Suubi Centre Update Blog

April 12th, Thrilling Finals At Suubi Primary Sports Gala

While the Commonwealth Games have been going on in Australia, Suubi's Primary Schools Sports Gala may just have been producing some of Uganda's future champions at the same time.

For the past 5 years this annual event has enabled underprivileged schools in the area to meet the need of providing sporting opportunities for their students to develop their talents. This year was no different; the fifteen schools who participated were divided in to three group and played football and netball, at Busubi, Kankamba and Lubanda playgrounds in earlier rounds, for the opportunity to participate in todays finals.

Large crowds gathered at each of the playgrounds to watch all rounds, including todays quarter, semi and championship matches

This years football finals ended in a very tight game between Bright Light and St. Joseph Busubi primary schools. The score was a 1:1 draw in the 70 minute game. Bright Light came up the 2018 Champions after scoring 3 goals to St.Joesph 2 goals (out of 5) in a much-appraised penalty shoot out.

The Bright Light, Busubi teams and match referee were presented to the officials before their much anticipated match began.

A penalty shootout was a fitting way for such a high quality game to be decided. The excited crowd surrounded the goals as each of the players took their shot.

There were huge celebrations for the Bright Light team when they eventually took out the 2018 Championship

Bright Light PS has participated in all past Suubi Sports Tournaments but has never reached the finals stage before. Through their commitment, hard work and access to soccer balls and netballs, that Suubi has provided for their participation in past events, they were able to emerge the overall Champions this year. Well done! This really does show what can be achieved when the hope is kept alive; thank you to the teachers and Director of Bright Light for continuing to give your students the opportunity to participate and encouraging them to reach a greater height.

With the Ugandan national netball team doing themselves proud at this years Commonwealth games we are sure to see girls, just like those who participated in our event, aspiring to reach this height too.

Each year of the Suubi Sports Gala has seen the standard of play improve significantly. Perhaps one of these talented girls will be lining up with the nation Ugandan team in the future!

St Joseph, Nakawanga emerged the 2018 Champions in the netball after just edging out Namugongo primary school by 16 to 13 goals.

The netball finalists were cheered on by the crowd as they fought it out in a high quality match

As the Sports Gala is one of Suubi Centre’s annual events, that also helps us to reach out to communities and schools that bring students to Suubi SS, we were keen to have our secondary school students be part of the day and present the prizes. The offical presentations provided the ideal opportunity to let everyone know more about Suubi Secondary and the unique style of education it offers.

Suubi Secondary School students proudly arrived with the prizes that were to be presented.

All fifteen schools that participated earned a soccer and netball to continue practicing for the 2019 event. Number one winners and runners up were also presented with a professional new-branded sports Jazzy (outfit). For Bright Light students this was a huge achievement as they have not been having any sports uniforms.

Suubi Secondary School Head Master, Robert, told the large crowd all about the opportunities available at the school and the students and staff were the ideal role models, giving their primary school counterparts something to aspire to.

Suubi SS students formed a guard of honour as winning teams stepped up to receive their prizes.

The winners and runners up, in both the football and netball, proudly showed off the new sporting costumes they had won.

As we wrap up another successful tournament for this year, we would like to thank the Suubi team for the hard work of organising the event and the schools for continuing to participant, which encourages their students to strive to improve. We look forward to seeing which schools continue to improve in 2019.

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Jan 6th-18th, TeamMED Annual Visit To Suubi

The 6th annual trip by medical students from Monash University, in Melbourne, has proven to be another huge success. It seems that each year the TeamMED members come better prepared, having spent significant time with participants from previous years. This means the girls were quickly able to fit in to life in the village and did a wonderful job of working side by side with the local medical team.

Susie, Sarah, Anysha, Amy, Hannah, Caitlin, Emma and Lauren worked tirelessly before the final team of five girls left on their big adventure. The new team learnt from lasts years girls and they all joined forces to raise funds to cover the cost of laboratory requirements and medication to conduct testing and treatment at Suubi Clinic and the surrounding area.

The 2018 team arrived at Suubi on Jan 6th and set about unpacking medications and reagents that would be used during the testing and treatment exercise.

Everything was soon in order in readiness for the patients to arrive.

Over 185 patients we tested and treated during the entire exercise, which started on 8th Jan 2018. Suubi Community Health Clinic was the base for a number of treatment days and two community outreaches were held at Nakateete Village and Kyasonko on 11th and 12th respectively.

Patients gathered on the lawns outside Suubi Health Clinic

and then queued up as they waited for their turn to be seen.

TeamMED student rotated between spending time with the doctor while the consultation was done, taking blood (as Sarah is doing here), working in the laboratory to determine test results or in the dispensary to administer prescribed medication.

