Aids Orphan Education Trust

Children of Ynyama Village
welcome home their friends from trip to USA
The first NGO (non governmental organization) I worked with in Jinja, Uganda was the Aids Orphan Educational Trust, or AOET. Begun by Sam Tushabe in response to the need for supporting the school requirements of children orphaned by the Aids epidemic in East Africa. In addition to running a school, the NGO also is active in running a clinic for Aids patients, placement of Aids orphans in Ugandan families, rescue efforts to assist families in the war torn north, and micro-enterprise training for Aids widows, many of which were HIV positive. They are a very well run, christian based organization that are facing the many challenges in Ugandan society with faith, vision.
Rehoboth Primary School :


Primary Level 3
Rehoboth Primary School


Joseph Twoli, Child Welfare Coordinator
Describing new school location

Rehoboth Community:
AOET has purchased several acres on a hillside overlooking Jinja and the Nile River.
They place orphans and families there, and help them to become self sufficient.
They currently have 6 houses built, and are planning more houses, and a community including school.
The families involved are chosen based on their potential and willingness to take care of these fine homes.






Clinic




















In order to support the families, AOET has developed its own clinic facilities, focussing on Aids testing, counseling, treatment, and community education on health concerns.




The clinic staff performs a skit about Aids transmission for the community








Widow Empowerment:

In order to support the families of their children, AOET provides instruction to widows and mothers in computers, sewing and weaving. Many of the women are HIV positive themselves. This enables women to :
a.help pay for their own treatment
b. pass on skills to their children
c. keep their family together as long as possible







In conclusion:

AOET is a well run, visionary program that addresses several important aspects of the orphan problem. It seeks to keep families together, and works hard to assist children in staying in school. They currently have lost funding for the new school half way through, and are looking for additional help to finish the school which will provide education for hundreds of orphans of Aids affected families.
For more information, please see their web site:
AOET

Life and death at the source...

Angel, night commuter child

Charity for Peace Camp
Gulu, Uganda

It is 4:30 AM, but my body seems to insist that it is the slothful hour of 11:30 AM,eastern Africa time, and refuses to go back to sleep. I am sorry this is the first posting in quite a while, but dependable, uploadable internet access proved quite unattainable. Let me somehow try to begin to explain the last several weeks in a few words and images. Let this serve as an introduction.

I have heard it said that the value placed on life in parts of Africa is very low.
This certainly explains the driving on the "highways" in Uganda. In fact 3 days after I travelled the same road, 30 people were killed when a taxi bus slammed into a truck when it was on the wrong side of the road, avoiding other slower moving cars and the inevitable craters in the surface of the road. (story)
Yet at the same time, I met people willing to sacrifice as they make room in their house for one more orphan. One more war widow. One more HIV positive AIDS widow.
I met a very bright young woman trained as a tailor, who abandoned her schooling to take care of her 5 siblings when, at the age of 8, she witnessed the slaughter of her parents.
I met thousands of children who walk miles barefoot to study advanced mathematics in a dirt floor schoolhouse, who desire to be doctors, nurses, engineers, artists, if they can just find the money to pay their school fees.
What is one to make of all of this?
I took photographs.

Catherine Primary School,
Kangulumira , Uganda

Sunday Morning Night Commuters
Charity for Peace Camp
Gulu, Uganda

Family working in the quarry
Acholi quarter,
Kampala, Uganda

Former Child Soldier,
Charity for Peace Camp
Gulu, Uganda