Suubi Centre Update Blog

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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5-6-2016, Uganda Marathon - What An Event!

After the enormous build up, how do we even begin to put in to words the excitement of today, as the 2016 Uganda Marathon was actually run!

The amazing marathon team has been working on this year's event for close to 12 month; since the inaugural race proved to be so successfully in June 2015. Closer to home though, Suubi Centre became involved late last year when we applied, along with 100's of other NGO's around Masaka, to be one of the projects that would receive a portion of money raised by the 2016 marathon. We were absolutely thrilled when we were one of only 11 lucky projects to be selected and marathon organisers agreed to have runners fundraise to purchasing 200 goats for the Suubi goat project. The income raised, from the sale of kids produced by these goats, will assist Suubi to cover staff wages and administration costs in the future.

Never to be ones to let others do all the hard work for them though, a group of dedicated Suubi staff, ladies and extended Suubi family were one of the first teams to sign up to run the race themselves. Today they joined more than 2000 other runners as they ran side by side over the 10, 21 and 42 kilometre courses. For each of these runners it must have been an absolute joy to pass the thousands of people cheering them on, all with huge smiles on their faces, but better still to know their efforts will continue to positively impact multiple organisations and communities for years to come.

Check out our Suubi team in action:

What an impressive sight, the Suubi team all decked out in their Uganda Marathon t-shirts.

Suubi Centre team members gathered on the starting line bright and early this morning,

along with more than 2000 other runners.

It was an amazing sight to see runners for as far as the eye could see, making their way up and down the hills surrounding Masaka Town.

While young runners, like Shamillah, are well used to running on such tracks,

many of the older runners found the course far more of a challenge, particularly the up hill sections!

Age was certainly no barrier though as Suubi's inspirational Madelana Nnakya proved when she completed the 10km run.

Just as it should have been, she arrived to a hero's welcome and was cheered to the finish line. Although we are not sure of her exact age, the number on her t-shirt would be very close!

Marathon organisers and international runners were quick to congratulate Madalena on her inspirational run, as she took a well earned rest.

Suubi Centre director, Ssemwogerere David, was justifiably enormously proud of his Mum, Madelana's efforts. She is definitely the one who passed on the determination to him that has enabled him to be the driving force behind Suubi Centre's success.

The entire Suubi marathon team put in a sensational effort today: Maria, Prisca, Noeline, Namirembe Sarah, Robert, Lydia, Shanitah, David, Hellen, Moses, Kisirinya, Leonard (friend from Kenya), Ssematiko, Shamillah and Biiru all matched Madelana's effort to successfully complete the 10 km course, while Paul, Peter, Simon, Emma and Ishmael tackled the 21 km course. An absolutely amazing achievement by EVERYONE! Well done!

As you can see, Emma was a very happy man after he finished the 21 km course and was certainly glad to take off his running shoes!

Youngest Suubi runners, Biiru, Shamila and Ssematiko were welcomed back from their big run and congratulated with a HUG from Mbabazi Hellen.

It was lovely to see the entire Suubi team back at Elite Backpackers after the event so they could celebrate their achievement together with a few drinks and a meal.

During last week, in the lead up the event, as many international runners arrived, they were divided in to groups and sent out to visit the 11 projects that they had all been working so hard to raise funds for. On Wednesday a group visited Lubanda Village to learn more about the many varied projects that are successfully being run by Suubi Centre.

The first stop for the group was Suubi Secondary and Vocational College where they were introduced to students and teachers.

Then it was on to Suubi Centre where they met the Suubi ladies and checked out the beautiful craft they produce.

Some of the team were very interested to hear how the Suubi coffee project is growing coffee seedlings that they sell to farmer and community members in the area.

A tour of Suubi Clinic also highlighted to the runners the many medical service that are now available to the communities surrounding Suubi.

The Suubi medical staff and ladies group were extremely happy to have the runners visit.

With the tour of Suubi Centre and the Clinic complete, the runners headed back to Suubi Secondary College for lunch and to check out the fabulous work now being done by the students, via their vocational studies. They were suitably impressed with the vocational training hall and the building, carpentry, metalwork, knitting, and tailoring pieces that the students had made.

Some of the runners and students inside the vocational training hall.

A big part of the international runners visiting the projects, as part of their marathon experience, was for them to be part of the 'Make A Difference Day.' For those who visited Suubi this meant working side by side with the Suubi students, staff and building team at the goat house for the afternoon. With the aim of marathon runners to fill it with 200 goats there were a few additions to the original house that needed to be completed before they arrive: feeding boxes and a separate area to keep the kids when they are first born. So with this in mind, everyone got straight to work.......