All the while they were working side by side with the Ugandan medics which enabled them to learn from each other.

The Aussie students also had the opportunity to immerse themselves in other activities, outside of the medical field, while at Suubi. On 13th Jan, the team was taken on the cultural adventure where they attended a traditional Ugandan introduction function that is carried out when families meet each other in preparation for a marriage. The team felt very privileged to attend such a special event and were excited to be part of the celebrations.

What a smart looking bunch - all dressed up in traditional attire to fit with this special occasion.

On 16th Jan, a dental workshop was held at Suubi SS and over 200 people attended. Suubi medical staff and TeamMED members explained the importance of regularly brushing your teeth and how it is done properly. During this workshop participants were given toothpaste and toothbrushes as away of encouraging them to put into practice what the medical team had taught them.

The classroom at Suubi SS was packed as the combined medical teams passed on important information about dental hygiene.

The TeamMed members also enjoyed participating in other Suubi activities, including spending time with tailoring and knitting students at Suubi SS and the Suubi crafts ladies.

They did a great job of helping the students sew together patches that had so kindly been knitted by Rae Luxmoore. These will be used in the girls dormitory.

They also taught staff and students how to cover text books with contact, which will help keep them in good condition for everyone to use.

While at Suubi S.S, the TeamMED members were also introduced to the traditional Ugandan dance and had good time with the students.

Although they didn't have quite the rhythm of the Suubi students, the girls still had lots of fun trying!

Before the team headed off on the next leg of their trip on the Jan 18th, an evaluation meeting was held between the two medical cohorts and other Suubi staff. Everyone agree that this was the most successful visit to date. A huge thank you to this years team for being so easy going, while at the same time being thoroughly professional. It was an absolute pleasure to have you all in the village and we look forward to next years team continuing on in the same way.

The evaluation meeting is always valuable; positives and negatives can be discussed and this allows the coloration to continuing to strengthen and get better with each experience at Suubi.

Wonderful friendships were formed during this years visit. The two teams learnt a great deal from each other and are sure to stay in contact.

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15-11-2017, Successful Suubi MDD Final Sees CD4 Machine Launched

The final of the 2017 Suubi Music, Dance and Drama Festival that was held at Suubi Secondary College was another huge success today. It is so exciting to see that every year that passes, the quality of performances gets better and better.

Finalists from the two pre-selection events, which were held on 26th and 27th October at Lubanda Islamaic Primary School and Kankamba play ground respectively, gathered at Suubi SS to see who would come out overall winner. Eleven primary schools had began in this years festival, which saw all schools competing in the categories of poem, original composition, traditional dance and a skit. Schools were earlier marked on the hygiene and sanitation of their school compound and judged by Suubi staff for the best school garden.

Todays final drew students parents, teachers and the wider community to Suubi SS to witness the highly entertaining performances, which all cleverly highlighted this years theme; “Integrating agricultural skills into school programs to empower the young generation acquire a better future”.

Suubi Secondary School hosted the finals of the 2017 MDD Festival. The teachers took the time to tell the participating primary school students and the audience about all the benefits of joining Suubi SS. Current students encouraged their younger counterparts to join them in 2018 and also performed throughout the day.

Parents, teachers and the wider community came from far and wide to enjoy the performances of the finals.

This huge crowd provided the ideal opportunity for the newly acquired CD4 machine at Suubi Clinic, to be launched. Suubi Clinical Officer, Kayiira Robert, explained that the machine is vital in the monitoring of HIV patients white cell levels and therefore being able to administer the right level of medication. The crowd was excited and very thankful when he let everyone know that HIV patients will no longer need to travel the long distances previous required to have their CD4 testing done, or to recieve their antiviral medication; this is now all available at Suubi Community Clinic! An enormous thank you to Masad Alfayadh, a past TeamMED volunteer at Suubi Clinic, who was the driving force behind raising the money require to buy this machine. She inspired both her Happy Brain students and Manningham Rotary Club to fundraise for this vital piece of equipment - What a fabulous team effort; one that will have a long term positive impacts on many, many peoples lives surrounding Suubi.

Suubi medico, Kayiira Robert, proudly showed the new CD4 machine to crowd and explained more about it.

With the launch over, the entertainment soon got underway. The fulfilled day was jam packed with colour, beating drums and pumping bodies as the students danced and sang their way through the performances. Everyone had a wonderful day, all at the same time as learning how important it is for agriculture to be integrated into school programs. Perfect!

Ludanda Islamic PS students may be small but they certainly impressed everyone, including the judges, with their traditional dance performance.

