The Mityana Open Troop Foundation,Uganda. (13.08.2007 – 01.09.07)

Jamie Page and Andrew Howe In summer 2007 Jamie Page and Andrew Howe went out to Uganda to renew acquaintance with the Mukwaya family, a family whom Andrew had initially got to know through a previous visit with the Scouts in 2000, and both Jamie and Andrew had visited in 2006. The family live in Mityana, a large rural district located in the central region of Uganda, approximately 70km West of the capital city Kampala. As with lots of other Ugandan districts, it is an area that has been tragically affected by the AIDS crisis. 58% of the population live off less than 1 dollar a day, meaning they frequently struggle to meet their basic needs of food, medical care, and shelter. Matthew Mukwaya and his father Rev Balamu Mukwaya are key members of the community, being a scout leader and pastor respectively. Despite very limited resources, they have established the Mityana Open Troop Foundation (MOTF) in 1999, a Community Based Organisation that initially consisted of 18 Scouts who had dropped out of school due to lack of school fees and the death of their parents. The intention of the MOTF is to provide sustainable developments in the community that bring about improved diversity through proper management of the environment. Their work includes AIDS sensitization workshops, functional adult skills training in the community including carpentry, sustainable agriculture, adult literacy, mechanics, youth guidance to name a few. Their work is entirely voluntary. The MOTF had, in the past, received some assistance from a US charity, but that funding has since been withdrawn from all Ugandan projects. This has obviously had a huge knock-on effect on the MOTF, putting an enormous strain on families like the Mukwaya family and the wider community of Mityana. During our visit in 2006 we experienced first hand the problems faced by the community and the real need for infrastructure. Coming from a privileged Western background, we became acutely aware of how a small amount of money can be used to great effect. One scheme the MOTF have embarked upon to make themselves financially independent is to build a small centre that would operate as a base for the foundation, to include a work shop, teaching rooms and a library. This had however ground to a halt because of a lack of funding and a stroke suffered by Matthew’s father. With generous funding from Bath University, Buro Happold and Parsons Brinckerhoff, we were able to return to Uganda this summer and complete construction work on the building. In doing this we were able to help further the work of the foundation, as well as gaining valuable hands-on experience in a low-tech environment, unlike that in Britain.

Construction was primarily out of adobe earth blocks, a technique familiar to us from a series of ‘Natural Building Materials’ lectures taken at university. The blocks are formed from a mixture of sand, clay and straw, which is shaped into bricks and dried in the sun.

The foundations had been laid prior to our arrival, and work immediately started on laying the brickwork. It became apparent that both the mortar consistency and bed thickness are measured far less scientifically than in the UK!

The metal windows and doors were fabricated by a local blacksmith and chosen for their robustness and security. The timber rafters were assembled on the ground and propped while the remaining structure was being completed

Site health and safety left a little to be desired as the rather flexible timber scaffold was supported in between brick courses. A solitary hard hat was however also spotted on occasion!

On our departure, all major structural work had been finished, the floors had been laid, and the windows/doors were completed and awaiting installation. We were immensely proud of what we had helped to construct, and the future tenants incredibly grateful. The last image is the planting of an avocado (our favourite Ugandan fruit!) to mark the completion of the project.

During our visit we held two sports days in aid of the MOTF which involved a football tournament for the boys, and a netball tournament for the girls. Throughout the day the children were given talks from local councillors and shown educational videos in an effort to sensitise them about the dangers of underage and unprotected sex. These sports days were a great success, the second of which attracted 26 local football teams. As with our previous visit, we fielded a ‘Muzungu’ eleven, only to be beaten on penalties!

The MOTF teach English to classes of illiterate adults from the Mityana region. With the help of an old fashioned English grammar book, we were able to help teach these classes, along with a very popular series computer lessons which we taught on laptops kindly donated by friends from the UK.

The long-term aim of the foundation is to set up a secondary school, providing the town’s disabled with subsidised education through a cost sharing initiative. It is worth noting that free, state education is extremely limited in Ugandan primary schools, and non existent in secondary education. We would like to express our deepest thanks to:

The University of Bath Buro Happold

Parsons Brinckerhoff At the heart of any project must be people, and with funding from the above sources, we have been fortunate enough to be able to forge our link with the Mukwaya family and help the wider community of Mityana.