Philippines: Day 4

We began at 8 am this morning and arrived at a downtown Church lot covered with tents.   They continued to do mass while we worked out of the parking lot.  We have our 450 kids and everything worked well. We had a tour afterwards of the grounds. 

After a delicious lunch we went to the second site. While we were waiting for the kits to arrive we enjoyed listening to karaoke from the kids.  Another 450 kits were given out and we were blessed to see our systems working to balance kids with kits.  It was a great team effort. 

Tomorrow we will have a day off from distributions and will tour some local areas.  Traffic is always a challenge and the weather is over 35 degrees. We have had thunderstorms almost every night.

Team Philippines 2019
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Uganda: Distribution 11!

After a slight delay to let some thunderstorms pass we headed out to distribution 11 of 12 at Rwijeere Uganda.

Even though the rain had stopped the mud covered roads presented a new challenge. Our bus nearly slid off the road and then got stuck on a hill. After emptying the bus and some skilled driving on the part of Moses, our bus driver, we got underway again through some difficult roads. Travelling to these remote villages reinforces why we distribute bed kits once you see the living conditions and poverty that exists.

Upon arrival we were greeted by a group of parents dancing to traditional Ugandan drum beats.

Once our distribution got under way, things went smoothly and another 585 bedkits were distributed to 585 smiling faces. We were also visited by a flock of chickens that decided to take a closer look at a bedkit and seemed to approve.

Our return trip from the distribution was less eventful although we did see a group of inquisitive Vervet monkeys at the side of the road hoping for a banana to be tossed their way.

Neil Waugh for
Team Uganda 2019
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Philippines: A Successful Day 3!

Another successful day!

In the morning we had our 450 bedkit distribution. The kids were ready and waiting for us and we were blessed to have a group of teenagers dance for us. The distribution went smoothly with many volunteers from SCAW Philipines group and the Kiwanis group. 

After a wonderful lunch we were greeted by 400 children. After the distribution we went to see them piling into vans to be taken back to their local schools.  Even though there is a school break many teachers volunteered their time to take children to the site. 

Every evening it seems we have thunderstorms but they are welcomed as they cool the air that is generally 30 degrees but feels like 35.

Team Philippines 2019
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Uganda: Sharing the Road!

Many of our distributions have taken us out to the country. The red dirt roads, at times, make the term WASH BOARD SURFACE have a real meaning while riding on the minibus. Our bus had to share the road with the other vehicles, motorcycles, bikes, walkers and the cattle. Had to watch out for the goats which were usually tethered near the roadside where they had taller grass and shrubs for them to munch on. 

At these distribution sites out in the country I noticed many bare foot children. The sandals in the bed kits will be put to good use. The homes out in the country changed from being brick structures to small adobe homes and grass thatched huts, at times they were in clusters. They usually had some mango tress, small rows of corn and some other plants which appeared to have been newly planted around their homes. It was so good to travel these country roads to hand out bedkits to these deserving children and families.

Marianne Tomlinson for
Team Uganda 2019
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Uganda: A Limerick from Uganda

There once was a SCAW team from Canada

That volunteered to travel to Uganda

They worked hard with Kampala’s Inner Wheel

Who always prepared a tasty midday meal

Will the children like the bedkits they were bringing?

And the ladies were dancing and singing

Carefully setting up bedkits for the children to view

Including new outfits, red, green, yellow and blue

A mattress, a bucket, bedding, sandals and math set

Thanks to the donors they now have a mosquito net

Posing for a photo with a big smile, you know

At last, free to go home, bedkit in tow

So dear, sweet children of Uganda, we hope you sleep tight

Your new mosquito nets won’t let those bugs bite

We hope you enjoy the bedkits we were bringing

And the Inner Wheel Ladies keep dancing and singing

Karen Bridgman-Acker for

Team Uganda 2019
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Philippines: Home Visits And Interviews

Today after the morning distribution we went to some homes of recipients...  The homes were really 10 x 10 and had 3 children and 2 adults living in them.  There was one bed and the children slept on the floor.  The kitchen consisted of a 2 ft shelf with some pots and pans.  There was one burner.  The closet consisted of everything hanging on the ceiling.  In the “complex” there were 5 homes of similar standard.  They had a storefront where people took turns helping each other.