The creative costumes, with grass skirts, helped to highlight the movement during dance performances.

The stage was a sea of colour - Kiwangala PS students looked like rays of sunshine.

Kyembazi PS have been finalist at the Suubi MDD event over a number of years. Their energy and enthusiasm is alway appreciated at the event.

With performances complete, the judge gave his feedback to each school and handed out the scores.

Seke Primary School emerged the overall winner of this years event followed by Kiwangala Primary School. The following schools emerged winners in each specific category:

Category	No.1	No.2	No.1 prizes	No2.prizes
Poem	Seke PS	Lubanda Islamic PS	1 Large drum 1 Long drum	1 Large drum
Traditional Dance	Lubanda Islamic PS	Seke PS	1 Large drum 1 Long drum	1 Large drum
Composed Song	Seke PS	Kiwangala PS	1 Large drum 1 Long drum	1 Large drum
Hygiene/Sanitation	Seke PS		Hand washer
Gardening	Seke PS	Namugongo PS	Perpetual Trophy 3 Hoes	3 Rakes 2 Pangas
Overall Winner	Seke PS	Kiwangala PS	1 Large Drum	1 Long drum

The Seke students and teachers were thrilled to receive their prizes for being the overall winner of the festival - a fitting reward for all the hard work and training that had gone in to their performance.

Not only were Seke's music dance and drama skills judged to be of highest quality, but their school garden and the sanitation and hygiene of their compound is something they should also be enormously proud of. The school garden perpetual trophy will now be proudly displayed at their school for the following 12 months.

And the hand washing unit will be put to great use.

Runner up in the School garden competition, Namugongo PS, will be putting their prizes to good use as they work hard to try and win the trophy next year.

It has been another amazingly successful festival, across three days, in three different village. The importance of agriculture is schools has been passed on and the message that the new CD4 machine is now available at Suubi Clinic is now bound to spread far and wide. What a wonderful, entertaining way of spreading these important messages!

An enormous thank you goes to all the dedicated Suubi team who worked tirelessly to make this happen and of course to the students and teachers of each of the participating schools for all their hard work training towards their inspiring performances. We can't wait for an even bigger and better event next year!

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1st-4th June 2017, Suubi In Action At 2017 Uganda Marathon

Having purchased 200 goats for the Suubi goat project, from money raised in 2016, the Uganda Marathon committee were thrilled to see that number had swollen to over 250 in just 12 months. With such great progress, and ongoing commitment by the Suubi staff to make each and every project they undertake a success, the Marathon committee did not hesitate to once again include Suubi Centre as a beneficiaries of money raise by the international runners participating in this years event. The decision was made that funds raised this year would go towards constructing a ground water well at Suubi Secondary School. This will ensure a constant water supply to the school, with the added advantage of excess water being made available for local community members.

After the fun of last years Marathon adventure, everyone at Suubi had been looking forward to being part of the action again this year. In the lead up to the race there was lots to organise but on Wednesday the fun part began; two students from Suubi Secondary School were selected to join Suubi manager, Ishmael, and the international runners at a workshop in Masaka town. As part of the Marathon's Legacy Day, the international runners taught representatives from each of the 11 chosen beneficiary organisations how to make rubbish bins and green houses from recycled plastic bottles. What a fabulous concept!

Alex and Ishmael set about making one of the rubbish bins that would soon be taking pride of place at Suubi SS.

With both a male and female Suubi Secondary School student being taught the skills, this will ensure they can easily teach other students and community members once back in the village.

After the Legacy Day proving to be a huge success, on Thursday the Making A Difference Day swung in to action. This saw a group of the international runners head to Suubi to tour all of Suubi's major projects and check on last years goats that the marathon had bought. The first stop off was to meet the Suubi Ladies Group and staff from Suubi Clinic. A tour of all the facilities in the clinic, training hall and Suubi compound suitably impressed all of the visitors; it certainly gave them a better understanding of the high standard of projects and development that Suubi has achieved to date and why the marathon was so keen to continue to support Suubi initiatives.

After meeting with the Suubi staff and ladies the international runners were keen to add their hand prints to Suubi family wall in the training hall. The number of hands continue to steadily grow to perfectly show that "Together we can create hope."

One of the runners also shared new craft ideas with the Suubi Ladies. She was so impressed with their enthusiasm that she returned the following day to work with them in the hope that baskets and pot plant holders may be sold in the UK at some point in the future.

From Suubi Centre compound the team moved on to the goat project. Everyone was thrilled to see that the goats that had been purchased the previous year were thriving and numbers had steadily increased throughout the past 12 months. The first lot of goats are due to be sold later this year, with the money raised being put towards ongoing wages and administration cost for both Suubi Clinic and Secondary School.

