Suubi Centre Update Blog

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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10-1-2016, Most Successful TeamMed Visit To Date

The third annual collaboration between TeamMed, Monash medical students from Australia and Suubi Health Clinic has proved to be the most successful to date. Each year the relationship and understanding between the two medical cohorts has continued to grow; this years team of Emily, Milo, Kirby, Imogen, Hayden and Bridget fitted in quickly with the local community and worked perfectly, side by side with Suubi medical staff to carry out the successful testing and treatment exercise at Suubi Clinic and two out reach locations of Nakateete and Kyasonko.

After arriving in Uganda on 30th Dec 2016 the team drove directly to Masaka where they spent the night and had a chance to recover from their long journey. An orientation session was held for them the following morning before heading to Masaka Referal Hospital, one of the bigger medical facilities in the area. This gave the team the opportunity to see first hand the differences in facilities that their counterparts in a metropolitan hospital in Uganda have to cope with, before heading to the much remoter location of Suubi Clinic, where they were based for their 10 day stay.

The Monash medical students listened intently as they were given a guided tour around the Masaka Regional Hospital.

Having travelled to Suubi on New years eve, January 1st saw TeamMED joining forces with the Suubi medical staff to unpack supplies and set up for the testing and treatment exercise that had been scheduled. Money the team had raised prior to their arrival had enabled the testing reagents and medications to be purchased, meaning patients seen throughout their time at the clinic would be charged the nominal fee of only 2000 shillings (approx 80c). This allowed patients to access all testing and treatment being offered without it being seen as a hand out; something that is always at the forefront of everything that happens at Suubi.

All the supplies that had been purchased needed to be accounted for and sorted out before the patients began to arrive on the following day.

Dental supplies of toothbrushes and paste had also been bought from Australia to distribute at the dental workshops that were to be carried out.

An important briefing was held for the Suubi Medics and TeamMed members so everyone was very aware of how things would run over the following days.

The first two days of the exercise held at Suubi Clinic saw 72 patients attend to be tested and treated for various conditions including malaria, HIV, TB and hypertension to name a few. The Suubi medics and TeamMed members worked sided by side to access, diagnose and decide on the best possible treatment for all patients.

Patients at Suubi Clinic waiting patiently for their turn to be seen.

Once inside patients were accessed by a Suubi medic and TeamMed members. Bridget and Elias, from Suubi Clinic, worked side by side to decide on the testing and treatment required by this patient.

Suubi student nurse, Deborah, and Imogen worked in the laboratory taking blood pressure and then bloods if they were required for testing.

With so many patients to be seen, another area in the Suubi Clinic was set up for blood to be taken. This was then sent to the lab to be analysed. Hayden and Bridget make the best of the alternative facilities that were available.

With the diagnosis complete patients were then sent to the dispensary to receive any medication they required. Emily and Alad worked together to make sure everything dispensed was well recorded.

As usual, some patients that were seen at the clinic during this time needed to be admitted for further treatment, often administered via a drip. The three available beds at Suubi Clinic are used predominately for short term stays and treatment of less serious cases. Anyone that presents with acute issues are transferred to the hospital in Masaka.

Imogen and Alad worked on a small child that required a drip to be inserted so that treatment could be given more directly.

This saw him improve quite quickly and he was soon happily chatting with everyone.

In addition to the treatment days, two very successful dental workshops were held at Suubi Secondary and Community College on January 4th. Approximately 140 people turned up to learn about best dental hygiene practises and how to brush their teeth; over 80 children/youth and over 60 adults. All the dental workshop participants were happy to be given a start up dental care kit comprised toothpaste and a toothbrush.

Some of the younger children were guided by Kirby as she showed them the best way to brush their teeth.

While the adult participants learnt the additional importance of dental hygiene, not only themselves but also for providing it for their children.

All of the participants were happy to receive a toothbrush and toothpaste to take home so they can continue to take good care of their teeth.

On January 5th a community outreach was conducted at Nakateete where 46 patients were treated. Then on January 6th the team saw a further 26 patients back at Suubi Clinic before a 2nd community outreach was held at Kyasonko on January 7th, where a total of 31 patients accessed the services on offer.

Outreach sessions at Nakateete and Kysonko were conducted in the local schools. Patients registered as they arrived and wait in the shade outside for their turn to be seen.

Bridget joined Suubi Clinical officer, Robert, as he accessed one of the patients at the outreaches.

Milo made use of the desks in classrooms as he took the blood pressure of this lady.

