Month: November 2021

Theater group and savings bank in Tom's village

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Tom Ongom is one of our most skilled "influencing agents". He convinces people that it is best to build on Adina's holistic approach when modernizing their village.

TEXT AND PHOTO: MAGNE REIGSTAD

When Tom speaks, people in the village listen because Tom is trustworthy.

Tom is 42 years old and father of eight. He came in contact with our center in Lira when his son Emmanuel received treatment from us. Today, Emmanuel is a fully capable youth of 16 years and focuses on vocational school with building and construction as a subject. The parents were in their time worried about the son, he would be able to get married when he was considered disabled, how would a woman look at him?

Tom radiates naturally authority, and is the volunteer coordinator of the village family group. He gets involved because he wants to pay back what Adina has given him in the form of a healthy son. The village has 35 households, and 15 disabled children live here. Together with our people, Tom explains to the inhabitants that children who struggle with a disability can and should be helped. Tom's own son has become a role model in a culture where the power of example is great.

The village has built a solid water source with a safety fence.

Tom and his wife Lucy wants all the children to go to school and both are working to raise enough school fees. They harvest from a diverse arable land, from 12 hives and have fish in a couple of ponds just outside the village. The parents work hard, but do not envision the children as labor on the family farm. The children help, but they should not be free labor for the family. - Proper education provides greater opportunities for good work, the family father believes.

Our field workers are often visit this family group, and they see that Tom's village has become a solid example of the Adina Foundation's holistic approach giving results in the form of both better interaction, behavior and understanding of the larger community the village is part of.

The theater group addresses topics such as violence and drinking too much.

A theater group has been started who make and perform their own plays where the theme is good and less good aspects of life in the village. The very creative group has fun together and entertains the inhabitants. The similarities with a Norwegian community team are striking.

The village has created a separate savings bank where farmers can borrow for seeds, for example. According to Tom, there are no problems with repaying the loans. But no one is allowed to borrow money if they do not have a plan for the use of money and repayment, and the borrowers are thoroughly questioned before the joint fund opens for loans.

The children follow when the village adults are gathered for important discussions.

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With support from the local community and AFU, Bogi managed to get back on his feet

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Et society is important in more ways than one. Thet can receive you when you fall - and is there to help you get back on your feet. Adina Foundation Uganda (AFU) works with communities and has done so for over 10 years. The goal of grassroots work in North Uganda is not just to understand local needs.Da ultimate goal is good partnership. When local communities view AFU as a resource and one partner the can work with to solve local challenges, can big and very positivechanges happen.

It is important to have people around who will help you up again when you have fallen - this experienced Bogi in her village earlier this year and made her come to the LRC. (Bogi tv at LRC)

Towards Bogi. She is 13 years old and comes from Ayer in Kole County, not far from Lira where AFU is located.  IN last year fell Bogi –  and needed help. Wounded she got in left leg became eventually infected and so severe that she could not walk – a 30 cm long piece white bone stuck out of the leg her, and it got worse. Osteomyelitis do this, and untreated it will lead to physical functionreduction, paralysis and death. 

Bogi is an orphan, and although her seven siblings and others in their local community tried to help her as best they could, her condition worsened. Beans and local remedies did not slow down the negative development. Fortunately, AFU's network is in the area where she lives, and her closest was told to take Bogi to AFU's Lira Rehabilitation Center (LRC) immediately. Bogi was admitted and corrective surgery was arranged for her. After months of physiotherapy and training at LRC after the operation, Bogi is much better and can walk again. She also receives psychosocial therapy and enjoys the teaching and socializing with the other children at the center. 

Throughout her stay at LRC, Bogi's siblings and local community have followed her up. They have contributed greatly to her being able to get up again. When she can now soon leave the LRC, they are concerned that she must be allowed to take part in the vocational training AFU offers. Now Bogi, her flock and AFU are considering alternative courses she can take when the coronary restrictions have been lifted and the schools can start again - something Bogi, her team and AFU are very happy with. 

Bogi's life situation was greatly improved through AFU's intervention and the time she was given at LRC, but it was her local community and AFU's grassroots network that ensured that Bogi received treatment. Bogi fell, but she is up again and everyone is positive and excited about what her future will bring.  

