A Cry For Help

Aids Aids Aids
A killer, A destroyer
A rober is your name
you have robbed all our parents, sisters, brothers, friends and relatives
Oh Aids!

Aids Aids Aids
Where did you come from?
What do you want from us?
Who sent you on earth?
Aids Aids Aids

Aids Aids Aids
A disease without any cure
A disease that can not be controlled
A disease that had led to the de-population of people in some areas of Uganda
A disease that had taknen many lives of innocent people
Oh Aids!

Poem Written by: Sherry, age 12



Oh Aids Aids it's a killer disease
Killing people old and young, rich and poor
All they die
Please our parents, be careful

Look at me here, I dont have parents,
I sleep on the floor, I eat from the government
No one caes for me, no one loves me
Please our parents, be careful

Song Written by: Aidah, age 14


The above poems are written by two sisters who I met in the slums who are finding life particularly hard. They have seen a lot of violence, death and distruption and, understandably, are haunted by their situation every day. They came over to see me the other day and explained just how difficult their life is.. I cannot go into too much detail on here but it involves a very distrupted family with little money and they go long whiles without food. They have such high ambitions in life though and a great Faith in God.. it is their belief that if they do well at school and trust that God will answer their prayers they will be able to get out of the situation which literally made them cry in front of me. They need so much support both emotionally and financially and their family is in a great need of prayer. Please remember these girls.. I cannot express enough how broken they are and how loud their cry for help is.



I have been helping out at the centre for Austism this week.. so I have been getting up early to miss the traffic jam and cram myself into a Matatu taxi which is kind of their version of a bus.. but its a little minibus which honks at people who need a ride until its literally jammed full of Ugandans.. haha you should have seen my face when they called in even more people when there were already 5 of us squeezed into a 3 seater haha! I did consider sticking my head out the window for more room... its a cheap and pretty safe way to travel though and Ive found the whole thing quite amusing!

The centre has been running since 2006 and has 8 Autisic children there plus a nursery. There is an English gal called Anna who has been volunteering there for a year now who does a fantastic job and has literally turned the place around! She was telling me how one of the boys who has Autism was found by neighbours who went to rescue a shack/house from the flood. They found this little boy, aged 6, in there on his own playing with water.. a lot of mothers do not understand about special needs so a lot of children are just left without much care or education. Since Anna has been working there she has seen this boy develop so much in speech, social and academic skills... its a great success story!

However, from working there it is clear that the centre still needs a lot of help.. Anna is basically running the joint as she is trying to teach the teachers as well as the children, single handedly. There is only 2 staff working with the special needs, when ideally they need at least 5 as some of the children need one on one care. There is also one teacher for the nursery class and another for the upper class. So they are in great need of more staff.. although the problem is they dont have enough money to pay for more staff. More educational resources, such as simple games and books are also needed

The Centre has so much potential and it just needs financial support and staffing to provide the children with the high quality care they need. I truely admire how Anna has been managing it all, especially as its clear the staff still need a lot of guidance and educating as to how to teach and struture their activities! Also, I have noticed that at all the places I have visited there is a lack of First Aid. If anyone can give anything to help please email me at tiarna4jc@hotmail.com

I am back at the Centre tomorrow, we are going to devise a clearer structure of lessons and daily timetable so help the chilren can feel more secure in routine. Then it will be my last weekend here! Cant believe it! I am very mixed about everything.. love it here but do miss you guys so it will be nice to get back to see your lovely faces and get a roast dinner in my belly haha!

Will write one more post before I leave to say toodleloo properly

x looooooooooooooove x