The heavy equatorial rains are frequent here, so when the van got stuck in the red mud, it was routine work for the members of Uganda N.O.W. Outreach, who I was traveling with. Bannana, cassava, and sweet potatoes surrounded us as we hiked up a small hill to Busagazi Village, located on a small island in Lake Victoria, with big views over the massive lake. The bush is greener than I ever imagined, with thick vegetation where the small grasshoppers– eaten as a delicacy here, follow our trail through the grasses. Wild vanilla beans grow on vines here, and the smell is like an ice cream shop as the beans ferment and gain their rich vanilla flavor on the forest floor.
The purpose of this visit for Direct Development was to visit one of Uganda’s most rural villages, and see what life is like for people who are forgotten by their government. The questions that I ask of my colleagues in Uganda N.O.W. are typical for an American: why has the government not funded schools here? Where are the hospitals? What can someone do if they’re in need of emergency medical care? The answers are difficult to hear, in that much of the rural Ugandan population is more or less forgotten, resulting in the dependence on civil society groups like Uganda N.O.W. and their affiliates (DDI and others) to provide funds for the local schools.
Direct Development has plans to work very closely with the directors of Uganda N.O.W. and our African staff here on the ground in an effort to build lasting projects in this community. The schools here are in desperate need of teacher training, facilities for water and hygiene, and student sponsorship. The goals that DDI has set for next year include multiple fundraisers across the US to raise funds necessary to alleviate the burden of poverty placed on these people.
As we walk into the village, it is hard not to notice the amount of children running around, some naked, all barefoot and dirty, with very little adult supervision. Their bellies are bloated with malnutrition, and much of their clothing has been provided by Uganda N.O.W. in its past efforts to provide aid to the village. Many children here are victims in one form or another of HIV, and some even head their households. I ask the director of Direct Development Uganda who these children’s parents are, and he replies that they very well could be all of one father, and his multiple wives.
Major efforts of Uganda N.O.W. have been to sensitize the local male community to take an interest in their family lives, including the welfare of their wives and children. In addition, programs have been implemented to educate the men to stay faithful to their wives and not to help the spread of AIDS with unnecessary promiscuity, that also results in more unplanned children. An enormous task for these local NGOs, who must battle rural cultural and tribal norms, that are very difficult to unlearn in an area with minimal opportunities in education.
As we are looking around the village, and playing with the children, the women invite us to sit down and have some matoke and beans that they have prepared for us, even though they have so little. They pick some small chilies off of a tree nearby that are no larger than a pencil tip, but are the spiciest things I’ve ever tried. Pastor Elly of Uganda N.O.W. told us that when he was a young man and an athlete, he would eat 15 of these peppers in one sitting, when one seed made me cry and have sinus problems for the rest of the day! The women pour us dirty glasses of water, as we covertly sip from our bottle brought from town. This is another reality in the villages: water is scarce and clean water is nonexistent.
Moving through Busagzi felt like going back in time over 200 years. There was no electricity, no toilets, no latrines, and no water. How are people still living like this, when it is unheard of in the West to not have clean water, sanitation, and a doctor within a reasonable distance? Experiences like this make the need quite clear for Direct Development’s fundraising efforts in the US.