Active Citizens Fund project

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It's always good to see friendly faces, even if it's on a screen . Adina Romania and Adina Norway are both working on the Active Citizens Fund project from their respective countries

 

Recently, the Adina teams in Norway and Romania have met to discuss the "Pupil to Employees" project that is underway in Romania. Adina Foundation Romania has already worked on the project this year and gathered information about the target groups, conducted surveys and engaged participants. 405 participants have taken the survey and over 50 are already involved in the project. The target group is teenagers and young adult women who are exposed and marginalized from access to work.
The project looks at barriers in society that prevent this target group in the Craiova area from gaining access to work, how they can give them freedom of action,
find opportunities and stand up for their rights. The project is implemented by Adina Foundation Romania and is part of a two-year project with financial
support from Active Citizens Fund Romania and program funding from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA Grants 2014-2021.


While the work has been going on in Romania, the partnership with Norway has been physically limited, but fortunately digital tools are available. Visits between partners should have already started this year and are now postponed until 2022 due to the coronavirus. Through digital conference calls, Adina teams in Romania and Norway work to plan, set up and carry out training of participants in impact training. This will involve FAS employees first, and then they will take their training skills to teach the participants. Adina Norway will visit to help with this in 2022.

The Adina Foundation is not the only organization that helps Adina Romania in the Active Citizens Fund initiative - Kirkens Bymisjon Bergen is also involved in assisting with the initiatives V13 and Empo, and the First Lego League team Robomech works via digital conference calls with Adina Home and its Robomech team to prepare their robots for the First Lego League. All partners look forward to meeting again in 2022. 

The Adina Foundation's next meeting with Adina Romania is coming soon - we are working on joint tasks in the meantime and look forward to the next meeting! 

Builds a new and specially decorated center in Uganda

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Construction work is well underway on what will be a new and modern rehabilitation center in Lira. Adina Foundation Uganda becomes master of its own house after 10 years of continuous work in Uganda.

The new buildings are fully financed with funds from various private donors who have activities in several African countries. This is a great certificate to our employees and a solid recognition from outsiders. And it is difficult to wish for a more useful anniversary gift. The cost is estimated at 180,000 dollars, approx. NOK 1.9 million at today's exchange rate. reading experiences on the library shelves.

Construction work is well underway in Lira.

There is a lot of professionalism expertise at the bottom for this construction project that will be the new Lira Rehabilitation Center (LRC). The buildings are decorated in accordance with plans designed in collaboration between the architect and those who will use the facility. AFU owns the plot where they previously ran a pig farm and arable farming. Some of the old and very solid building mass will be given new life while other parts have been torn down to the foundation before new walls are built.

The physiotherapy part gets available 140 square meters for appliances, ribbed walls and benches, and everything is set up as the physiotherapists believe it will work best for them and for the children to be rehabilitated. This part also has an office, two toilets, a room for a nurse and a separate waiting room. Patients' integrity is safeguarded in a good way.

The children who come to LRC will not lose teaching and in the school building there will be up to two classrooms. There will also be office space for two social workers and two teachers. Modern facilities will make LRC an attractive workplace, and it is an overriding goal in the Adina Foundation's aid philosophy that there should be quality teaching.

Our social workers also get better working conditions. They have an important job to do with the children at the center, and they are important links between AFU and follow-up of activities and out in the villages.

The dormitories are designed to initially accommodate 40 children, but the capacity can easily be expanded to 50 children. In that case, this will be a doubling of the capacity compared to the current plant.

When the physiotherapy part, the classrooms and dormitory are completed, work begins on building a modern kitchen. The outdoor areas will give us a boost for play and outdoor activities that are important elements in our rehabilitation programs. The warehouse of what was once Adina Farm will be converted into a treatment clinic and a simple pharmacy. And the old administrative block for the farm with three spacious rooms will be refurbished for use by the LRC's administrative department. 

- The construction work will be obviously influenced by the temporary corona rules that the whole of Ugandan society must abide by. This also applies to the activities we have at our current center in Lira, says chairman of the board of AFU, Sam Atul.

- April 1 was all companies and organizations - except those with important roles, closed for 14 days to combat the spread of the corona virus, and this includes the construction work on our new center. We are waiting and hope that we can start up again soon, says the chairman of the board.