  
In our morning distribution we had 2 large groups… one of 142 children and one of 93 children. These photos take a little extra time but are really impactful for a group shot. 

The afternoon distribution was slightly delayed  due to traffic issues.  We were lucky as we were undercover as there was a heavy downpour.  We saw first had how important a raincoat can be to them.  

In one of our interviews we had a girl  who was a recipient of a bed kit a few years ago.  She was also lucky enough to have someone help her out with chemo treatments and costs.   She is now 12 years old and an honour student.  She has hopes of being a model or a stewardess.

Ruthe Vibe for
Team Philippines 2019
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Uganda: Masindi

We drove to Kitonozi from Masindi in NW Uganda for today’s distribution of 585 bedkits.  The people here speak a handful of languages including Lunyoro, Swahili, Lugsnda.

Once again, the Inner Wheel team in Uganda had everything on the ground well organized for the distribution.

Kitonozi is located in a rural area whose main industry is sugar cane grows and refining.  It’s an impoverished district with many children (at least 50%) who leave school at 12 or 13 years because their families do not have the equivalent of $20 to $40 a year for compulsory school fees.  Child disease issues are prevalent (eg. ringworm) with no money for child medical attention.

Still, the people are proud and do whatever they can to make a living.  Young girls help till crops and often get married in young teenage years.  The boys often work in the sugar cane fields and the sugar refining plant as young as 13 years to help cover family expenses. Families are everything in rural Uganda. They all look after each other.  The families were all so appreciative to receive our bedkits.

Brian Barr
Team Uganda 2019
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Philippines: All About the Bedkit!!

Today’s focus was all about the bedkit.

1) Members of the SCAW Canadian Team experience packing a bedkit for a child in The Philippines.

2) Two of our members along with a member of our overseas team in front of colourful bedkits to be distributed later today.

3) The truck loaded with bedkits arrives at the school compound.

4) Happy smiling faces of children proudly carrying home their bedkits - part of the total number of 450 bedkits successfully distributed today.

Theodora Nandy for

Team Philippines 2019
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Uganda: Gratefulness From All

This is my first distribution trip with SCAW.  It is proving to be a humbling and life-changing experience!  The support of the Ladies of the Inner Wheel of Kampala and their volunteers reflect a genuine affection for the children, which is such a blessing!....as are all the smiles generated from the beautiful Ugandan children at each site!

“FOR THE CHILDREN” continues to be the focus of the SCAW bedkit contributions.  As I interviewed several parents, with their children, I was reminded that the contents of each bedkit also benefit the entire family!   Rented rooms are small.  A mattress eliminates children sleeping on the floor; supplying mosquito netting reduces the parents’ worries over their children contracting malaria.

All of the parents whom I interviewed expressed how very, very grateful they were to the donors for thinking of their children!....and they prayed that others would donate so that more children and families would benefit!

JohnChristian for
Team Uganda 2019
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Philippines: We Have Arrived!!

Our team met at Toronto airport Friday. Here we are ready and anxious to get on our way.

From left to right: Irwin Kelly, Theodora Nandy, Bill Quipp, Sue Orr, Jan Gayman, Lorna Hedger, Ruth Vibe

After 16 hours in the air we arrived in Manila bright and early at 3:40 Sunday morning. It is very convenient that the time difference is exactly 12 hours. Our watches were already set for our new time zone.

After a day recovering we met with Dr. Ito as well as a few of the SCAW Philippine Team for a lovely dinner.

Tomorrow is a day of organizing and seeing a few sites here then Tuesday we begin our distributions.

Stay tuned,

Team Philippines 2019
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Uganda: Are We There Yet??

We knew today would be a long day as we were moving from our hotel in Kampala to a central hotel in our next distribution area. We drove three hours to our distribution where our smallest group of 565 children were waiting for us. 