The students and marathon team arrived at the goat house and began by moving timber in to the necessary areas.

The students were happy to teach the runners the finer skills of using hand tools. No electric tools in sight here!

Inside the house they were guided by Suubi builder, Paul, as they partitioned off a section for the kids.

It was fabulous to see everyone working together to improve the goat house in readiness for all the extra goats that will soon arrive.

Check out the finished work - fabulous effort!

While outside, Suubi carpentry trainer, Ssekabira and students oversaw the building of the new feed boxes.

By the end of day the marathon team, Suubi students and staff certainly felt justifiably proud of what they had achieved together and were happy to have this group photo.

In fact the first group of runners who visited Suubi were so inspired by what they had seen that they went back to the campsite that night and told others that they should also check it out. Another 2 separate groups visited Suubi Centre on Thursday and Saturday. They also took the opportunity for a few drinks and great food at Elite Backpackers at the end of the day.

So as you can see, it has been truly special for Suubi's to be a part of this year's Uganda Marathon. Our enormous thanks goes to the Uganda Marathon organiser and we look forward to this relationship continuing to grow. We also say a huge thank you to the international runners and look forward to staying in touch with all the wonderful people who we met along the way or visited Suubi during the course of this fabulous event!

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16-5-2106, Suubi Story Spreading Far And Wide

With so many varied initiatives running from Suubi Centre, over such a long period of time, we are now getting an increasing numbers of people wanting to learn what actually makes our projects different and why they are so successful. At first, we had individuals, schools and the wider community from the areas surrounding Suubi wanting to get involved. More recently however, we have been approached by people from far flung areas of Uganda, other African countries and organisations from first world countries; all who are keen to try to replicate what has been achieved by the partnership between Suubi Centre, Uganda and HUG, Australia

With the Suubi Secondary & Vocational College's home based chicken project featuring in national newspaper's in both Uganda and Australia, late last year, we have since been contacted by a number of people who had either read these articles, or been told of the success of the many projects initiated and run by Suubi and HUG. People from organisations and schools, in other districts in Uganda, have requested Suubi Centre director, Ssemwogerere David, to come and teach them the skills required to develop similar projects in there own areas, while Helen Brown, from HUG, has also been approached by many Aussies to tell the HUG/Suubi story. Over the last five days it has been very exciting to see David and Helen spreading the story and skills, at the same time, on opposite sides of the world!

David held a five day training program for the Rugashari Project, in Kibaale District. This particular training program passed on business and management skills, with the focus on setting up small scale chicken and piggery businesses. David's academic background of having successfully completed his Masters degree in rural development, coupled with his first hand experience of having set up similar initiative at Suubi Centre, Suubi partner schools and Suubi Secondary College meant the trainees had a wealth of knowledge to draw on.

Trainees were selected by Rugashari Parents Secondary College and David then conducted the training sessions at the school.

Once David had explained various components of the training, group discussions were held as to how this could be implemented by individuals or the group.

The trainees were later split in to groups so they could role play various components of the training and learn from each other.

While in Kibaale, David was also interviewed by URDT radio station, enabling many people in the surrounding community to hear about Suubi's many successful projects.

At the end of the five day training each of the participants were presented with a certificate. Steven (L), who had travelled from Kenya's Boston School in Nairobi, was happy to be presented his certificate from Ssemwogerere David (centre) and one of the organising members of Rugashari Parents Secondary College (R)

A group photo of the participants with the certificates.

As David was successfully conducting the training in Kibaale in Uganda, HUG founder, Helen Brown, was also busy spreading the HUG and Suubi story on the other side of the world at the National Lion's Convention in Echuca, Australia. With more than 1500 people, having travelled from all corners of Australia to attend the convention, it gave Helen the opportunity to tell a completely new audience about the 10 year journey that has seen extraordinary things achieved in Uganda and Australia (Help 'US' grow).

While Helen has spoken, on many occasions in the past, to local schools and service organisations, the National Lion's Convention was a huge new audience. People from across Australia were inspired to hear what has been achieved by HUG and Suubi Centre working side by side to make a positive difference in so many people's lives.

Many of the convention attendees took the opportunity to buy hand made Suubi craft - with the money going directly back to the lady or student who had made the craft piece, it was an ideal way for them to support the very people they had heard Helen speak of. How wonderful to think that every time they wear a piece of jewellery, back in their home towns and other states, they may be asked about it and then go on to tell the HUG/Suubi story again. Perfect!

We would love to continue to spread the skills we have learnt along this amazing journey, with the hope that other communities and projects can duplicate the success we have had at Suubi to date. If you are interested in having either David or Helen spend to with your organisation or school please do not hesitate to contact us.

