is to continue that work, make it better and if possible inspire a larger NGO to take on and expand it.

The school notice board at the main road.

Last Wednesday, 23rd April, Milly and I visited our first school this year. Pagwari Primary School, which is maybe 10 minutes from town but 5 of these minutes are on a bush track. Milly gave them the talk, I gave them my story of the 4 generations of women and girls who are deeply important to me, moving on to God viewing each girl as important and unique (from Psalm 139). We distributed 4 washable pads, 4 pairs of knickers and one black plastic bag to each of the 64 girls present. 14 were away at an athletics competition and we left things for them too. There were time when the classroom looked like a bazaar but in fact order was never far away.

Distribution time.

4 and 4

It had taken some hard work to get the 280 pads marked, cut and sewn in time (see title picture). Also a day's trip to Lira by Milly (on 'local transpot' i.e. a truck) to buy 94 dozen knickers (enough for 4 schools if we are careful). We now have a 2 week school holiday to prepare for the next few schools.

If you are supporting the project, thanks and well done. Our target this year is 12 schools. But there are more than 12 within easy reach of Pader and it looks like our production rate is satisfactory, so with more support we can extend to reach more schools (at around £2.90 per girl or £200/school). 

If you want to challenge us to extend then please contact the EI UK office, details at www.eiuk.org.uk. Please earmark any donations for 'Northern Uganda, Pads'.