Friday..

Mosquitoes today - the office was full of them so we had to do a major spray before starting work. 

Today was a day of two halfs.  The intention this morning was to continue with the training on Quickbooks with Robert.  However, there was a problem with the software which took virtually the whole morning to try and resolve.   There I was on skype in the middle of rural Uganda trying to get through to the Intuit helpline in the UK - three times & a lot of frustration.  Fingers crossed, we may now have a workable solution which means we can continue in earnest next week without losing too much more time on mindless IT.   Before this happened, I also managed to drill down on some detail regards the current manual system of accounts.  I've been confused by it all week and I realised today that so is Robert, to an extent.  It is a combined cash and bank ledger which makes reconciling either very difficult!    So, some further work to be done there next week.  What is positive is that as the week has progressed, Robert seems more comfortable in sharing some of his uncertainties and difficulties in managing the finances.  This makes it much easier to know where to assist.  Robert also mentioned that he has been diagnosed with malaria and had been prescribed medication which he had been taking for the last couple of days.  He had been feeling very poorly yesterday but didn't want to say for fear that this would affect the training session I had arranged with him.  He is feeling better today.

At 3pm, there was a ceremony at the centre (it was due to be at noon!).  This was a ceremony for 9 child mothers who had successfully completed a 2 year training course in tailoring.  They were to be presented with certificates and also start up tools, these being a Singer sewing machine - there were men putting these together all morning!  It was a very formal ceremony chaired by a dignitary from the District Council.  Lots of speeches were made all in the local language - thankfully, Fred, one of the Programme Officers was sitting beside me and translated from time to time.  After individual presentations of certificates, the girls were led outside to be presented with their sewing machines.  Lots of photos were taken and the local press were also there.  This was followed by food and drink before people left for home.  The sewing machines were taken back to the girl's home on a boda boda (a bicylce taxi service) and they were very heavy!    By providing the start up tools, the intention is to enable the girls to set up a tailoring business as a group so that they can start earning and providing for their families. 

I met the founders of KICWA at the ceremony - a group of quite amazing women who came together in response to children who began to escape from captivity back in 1998.   There were no buildings to house the children at that stage and the women brought food from their homes.  The International Rescue Committee then became involved and built the building and shelters that are KICWA's premises today.  The women continued to care for many, many children for several years providing care, counselling and support whilst at the same time trying to trace their families.  Sometimes they were lucky and the children's families were still alive.  One of the women told me she did it because her younger brother had been abducted on his way to school one morning - he had been travelling on a bus with other children.  She still has no idea whether he is alive.  She would want someone somewhere to do the same for her brother as she had done for the children she cared for.