Lunch among the goats was enjoyed by everyone!

With stomachs full, the afternoon actives at Suubi Secondary School soon got underway. The 'Make A Difference' activity saw the runners, staff and students working side by side to dig a trench between the ground water well (which had been dug earlier in the week) and the water tank in the school compound. Although it was a lot of hard work, it was a wonderful opportunity for the international runners to physically contribute, on top of the money that had raised throughout the year to actually help pay for the well to be constructed. What a hugely satisfying feeling to know that once the well is fully operational it will be an ongoing water source for both Suubi SS and the wider community.

The stoney soil surrounding the school proved a challenge to everyone but the students swung picks and hoes in a masterful fashion.

The trench was also cleared out by hand,

before the irrigation pipe was laid between the school compound

and the well that had been constructed, near the trading centre to also provide easy access for the wider community.

Once the work was completed there was also a presentation to the school of the recycle bins that had been made at Legacy Day and rugby balls that had been bought by some of the international runners.

The students were happy to be presented with the items made/bought by the international runners.

One of the runners, Thomas, also returned the following day to teach the students how to play rugby. We look forward to seeing the students showing off their new talent.

Never one's to just sit back and receive a hand out, on Saturday, Suubi had over 50 staff, students and ladies actually run in the event - what a terrific way to show their appreciation to the Marathon committee.

The huge crowd of local and international runners gathered at the start line for the race to begin.

It was a sight to behold as they took off and weaved their way around the course together.

For the second year in a row, Jja Jja Suubi did us proud and inspired everyone as she completed the 10 km course.

The Suubi SS students and staff put in a fine effort by competing the distances they had set for themselves. Participating in this wonderful event is something they are sure to remember for years to come. Well done everyone!

A huge thank you to the Marathon organisers for their tireless work to co-ordinate yet another fabulous event in 2017 and well done to everyone who ran! We look forward to being part of this amazing event again in 2018.

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28-4-2017, Government Chief Administrative Team Visit Suubi Centre Complex

It was such an exciting moment to have the Lwengo District Local Government Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr. Kuruhira Godfrey and his team visit and tour Suubi Centre Complex today. Although they had heard a lot about Suubi facilities and the wonderful projects and activities being co-ordinated by the hard working Suubi staff, it was their first time to physically visit the complex and see everything for themselves.

Mr. Kuruhira and his team of eight arrived at Suubi Secondary & Vocational College where they began their tour. They took time to meet with the SSVC staff and then visit the academic classrooms, before heading to the vocational training hall. The team was suitably impressed with the facilities at SSVC, but more so by the high standard being achieved by the students; especially by the skills they have gained across our five vocational fields of knitting, tailoring, carpentry, brick laying and welding.

The chief administrative officer, Mr Kuruhira (2nd left) and his team of were happy to meet with our hard working SSVC staff who are having such a positive impact on students in both academic and vocational studies.

The team then visited the academic classrooms to speak with the students.

The vocational training hall was a hive of activities when they arrived; these students were happy to show off their knitting skills.

The carpentry students listened intently as Mr Kuruhira passed on his words of wisdom.

The CAO was impressed with the newly completed dormitory, which has enabled girls to come from villages further away to be part of SSCV's unique style of education.

With the SSVC part of their visit complete, the district officials moved to Suubi Community Health Clinic where they also meet with our medical team. They learned of services, including but not limited to: diagnosis, laboratory testing, pre and post natal care, delivery, immunisation and family planning, currently being offered at Suubi Clinic. This information gave them a greater insight as they toured the consultation room, admissions ward, dispensing area, laboratory and the delivery room.

Suubi medical team were happy to tell Mr Kuruhira and his team about the many services being offered at Suubi Commuity Health Clinic.

Suubi clinical officer, Kayiira Robert, showed off some of the equipment available at the clinic by taking Mr Kuruhira's blood pressure.

Female members of the district team were particularly interested in hearing about the delivery room.

The team were very interested to hear about the small water purification units available for patients to be able to purchase to use in their homes.

And were impressed to see that the clinic/Suubi Centre has the solar powered water purification system to provide clean water for patients, staff, people using the community training hall and visitors to the Centre.

The final stop off for the district team was at Suubi Community Training Hall to meet with the Suubi Ladies Group. Again the team was stuck by yet another Suubi Groups level of commitment and hard work. They were very impressed with ladies craft and hearing how the women are always there to support each other as they worked towards a better standard of living for themselves.

Paper bead jewellery, bags, mats and sewing that the Suubi ladies had made were on display for the District officials to see.