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29-4-2016, Suubi Primary School Sports Tournament Wraps Up For Another Year

Our fourth annual Suubi Primary School's Sports Tournament, that has been running since March 24th, saw 18 primary schools from all over Kisekka Sub-County, Lwengo District compete. The schools were divided in to four different groups, comprising of 4 or 5 schools from similar areas. Each of these groups participated in preliminary rounds, held on four different days, at various school playgrounds including Buusubi, Happy Hours, Kyembazzi and Namagongo. All teams from each group fought hard for the right to make it through to the quarter final round at Kankamba and ultimately through to the finals that were held at Namagongo today.

There was much excitement this morning when the day began with semi rounds played in all events. Supporters from each school got right behind their players as they fought hard to make it through to the afternoon finals matches.

Happy Hours and Busuubi players shows great skill levels and determination in the first of the boys football semi finals

Happy Hours PS supporters were thrilled when their team made it through to the final and celebrated together on the pitch.

Last years winners, Kyasonko PS, then prepared for the 2nd semi final,

where they took on new comers to the event, Green Light PS.

Again there way much excitement and celebrating when Green Light came out on top and were presented with the opportunity to play in the finals on their first attempt. In the girls football, Ngereko and Happy Hours were the final two teams left standing after the semi final round and went on to compete in an exciting match in the final.

The skill level in the netball semis were also very high with Save The Children PS and Happy Hours PS eventually making their way to the finals.

The volleyball final was fought out between Kyasonko PS and Speke PS.

The Chief Guest, District Education Officer (DEO) Lwengo District, Doreen Ankunda, was happy to be part of this years finals event. She appreciated Suubi Centre for this initiative and mentioned that her office and the District are in full support, because sports is one of the activities the ministry of education is emphasizing to promote in schools.

Members of both finals teams were presented to the chief guest, Doreen Ankundu and other officials before the match.

Doreen was also happy to pass on the prizes to the winners and runners up and she congratulated everyone on their efforts. She encouraged them to continue with such good sporting skills and to strive towards representing the District at the upcoming National level primary schools sports event.

Teachers from each of the 18 schools who had participated throughout the tournament were happy to receive a football and netball so they can continue to practise in preparation for next years event.

While winners and runners up in each event were thrilled to receive sports uniforms or equipment for their efforts.

The results of each sport are as follows:

Event	Winners	Prize awarded
Boys football	Green Light PS	A complete team set of new sports uniforms
Girls football	Happy Hours PS	A new football
Netball	Happy Hours PS	A complete team set of new sports uniforms
Volleyball	Sseke PS	A new volleyball net

Event	Runners Up	Prize awarded
Boys football	Happy Hours PS	A complete team set of new sports uniforms
Girls football	Ngereko PS	A new football
Netball	Save The Child PS	A complete team set of new sports uniforms
Volleyball	Kyasonko PS	A new volleyball

So as you can see, the whole sports gala has been another huge success. It is exciting to see that every year at this event, there is great improvement across the board; how well things are organised, increased numbers of schools who want to participate and to the greatly improved standard of play in each of the sports played. In fact, today we had a footballing scout from Masaka town chose five students to be involved in further training in town. How exciting to think where this may lead these students and to know that they simply would not have had the chance to be chosen for this opportunity if not for the Suubi schools sports tournament!

As Suubi Centre we like to congratulate all the winners and encourage all those who didn’t reach finals level that there is always another chance next year. We thank all the sports teachers who trained the children, Suubi Centre sports team for organising another hugely success event and HUG for continuing to support this tournament each year.

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5-4-2016, Focusing On Suubi's Self Sustainability

With so many successful and varied initiatives now happening via Suubi on a day to day basis, this year we have made the conscious decision to focus on consolidating everything. While the past few years have seen an enormous amount of construction, all of which was required to get Suubi Secondary & Vocational College up and running, this year we will be focusing on income producing projects that will ultimately make Suubi self sustainable in the future. With this in mind, we were very excited when the 2016 Uganda Marathon selected Suubi Centre as one of only a handful of projects to receive funds raised by the runners of this years June 5th event. By joining forces with them we are aiming to fill the Suubi goat house, that was constructed during last year, with 200 goats. The income raised, from the sale of kids produced by these goats in the future, will enable Suubi to cover staff wages and administration costs for themselves. As part of the marathon, a group of Suubi staff, students and friends have entered a team to run in the event.

The Suubi team were keen to sign on to run in this year's Uganda Marathon when the official launch took place on March 8th.

Suubi staff and SSVC students hit the training track in preparation for the big event.

Check out the short video telling prospective runners how their fundraising will support Suubi's self sustainability.

