Cultural Norms

Once again; I accompanied my bosses on a trip to the Northern region of Uganda specifically the districts of Koboko, Pader and Karamoja on a monitoring and evaluation exercise for one of the ongoing projects over there. What these districts have in common are distance between each other, dark as sin people and extremely dry weather! I used to lament about the distance from Kampala to Entebbe until I travelled north. That journey to and fro is enough to make location as an item on my list of deal-breakers in a potential partner.
Aside from the journey and the extremely hot weather plus short and stout cows; the north is actually beautiful. I loved my first visit to Nebbi and thought it one of the developing districts in that region but Koboko puts up a good fight. It is coming along wonderfully. What impressed me most though was Karamoja. It is incredibly beautiful! The dryness of the earth and weather add to its beauty and I was told it is something else when the rainy season is upon them. If it wasn’t so dry and far, I would consider having a weekend home over there.
To get back to the purpose of the trip, the project under monitoring and evaluation had to do with the mitigation of gender based violence against girls and women with disabilities. Inasmuch as it was successful across all three districts, the main challenge against absolute success; prejudice and attitude towards persons with disabilities notwithstanding are the cultural norms.
In Kakwa culture (a tribe of people from Koboko) it is a taboo for a woman to report her husband to the police in case of gender based violence. A practice enabled by family members and friends who decide to keep silent about the crime thereby obstructing the judicial system. A victim in Karamoja narrated a similar experience where her partner an officer of the law at that couldn’t be brought to justice over child negligence and abuse out of fear and cultural beliefs. They would rather suffer in silence than bring shame upon themselves and their partners in the community.
If we the educated, well travelled, sophisticated and modern city dwellers can be ensnared in its tight far reaching tentacles when push comes to shove, how about the uneducated and helpless village dwellers? These are ideologies set before us and will continue to live on after us. One cannot battle pre-conceived notions until it is a do-or-die situation which I believe gender based violence is. It always comes down to someone’s inner strength and the need to do better for and by themselves because help alone is nothing. Until one comes to such a point, these tentacles will never be let go of.

Nebbi

  woman using walking sticks fashioned out of tree branches

I used to think Entebbe is the furthest place I’d been to within the country then I went to Gomba and now Nebbi. Nebbi is FAR! As far as the Kingdom of Far Far away in Shrek. And I have to say, the most arduous journey I have taken so far.
A trip slated to kick off at 8 am got off to a late start at 12pm. A late start never bodes well for such long trips so does the cramped space. Good thing is; I travelled with the big bosses and it couldn’t have been anymore interesting. I was the minion to their Gru. The trip was for a monitoring and evaluation exercise on the project they have going on in the Nebbi sub-counties of Kucwiny and Wadelai (Nebbi has three sub-counties).
Nebbi was an experience to say the least in so many ways. Unlike Gomba which looked truly like an abandoned village, Nebbi is more of a work in progress - on the way to development. The roads are good and smooth, fresh construction going on and vast expanses of land! So much fertile and free land over there. The civil war in their region set them back a little but it isn’t as bad as one would expect.
The town centre is OK and so are the accommodations. In fact, they were better than I had imagined. The room was self contained and the bed met my expectations because I have a bad back. If the mattress isn’t as hard as a new sofa, it makes for bad days and several aches. The only wrinkle was the lack of hot water which was easily fixed. Let’s not forget the lack of man candy! Nebbi has no young men at all! Where did they go to?
Kucwiny sub-county was the first area to visit on account of it’s near location. The women with disabilities(beneficiaries of the project) made quite an impression on me. They spoke with so much confidence and ease. You could tell how positive the project has been on their lives and the people around them. It was so good to see first hand because of who they are and their stations in life.
Who stood out the most for me amongst them was the woman using normal sticks as walking aides. Seeing her made me reflect on my life. Unlike her, I have my mother and brother who look after my walking aides needs. I get new rubber soles when they wear off on both crutches and not so long ago, my brother bought me a new set of legs after a fall that led to the demise of one crutch.
They, unfortunately, do not have people like these in their lives. Most of them were using normal sticks fashioned out of tree branches and if they had crutches, they were either mismatched, poorly adjusted or worn out at the soles. Majority were using the metallic bit at the end of the crutch which is hazardous. Seeing this made me want to make a ‘call for action’ which I do not know how to go about. What I do know is it would be a win-win situation for the parties involved.
We then moved on to the sub-county of Wadelai where the women were listless. The project did make an impact on their lives, however they were not as lively as the women in Kucwiny which made the trip to their sub-county anticlimactic.
On the whole; Nebbi was a successful trip. I didn’t do much sightseeing but what I did see was enough. The West Nile on which Moses travelled to Egypt in his baby basket, the acres of Sun Flower farms, Murchison Falls National Park and the Karuma Falls where a hydro-dam is being constructed. It was enough.

Work Firsts

With the Gomba district police

I think every job brings with it little new lessons and experiences to make you appreciate it more. Like I am doing of late. The more I learn, the more appreciative I am for the experiences because most of it is so new to me.
Recently, I was tasked with the creation of a weekly newsletter for the organisation I work with. To say it was daunting would be putting it mildly. I know nothing about content creation, lay-out and design. The newsletters I read are usually brief and to the point. On top of that there were design issues to consider. Aside from the content within the newsletter, the design has to be appealing as well.
This was serious food for thought. How do I have it created without incurring design costs? Why should it even dip into funds when it is for staff consumption? They do say ‘where there this a will there is a way’, right? Indeed. For the first time in my life, I looked into what MS Publisher is and what it does through the attainment of a manual. I downloaded the tutorial and after a skim of the first page on publisher, I dived right into the practical.
Going about its development brought this feeling of satisfaction I never expected. I enjoyed every little step of the way and could not be more proud. converting that baby into pdf added the finishing touches that brought it all together beautifully. I certainly feel confident in my creative abilities. Who knew? At this point, I can definitely hack it in the magazine world.
I also got the chance to go to a far off village for fieldwork. To sensitize the district police on handling women with disabilities in cases pertaining them. The officers were so young! Literally fresh from University and as smart as can be in their uniforms. Looking at them with the jaundiced eyes of a city born, I wondered if this is what the girls wanted out of life. To be district police officers in an undeveloped district going nowhere. It brought to mind the local officers we read about in novels whose only achievement in life is being the law in a two-bit town as they call it. Generation to generation.
Much as it was an educational experience, village life is so simple and so basic. People have to do a lot to get out of there if they want more out of life.

@NuwoduAdvocacy