Finally before the team left, they added their hand prints to our ever growing Suubi family. The wall depicts how "Together we can create hope." This is indeed very true and we look forward to continuing to work together with the District for positive community transformation.

Mr Kurukira and his team added their hand print to our every growing Suubi family in the training hall. "Together we can create hope!"

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10-4-2017, Record Number Of Schools Participate In Suubi's School Sports Gala

Suubi's annual primary school sports gala commenced on March 7th with a record number of schools participating. This year an overwhelming number of 22 primary school put up their hand to be part of the month long gala. With events being run for both boys and girls football, netball and volleyball there was a lot of action to get through at each of the preliminary round robin stages; this saw the need to group the schools in to the following zones:

Groups	Participating Schools	Playground	Date
A	• Happy Hours Primary School • St Jude Lwagulwe Primary School • St.Joseph Nakawanga Primary School • Ngereko Primary School	Happy Hours Playground	March 7th
B	• Kyembazi Primary School • Kawerimidde Primary School • Save the Child Primary School • Hope Bulemere Primary School • Calvery Primary School	Kyembazi Playground	March 9th
C	• Green Light Kankamba Primary School • Sharon Primary School • Bujumbura Primary School • Makonde Primary School	Buyoga Playground	March 14th
D	• St Charles Namugongo Primary School • Bright Light Primary School • St.Kizito Kisekka Primary School • St Thomas Namulanda Primary School	Lubanda Playground	March 18th
E	• St Joseph Busubi Primary School • St Joseph Kyasonko Primary School • Kaboyo Primary School • Kisweera Primary School • Kyamaganda Primary School	Kisweera Playground	March 19th
Semi & Finals	• Winners from the above matches	Lubanda Playground	April 7th

As Suubi Centre considers sports as one of our strategic tools to mobilize the masses, we were thrilled to hold the earlier rounds in five different village. This allowed us to get important information out, to an even wider audience, about the various development projects Suubi Centre is running and how the community can be part of them.

The finals of this years tournament, which was held last Friday, April 7th, proved to be another community highlight. The winning teams from each event, at all earlier rounds, had progressed through to semi finals. It was wonderful to see that 20 of the 22 school who had begun the tournament were represented in at least one of the sports on finals day. As the day progressed through the semi final stage it came down to just two teams vying for the winners title in each event.

Kaboyo and Kisweera fought their way through the semi's and were happy to take to the field for the final of the boys football.

Namugongo and Calvery primary schools showed great skills in the final of the netball.

The match between Kyamaganda and Busubi, for the volleyball final, was of a terrific standard. While Save the Child and Namugongo had a great tussle in the girls football final.

Kaboyo Primary School boys and St.Charles Namugongo Primary Schools girls, emerged champions of the Suubi Primary Schools Sports Gala 2017 in boys’ football and netball respectively. St.Joseph Kyamaganda Primary School won the No.1 position in volleyball and St.Charles Namugongo Primary School finished No.1 in the girl's football.

With all matches completed and played in such great spirit, another highlight came with the awarding of prizes. Students from Suubi Secondary & Vocational College were on hand to do this, with the aim of inspiring the primary school participants to also aim to join SSVC next year.

The huge crowd gathered around to watch as the prizes were awarded.

The SSVC students looked an impressive sight as they formed a circle for winners to pass around as they collected their prizes.

All 20 schools that had reached the semi finals were presented with a football and netball for their efforts.

Both the winners and runners up of the boys football finals were presented with a brand new set of sports uniforms. (jazzy)

Girls football winners and runners up took home a new football for their efforts.

While both 1st and 2nd position in the netball final saw the girls excited to receive their brand new netball uniforms. (jazzys)

There were big smiles all around as the winner of the volleyball collected a new volleyball net, while the runners up were glad to take a brand new volleyball back to their schools.

The student proudly put on their new sports uniforms and displayed their winning prizes for everyone to see.

Promoting and supporting sports in schools is one of Suubi Centre’s past and ongoing interventions. Suubi Centre believes this not only promotes good health among youth, but sports also builds confidence in these young stars. Participation in competition sport effectively improves on students academic performance as well as encouraging them to become active members in other personal and group development programmes. To see so many students actively involved and preforming at such a high level throughout this years' gala bodes very well for their future.

Next on the list for this years Suubi events, is the annual, much awaited Butonde Bwansi tournament that will start in June and finals will be held in July.

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15-1-2017, Annual TeamMED Collaboration Continues To Thrive

We are excited to see the collaboration between Suubi Community Health Clinic and medical students from Monash University, in Melbourne, continuing to strengthen each and every year. Six TeamMED students, Meg, Catherine, Lauren, Emma, Ben and Lauren have just completed a very successful ten day stay stint working side by side with the Suubi medical staff.