Since the video was made by the Uganda marathon team, late last year, we have been able to increase the number of goats at the project to 28, thanks to the generosity of Aussie Suubi supporters.

In addition to the marathon and goat project we are excited to have also joined forced with Suubi Centre Director, Ssemwogerere David and his partner Mbabazi Hellen to develop a cottage that will part of the accommodation at their newly established Elite Backpackers Services in Masaka Town. The cottage will also provide an opportunity to create an ongoing income for Suubi's self sustainability as a increasing percentage of the profit will be directed towards Suubi projects as the business develops. We are delighted that the Uganda Marathon team has agreed to utilise the facilities at EBS for some of the many international runners that will be coming from all corners of the globe to participate in the event in June. This of course will provide excellent exposure for both Suubi and EBS, which will surely increase the number of people coming to visit/volunteer in the future. This all certainly bodes well for Suubi's self sustainability in the future.

The cottage at EBS has recently been completed and received the first guests at the beginning of April.

The restaurant and bar at EBS will be the ideal place for guests to wind down and enjoy good food and drinks with their friends. The marathon participants will be sure to pass on the word to family, friends and future travellers, that Elite Backpacker Services is 'THE' place to stay in Masaka Town in Uganda.

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8-3-2016, Suubi Team Signs Up At Uganda Marathon Launch

While we are usually busy with the rest of the world celebrating International Women's Day on March 8th, today Suubi Centre staff instead joined others in Masaka town for the official launch of the Uganda International Marathon 2016. With Suubi Centre being one of the very few projects selected to receive funds raised from this years marathon, we decided we should also enter a Suubi team to run in the event! International runners will come from all over the world to run and we can't wait to be running along side them all. We will make many new friends throughout this event, who are sure to become part of our ever growing worldwide Suubi family.

Some of the Suubi staff at the launch today for the 2016 Uganda Marathon.

(L - R) Robert, Ishmael, Lydia, Shanitah, Zidinah, Alad, David, Peter and Sematico were some of the first in line to sign up to be part of the run on June 5th.

As part of the launch activities today we helped paint the gazetted zebra crossing points in Masaka. This certainly drew a lot of attentions from people in town and will be lasting reminder to everyone about the positive things that Uganda Marathon brings with it.

David and Robert proved to be very handy with the paint rollers... and also their phones for taking photos of all the action!

Shanitah and Lydia also got involved as the zebra strips slowly but surly made their way across the very busy main street in Masaka.

With the zebra crossing complete marathon entrants walk the streets around Masaka to tell people about the event.

Ishmael, Robert and Alad had a race among themselves!

There were lots of smiles from the Suubi team at the end of the day when the very eventful and successful launch was over.

Although competitors have the choice to run either a full (42km) or half (21km) marathon, or the shorter 10km course, they will all be very challenging; the route takes runners up and down hills and over rough terrain, but also through some of Uganda’s most beautiful scenery. With this in mind, once back in the village, the Suubi team realised they needed to hit the training track.

Suubi staff and students gathered at the local Lubanda pitch in preparation for their first real training session.

(L-R) Elias, Peter, Lydia, Zidinah, Alad, Robert and David lead the way as the large group of staff and students took off.

But the team soon spread out as the training run progressed.

SSVC students continued on along the tracks throughout the village.

Students finally finished by running up the hill back in to the school compound. Funny that there was not an adult left running in sight. Lucky there is still time left for plenty more training sessions!

While the marathon is obviously going to be a big adventure for everyone involved, fundraising is also a big part of the event. One of the core values of Uganda Marathon is that they want to give back to the community that is opening it’s arms to runners from around the globe. Their approach is very simple: They want to raise as much money as possible in order to support the chosen projects in Uganda, of which Suubi is one. Marathon runners who chose to fundraise for Suubi will see funds go straight towards the Suubi Goat Project. This has been established to help Suubi to become self sustainable, eventually being able all cover staff wages and administration costs itself.

Check out the video that was put together for the Uganda Marathon website so people can see how they can help by choosing to run for Suubi Centre:

As you can see, when the marathon team visited the goat project late last year we had only 4 goats. Since that time, thanks to the generosity of Aussies over the Christmas period, we have been able to increase the number to 28. This is still a long way from the 200 we are aiming for though, so it is important to help spread the word and get behind the Uganda Marathon runners, especially Suubi team that will participating on the day.

It is great to see the goat numbers already increasing. Imagine what it will look like with 200 goats inside and the amount of money that will be able to be generated to support the entire Suubi project!

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Suubi Centre Update Blog

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5-6-2016, Uganda Marathon - What An Event!

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5-4-2016, Focusing On Suubi's Self Sustainability

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8-3-2016, Suubi Team Signs Up At Uganda Marathon Launch

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