At home we would probably be like our kids saying “are we there yet” but the scenery is so unique compared to Canada. Banana trees, mud huts with grass roofs, community water pumps with children gathered with yellow plastic water containers and waving kids looking for a white hand to wave back, create an amazing view for our journey. 

Tired or not, as soon as we arrived to our site we couldn’t help but jump out of the van and join in on the dancing and singing. What a beautiful welcome from all the parents and the children who have been waiting already for hours. 

Once we gave all the bedkits we boarded the bus for a 4 hour bus ride to our new hotel. The feeling of fulfillment and thinking of all the new smiling faces we just left makes it completely worthwhile. 

Suzanne Dobinson Team Uganda 2019
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Uganda: Hope and Happiness Even Among the Difficult

No human being should have to live in the conditions that I witnessed today after our third distribution. Five people exist in a hovel made of bricks and corrugated steel.  Most of us in Canada have bathrooms larger than what this family was living in.

The only furniture was a small dilapidated couch and a filthy mattress, but this is reality for millions of poverty-stricken children in Uganda.  The father of the family abandoned them and his whereabouts were not known.

There was a woman with a teenage son, two girls eight and ten, and a tiny two year old girl.  The ten year old received a bedkit earlier that morning.  The mother told us that the two older girls would share the mattress which demonstrates the fact that.a bedkit benefits the entire family.  Our wish would be that we brought a sliver of hope and happiness through the gift of a bedkit.

Rosanne Waugh for

Team Uganda 2019
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Uganda: Our Overseas Partner - Inner Wheel of Kampala!

Our partners in Uganda are the Inner Wheel of Kampala. This is a women’s group which started off being wives of Rotarians, but now membership is open to anyone over the age of 18 with interest in helping others. 

There are 14 women who are helping us on the distributions. Each day one of the women is in charge of the distribution. Prior to our arrival she and a few others, have met with the families of the 585 children to which we hand out a bedkit and she has also selected a site for the distribution. 

Today we drove 2 hours outside of Kampala into the rolling countryside to a large Catholic school, which had a primary, secondary and vocational school on site as well as the church. These ladies of the Inner Wheel are of great help and make our distribution possible and enjoyable.

Marianne Tomlinson for
Team Uganda 2019
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Uganda: Stark Contrast!

Day 2 of the Uganda Distribution is complete and was a great success. 585 bedkits were distributed and 585 happy smiling children proudly carried their gifts home to begin enjoying a much better sleep.

Part of the SCAW teams responsibility is to visit some recipients of a bedkit from a previous years' distribution. On Sunday after our distribution was complete we visited a single mother and her 2 children to see how the bedkit, that her son received in 2017 was standing up.

I find that these visits provide a stark reminder why SCAW's work is so important. The mother and her 2 children rent a room approximately 10ft x 10ft for CAD$7 a month. They live in this room with the mother and daughter sleeping together on blankets and the son sleeping on the bed. Unfortunately, due to the beliefs of the mother the son and daughter cannot share the bed.

The son is attending school but the daughter had to stop attending because their mother cannot earn enough money doing laundry to afford school uniforms for both children, along with rent and food.

Seeing people living in these conditions and how much a simple bedkit means to them helps remind us of how significant SCAW's impact can be.

Neil Waugh for

Team Uganda 2019
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Uganda 2019: Happy Mother’s Day from Uganda!

(Admin apologizes for the late post)

The SCAW Team spent the day on our first distribution in Uganda celebrating and working in partnership with the women of the Inner Wheel of Kampala.   We set out this morning in the pouring rain after a night of unsettling thunder and lightening.  Along the bumpy route to our site, our oversees partners sang away the rain and magically brought clearer skies and very warm temperatures for the remainder of the day.  A shout out to the men in our group who kindly remembered to wish all of us a Happy Mother’s Day!

In the course of handing out 585 bedkits to a large group of very excited school aged children, we met and spoke to so many grateful mothers who accompanied their children to the distribution site to watch the process and to help their children carry their bedkits back home. 

I had the humbling experience of interviewing some of the mothers and a grandmother about the contents of the bedkit, how it will help their child and to give them the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings to the donors.