This years team arrived in Masaka town on January 3rd and began their Ugandan medical experience by visiting Malago; one of the bigger hospitals in the area and a facility that Suubi Clinic refers more acutely ill patients to when required. This was definitely an eye opener for the Australian medical students and highlighted the difficult conditions and lack of facilities that their counterparts, in a metropolitan hospital in Uganda, have to cope with on a day to day basis. With the Malago tour completed, they then headed to Elite Backpacker to spend the night. This also gave them time to be briefed on what to expect in the much more rural setting at Suubi Clinic before heading out the village.

The team appreciated the chance to absorb what that had seen at Malago in the relaxed atmosphere at Elite Backpacker. This also gave Ssemwogerere David the opportunity to hold an orientation session, about what to expect during their time at Suubi Clinic, before they set off the following morning.

As with past TeamMED groups, this years team had also done a fabulous job of fundraising prior to leaving Australia. Each year the money raised by TeamMED initially goes towards purchasing all the testing reagents and medications, required during their ten day stay. This means that patients seen throughout their time at the clinic need only be charged the nominal fee of 2000 Ugandan shilling (approx. 80c) This is done predominately to avoid creating a hand out mentality that Suubi and HUG are so conscious of avoiding in everything we undertake. Remaining funds raised are then used throughout the year to help cover ongoing cost associated with running the clinic. Our enormous thanks goes to the team for all their fundraising efforts; in particular for the connection they have made with Boxhill Rotary Club, who have donated a significant amount towards the past two TeamMed groups.

From past years experience of working together, a very effective format has now been established for the TeamMED and Suubi Clinic collaboration; the first day is used for the to medical teams to get to know one another and to set up. Testing and treatment is then carried out from Suubi Clinic for three days, two outreach sessions in Nakateete and Kyssonko villages and a dental workshop held at Suubi Secondary & Vocational College.

One of the first jobs needed to be completed when the team arrived at Suubi Clinic on January 4th was for all the supplies that had been purchased and donated to be accounted for and sorted out before the patients began to arrive on the following day.

Jan 5th and 6th was allocated for patients to be seen at Suubi Clinic. With the large number that attended, the overflow were happy to wait in the shade of the tent provided at the front of the clinic.

With very different diseases and conditions to deal with, the Aussie medical students listened intently to Elias (Suubi Laboratory technician) as he explained the testing procedures.

Patients were seen by Suubi clinician, Robert and one of the students before then being sent for further testing, diagnosis and finally treatment. Each of the students had an opportunity to be involved in all steps of the process. With so many patients to be seen, a second area in the Suubi Clinic was set up for blood to be taken. Ben made the best of the alternative facilities that were available.

Lauren and Catherine also managed well in the alternative laboratory area to analyse blood, urine and stool samples.

Having completed the first two days of testing and treating at Suubi the team took a well deserved day off. As it happened, a very good friend of David's, Hussain, was due to meet his girlfriends family for the very first time. This is a very formal occasion in Uganda, in the lead up to getting married, so the TeamMED crew were very lucky to be involved.

Everyone fitted in perfectly by dressing in traditional gomezi and kansils for this very special occasion.

They also had the opportunity to try out the local food - Meg, Catherine and Lauren looked happy to be trying out the matooke.

Gifts for the brides family included pineapples, watermelon and woven baskets that team helped to deliver.

Having enjoyed the festivities, the team was soon back to work with outreach sessions held at Nakateete and Kyssonko, a dental workshop at SSVC and a final day of testing back at Suubi clinic.

The team took equipment from Suubi Clinic to set up for the outreach at Nakateete Child Development Centre.

Lauren and Alad were soon busy withdrawing blood from a little girl who had come with her mother to be treated.

Although they were not in a medical facility, Catherine had the equipment from Suubi Clinic to use for diagnosis.

The outreach at Kyssonko was carried out in a local church. Once again equipment was taken and this time set up on the benches usually used for pews.

While another section in the church became and area for blood withdrawal, which Emma made the most of.

The dental workshop that was carried out at Suubi Secondary & Vocational College was a huge hit with children of all ages. Lauren showed this group of children the right way to brush their teeth.

All of the children were excited to be given a tooth brush and toothpaste to take home so they can continue to look after their teeth.