While Emily used a pillow for support as she drew blood from a patient to be analysed.

On January 8th the TeamMed guys took a well deserved break from seeing patients and spent time touring Lubanda village and some of the other projects being run through Suubi Centre. They loved spending time with the Suubi ladies and took the opportunity to buy african printed clothing and craft made by them for their family and friends back home.

January 9th and 10th 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 has been a huge success. The Aussie medical students have been exposed to conditions they simply will never come across back at home in Australia. They will surely be better doctors in the future for having gone through this experience and equally the Suubi medical team will have learnt many things from them along the way. So it is a win win for everyone! Lasting friendships and that have been formed will ensure that the TeamMed/Suubi Clinic collaboration will continue to go from strength to strength in the future.

Suubi and TeamMed 2016 have achieved great things as they worked side by side and formed lasting friendships. (L-R Back - Elias, Hayden, Zakah, Robert, Peter, Milo, Alad. Front - Kirby, Bridget, Imogen and Emily.

A huge thank you the entire TeamMed 2016 and Suubi Team crew, for the great work done over the last 10 days. Webale nnyo, nnyo, nnyo.

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6-11-2015, Vocational Workshop & Tools Unveiled At SSVC During Music, Dance & Drama Final

The 2015 Music, Dance and Drama Festival finals have proven to be the most successful to date. When our annual MDD Festival first began in 2010, we would have never dreamed that 5 years later we would be needing to hold preliminary rounds to accommodate all the schools who want to be part of this much anticipated event, or that we would be staging the finals day at Suubi Secondary & Vocational College to unveil a brand new workshop and vocational tools. It is absolutely amazing how far we have come!

This years festival saw 13 primary schools take part in the preliminary rounds, with 8 of them going through to the finals that were held on November 6th. The theme throughout the event was “An educated community, is a transformed community”. The eight finalists captivated the large audience as they performed in the five categories: creative dance, a poem, a play, traditional dance and an original composition (song). The level of competition between the schools was highly competitive this year and the standard of the performance outstanding. A huge thank you must go to the teachers and trainers who put in countless hours with the student for them to be able to reach this level. Each and every school did a wonderful job of finding their own entertaining way to get the theme of the event across to the huge crowd that had come along to enjoy the day.

The day opened with SSVC students performing the national anthem.

The drums that were to be presented at the end of the final were put front and centre to motivate the performers.

First time finalists, St Jude, Lwagulwe P/S were the first on stage to perform in each category.

The students from Lubanda Islamic P/S were tiny in size but their performance in creative dance certainly got the crowd cheering.

It is estimated that in excess of 1600 people were at SSVC to be part of this wonderful finals day. More than 1000 students were joined by over 600 parents, teachers, officials and well wishers from the community. The performances were obviously enjoyed by everyone as they learnt the valuable message of the importance of education, but there was also another exciting reason for the huge crowd to have gathered; the unveiling of the new vocational workshop and tools.

Bana Uganda Ltd of Aspire to Inspire project were happy to be invited to attend. Jeremiah gave and inspiring speech to the students and the wider audience.

Mr. Muwanga Goerge, from the Lwengo District Education Office, also spoke of the many great things that Suubi Secondary & Vocational College is now able to offer.

There was much excitement as everyone entered the newly constructed vocational workshop to check out the vocational tools that had recently arrived from TWAM.

SSVC teacher, Tinjebwa Deo, directed the large crowd and explained about the various tools for many different trades.

Suubi staff member, Niwamanya Elias, (left) took time out of his hectic MC duties of the day to show off some of the many power tools that had arrived from the UK.

It is hard to describe the excitement that everyone felt on seeing all of the new facilities; it is definitely creating great hope (Suubi) in the community. It is hard to believe that, as from the beginning of the 2016 school year, many additional vocational trades will now be able to be incorporated in to the day to day curriculum at the school. This is definitely another important step in the development at SSVC!

With the unveiling complete it was back to the the remainder of the days performances to find the eventual winners of each category. The results are as follows:

ORIGINAL COMPOSITION: 1st - Hope bulemere P/S. 2nd-Namugongo P/S

POEM: 1st - St. Agatha Makondo P/S (first time participants in the event) 2nd - Save The Child P/S

CREATIVE DANCE: 1st - Lubanda Islamic P/S. 2nd - Bright Light P/S

PLAY: 1st - St.Jude Lwagulwe P/S. 2nd - Save The Child P/S

TRADITIONAL DANCE: 1st - Namugongo P/S. 2nd - St.Agatha Makondo P/S

As is always the case, a tour and full evaluation of all 13 participating schools was held in the lead up to the finals and the following schools were judge to have the best school garden and hygiene and sanitation.
SCHOOL GARDEN: 1st - Namugongo P/S. 2nd - Hope Bulemere P/S
HYGIENE & SANITATION: 1st - Namulanda P/S. 2nd - Lubanda Islamic P/S

In the hope of encouraging all schools to continue to participate and work hard in the future, all 13 participating schools were award with a certificate and a long drum. All eight teams that made it through to the finals were awarded an additional drum and the winners and runners up received cash prizes.