I heard how before today, their children share a sleep surface with other siblings and sometimes a parent.  They sleep on the floor either on a mat or a mattress, noting that when it rains, they get soaked. When asked what in the bedkit is most useful to the child, they said it was both the mattress and the mosquito net.  While some families have a mosquito net, many do not and if they do, it must be shared by the entire family. One mother spoke of her daughter waking during the night because she is hungry as they do not always have money for food.  A grandmother was very thankful for the bedkit because she is raising four of her grandchildren and now the ten-year-old can sleep on her own for the first time.  Without exception, all the adults interviewed expressed sincere gratitude and appreciation for the donors who made this gift of a bedkit possible for their children which will help them have a more restful and comfortable sleep at night.

It was a Mother’s Day well spent and it served as a reminder of how fortunate we all are to have our families back home supporting our efforts.  Thank you!

Karen Bridgman-Acker 
Team Uganda 2019
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Uganda: We Have Arrived!!

Our team arrived in Kampala late last night and were met by several smiling and friendly faces from our Overseas Volunteer Partners, the wonderful ladies from the Inner Wheel of Kampala.

This morning we had our team meeting after breakfast to prepare for our distribution.  Then the Inner Wheel ladies took us to visit one of our main Uganda suppliers, Crest Foam.  Besides supplying excellent foam mattresses, Crest’s team donates their employees time and facility space to assemble the 7,000 bedkits then deliver them to each distribution site in Uganda. What a fantastic team member Crest Foam is for Sleeping Children.

  

We finished the day with our meeting with the Inner Wheel ladies, who have everything very well organized for us.
 

So we are now ready to start delivering bedkits tomorrow morning!

Brian Barr for
Team Uganda 2019
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Uganda 2019: Post Your Comments here:

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Kenya: A Grateful Team Singing Off From Kenya!

Today was a bittersweet day for the team as this was our final distribution in Kenya. We travelled outside the city centre and battled the morning Nairobi traffic to arrive at the Kayole Primary school. We were greeted by a group of students that we excited to sing a welcome song that they had been practicing. The pride and excitement in the children’s faces is a great way to start the day.

The recipients were ready and waiting to get their bedkits but the team took our time with each child as we did not want the day to end.

Everyone hugging Willow.. on our last day

Although there are many children that were disappointed not to receive a bedkit, As we are all heading to bed this evening we know that there are 4000 kids are sleeping better this evening because of our generous donors.

Thank you,

Jenny Simpson for 

Team Kenya 2019
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Kenya: A Day of Mixed Emotions

Today was a day of extreme mixed emotions for all who assisted with this 1000 bedkit distribution at the Reuben Centre.

Many helping hands!

On route we were reminded by a group of giraffes that we were indeed in Kenya.

Prior to the distribution of the bedkits at the elementary school within the Centre and were welcomed by a song specifically scripted to say their appreciation of the bedkit.

Welcoming Song

The children were thrilled with the content of the bedkit which included the brightly coloured outfits they wore for picture taking.

Time for some fun!

Handing out the bedkits

The need here was great as was illustrated by their well worn shoes and the uniforms. The mandatory school uniforms are produced on site.

Their interests were common to all children skipping , football etc and of course even selfies.

Taking a Selfie

After a generously supplied lunch by a Rotarian we toured the centre which was focused to meet all needs including health, education, care, and skill building not to mention self improvement and sustainability. There was a day care centre, workshops, a library, special needs children’s centre, gardens, chickens to look after and catfish ponds.

One of the gardens

Skills Training

Skills Training

Sustainability was a focus. Usable wastes within the centre were used to made charcoal for the Centre’s kitchen. Plastics were used to make baskets. Compositing was practiced.

Making Charcoal

The illustrated caring and partnership of many offers hope for these endearing children.

Day Care

Place for children with special needs to be cared for.

A sincere thanks to the many donors and volunteers of SCAW .
The SCAW partner the Rotarians.
The remarkable teachers and overseers.
And most critically the striving and zest for life of the children.

Nancy for
Team Kenya 2019
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