January 14th wrapped up the teams time at Suubi with the final testing and treatment carried out back at Suubi Clinic. All in all the entire exercise was a huge success with 221 patients being seen and treated throughout the ten day exercise. The Aussie medical students have seen conditions and diseases they simply will never be exposed to back at home in Australia. They are sure to be better doctors in the future for having spent time in such a different environment. Equally the Suubi medical team will have learnt many things from the Aussie team along the way and great friendships will have been forged. We are sure that the partnership between Suubi Clinic and TeamMED can only continue to prosper in the future. We look forward to working with another wonderful group of Monash students in 2018.

Suubi medical staff and TeamMED achieved great things as they worked side by side during this years time together. L-R Lauren, Meg, Lauren, Deborah, Emma, Emanuel, Ben, Robert, Catherine. Alad and Elias in front.

A huge thank you to both TeamMed 2017 and Suubi medical staff, for the great work done over the last 10 days. Webale nnyo, nnyo, nnyo.

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15-8-2016, Setem Volunteers Settle In At Suubi

The Setem team, from Catalonia, arrived at Suubi Centre on 6th August, after having spent a night at Elite Backpackers Services (EBS) in Masaka to recover from their long journey. Their arrival in the village saw them firstly dropping in to Suubi Secondary College. The timing of this worked out perfectly as a dance party was underway to officially welcome the Senior 1 students. This provided a great opportunity to also officially welcome the Setem group and later every one joined together for a great time on the dance floor.

The team enjoying breakfast at Elite Backpacker Services in Masaka.

There was lots of fun and laughter on the dance floor at SSVC.

Sunday 7th, was a day for the group to settle in at Suubi Centre. While they all were getting on well together, the local conditions were proving a challenge for some; the pit latrines seemed totally strange, as most of them had not faced this situation before! The team were very happy to join community members for a Sunday service at Lubanda Catholic church though. Later in the afternoon they made the long trek to the village water hole to fetch water. Although they will not have to do this themselves throughout their stay, this experience gave them yet another glimpse of the many challenges the locals face on a day to day basis.

On Monday, a general planning meeting, including all Suubi staff, was organized at SSVC and a week’s plan of activities was made. Throughout the week the team spent time working on updating the Suubi Clinic’s patients filing and recording system, participating in the clinic's community outreach activities, holding career guidance and inspirational sessions at SSVC, joining in with the debating and also working in the school garden with the students.

The planning meeting at SSVC on Monday morning gave the team a chance to get to know all Suubi staff.

With some of the team having a medical back ground they were were keen to get the patient files well organised at Suubi Clinic.

And participate in the outreach sessions that the clinic held in the area this week.

While others were keen to been involved with activities at SSVC; like Dan who held career guidance sessions for the students.

And joined in with the debating session.

Physical activity was also well taken care of with the Setem team challenging the SSVC team in netball.

And joining the students to work in the school garden.

The week ended with a Safari at Queen Elizabeth National Park where the team had a an amazing experience of seeing a variety of animals. Everyone was extra excited when they a saw a very huge Lion.

The trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park gave the team an opportunity to get up close to animals like lions and elephants that they had only dreamed of seeing. The top of the Land Rover was the perfect sport for the game drive.

While the ferry ride enabled them to see plenty of hippos and birdlife.

For there 2nd week the volunteers already have plans in place; these include visiting the Smiling HeARTs project for disabled students today and spending the entire day, from sun up to sun down, with local families on Tuesday and Wednesday. This will give them another real insight in to the day of the life of someone living in rural Uganda. Perfect! The entire group will then divide up into small teams (based on everyone's interest) and will spend time at Suubi Clinic, SSVC or visiting one of our partner primary schools. With 10 days now remaining for the group at Suubi, they are all sure to lots more to tell their family and friends about when they return to Catalonia.

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17-7-2016, Suubi Sports Tournament Bigger Than Ever

Our 6th annual Butonde Bwansi Sports finals, that were held today, drew a crowd of over 3000 people to the Lubanda playground to cheer on the finalist. Amazing!

Each year the round robin tournament, that is held throughout June, has progressively grown in popularity. This year teams from Kalegero FC, Lubanda Young FC, St. Bernards College F.C, Kisweera Village FC, Manja F.C, Kankamba FC, Good Samalitan FC and Kyagalanyi FC participated in the early round robin rounds of football, that were held in various villages. This gave many people the opportunity to enjoy the early matches, but it is the finals day that has become a real highlight on the community calendar. This could be seen, not only by the huge number of people who turned up to pitch but also there were many more people who lined the roads to cheer on the bicycle riders as they passed through their villages.

Finals day kicked off bright and early with the bicycle riders setting off from Lubanda,

then they made their way along the course that weaved it's way through many of the surrounding villages before finishing back at Lubanda.

The distance running event was the next to kick off - Spanish volunteer, Lluc was excited to be part of this event.

The action soon moved to the playground where the netball and football finals were preceded by the tug of war and matooke peeling competitions.

There was lots of cheering and laughter as the boys tug of war teams struggled to hold their ground. There was also a seperate tug of war for the ladies...Lots of fun!

St Bernard's and Lubanda netball clubs played a hard fought final match with St Bernards being the eventual winners.

The football final was the highlight of the day for many after the strongest two teams, Kalegero FC and St Bernard FC had fought off Kiswera Village FC and Lubanda Young FC in the semi finals.

The official start to the final match began with Kalegero FC and St. Bernards FC making their way to the pitch to be presented to the officials, umpires and the crowd.

The entire pitch was surrounded with more than 3000 spectators. Everyone was very impressed with the standard of the match that saw Kalegero FC come out on top 1-0.

The huge crowd was excited to watch the presentations to winners and runners from all events; the bicycle riders were the first to be presented.

The boys from Kalegero FC were thrilled to be presented with a cow for winning the 2016 tournament.

With the Suubi events being one our major way of passing on information about the services Suubi offers and other important health and education messages, it is fabulous to think that thousands were entertained and educated at the same time throughout this tournament. Perfect! Congratulation to everyone that participated and a special thanks goes to our amazing Suubi staff who worked tirelessly to make the event the huge success it was.

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10-6-2016, Art for Children with Special Needs Kicks Off

We are very excited to have had a brand new Suubi project kick off two weeks ago; 'Art for Children with Special Needs.' Through a shared love and passion to want to help disabled children, Mbabazi Hellen, in Uganda, and HUG board member, Loretta Lilford, have joined forces to kick off this new project that will focus on teaching art to a small group of disabled students at Kakunyu School.

After graduating from her university degree in teaching and art in January 2016, Hellen began to spend more and more time visiting the children at Kakunyu school for disabled children. She soon came up with the idea of combining her teaching and art skills to provide a way for these students to express their emotions and boost their self confidence.

Hellen had met Loretta in 2014 when she had been volunteering at Suubi Centre. During this time Loretta had spoken to Hellen and others about her longing to help the disabled children of Uganda. With this in mind, Hellen shared her 'Art for Children with Special Needs' idea with her. What a perfect fit; both these compassionate ladies, from opposite sides of the world, want to bring a little joy in to the lives of these special children and see them reach their full potential. So the decision was made for Hellen to begin teaching 10 students, two days a week for four hours while Loretta will be busy inspiring people in Australia to get involved.

We were all very excited, on May 30th, when Hellen and her assistant Henry held the very first class. Check out what has been achieved already, in only two short weeks:

The principal at Kakunyu, Mary Kibiito, was thrilled when Hellen and Henry approached her with the idea of running art sessions for the children. She whole heartedly agrees that this project is going to enhance the quality of the children lives.

The first session saw the children hard at work as they learned to thread beads

and draw pieces of fruit and vegetables.

The next session, the skill of shading was used when drawing stilllife pieces.

Students were also excited to make pictures with banana fibre and learn weaving skills that they will use to make bracelets.

It was already evident that even though the children have disabilities they are still able to produce beautiful pieces.

They were all extremely proud to show off what they had made and how lovely to see the smiles on everyones faces.

Drawing chickens during the third session required a lot of concentration from the students but.....

What beautiful chickens they drew!

The students listened intently as Hellen explained the next step in making craft.

We think this huge smile wraps up this blog perfectly!

It is wonderful to see how engaged the students have already become in their art work, after just two short week. It is exciting to think that simply by someone caring about them and believing they can do something, their self confidence is already starting to grow. We look forward to watching as this develops even more and the project progresses.

If you would like to know more about this art project, or are willing to donate towards it so we can expand to improve the lives of even more of the very special children please contact Hellen in Uganda or Loretta in Australia. They would love to hear from you!

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Suubi Centre Update Blog

April 12th, Thrilling Finals At Suubi Primary Sports Gala

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Jan 6th-18th, TeamMED Annual Visit To Suubi

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15-11-2017, Successful Suubi MDD Final Sees CD4 Machine Launched

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1st-4th June 2017, Suubi In Action At 2017 Uganda Marathon

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28-4-2017, Government Chief Administrative Team Visit Suubi Centre Complex

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10-4-2017, Record Number Of Schools Participate In Suubi's School Sports Gala

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15-1-2017, Annual TeamMED Collaboration Continues To Thrive

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15-8-2016, Setem Volunteers Settle In At Suubi

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17-7-2016, Suubi Sports Tournament Bigger Than Ever

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10-6-2016, Art for Children with Special Needs Kicks Off

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