The teacher from Save The Child P/S was happy to receive their participation certificate from Jeremiah, from Aspire to Inspire.

The eight finalist schools were all thrilled to receive both a long and short drum for all their effort.

Namagongo P/S had made significant improvement this year and were very excited to be award with the best school garden.

We've put together a short video of the finals day so you can get a real feel of the excitement of the event and as the community toured the new workshop for the first time. Enjoy!

How wonderful to see so many people enjoying this much loved annual Suubi event and the positive energy that SSVC and the new vocational workshop is bringing to the entire community.

A huge thank you must go to the incredible Suubi staff who put in an enormous amount of work to make the 2015 Suubi MMD event was another huge success. And we certainly can not forget to thank the amazing builders and everyone else who helped to make sure the construction was completed and the tools in place in time for the event. Webale nnyo, nnyo, nnyo emirimu buli omu!

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24-10-2015, MDD Helps Draw People to Cancer Screening & Family Planning Outreach At Suubi Clinic

Two preliminary rounds for our Music, Dance and Drama Festival, which is conducted annually for Suubi's partnering primary schools, have been held over the last two days. Fifteen schools in total gathered across the two consecutive days at Namulanda and Kyembazzi Primary Schools. Each competing school performed a composed song, a skit, creative and traditional dances to reflect this years theme of "An educated community is a transformed community.” It was fabulous to see students, teachers and the wider community enjoying the high stand entertainment, while at the same time learning more about the importance of education.

As usual, the traditional dance performances were a favourite with everyone who had gathered to watch.

The colourful dance costumes of Lubanda Islamic P/S students were a stand out at the first preliminary round held at Numulanda P/S.

The performers from Namugongo P/S were lucky to have many of their fellow students there to cheer them on.

Each song that was perform conveyed the message, in its own individual way, about the importance of how education can transform a community.

It was a tough job for the judges to choose which schools to send on to the finals.

After two wonderful days of entertainment four schools, from each preliminary round, were eventually selected to compete in the finals, which will be held at Suubi Secondary & Vocational College on November 6th. From Group A, Namugongo P/S, Bright-Light P/S, Lubanda Islamic P/S and St.Jude Lwagulwe P/S were selected while Group B saw Save The Child P/S, Makondo P/S, Hope Buremere P/s and Kawerimidde P/S make their way through to the finals. All of these schools were very excited to be selected and they are now busy practising as the wait for finals day to come around.

Cancer Screening & Family Planning Outreach Held At Suubi Clinic

This years MDD theme of "An educated community is a transformed community” also gave Suubi Clinic staff the opportunity to educated the community about the importance of family planning and cancer screening. It was an ideal chance for them to promote the two day outreach that was being held concurrently at Suubi Clinic, in collaboration with Pace/Profam.

The outreach saw 79 women turn up to be either screened for cervical cancer and/or take on some form of family planning. Patients were treated by Suubi Clinic staff, Arinda Alad and Kayiira Robert and overseen by an expert from Profam/Pace. The turn up was a wonderful result and there is already discussion of when another session can be conducted for a large number of women associated with our good friends at St Jude Training Centre. With Pace/Profam subsidising the family planning and cancer screening service, the cost to each lady is a mere 1000 shillings (approx. 38c). This makes the collaboration between Suubi Clinic and Profam/Pace extremely worthwhile and is sure to benefit many of these rural women in the future.

The number of women who turned up for the family planning and cancer screening, held in conjunction with Profam/Pace at Suubi Clinic, was very encouraging.

Suubi Clinic's Arinda Alad with one of the 79 patients seen across the two day outreach.

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20-8-2015, Great Progress With Knitting And Bracelets

It has been fabulous to have Meri and Oriol from ILIKEMYSOCKS back with us to work with the Suubi ladies knitting group during August. The ladies certainly have come a long way since they first began learning to hand knit under the trees in the Suubi compound, a little over twelve months ago. It is amazing to now see them hard at work, in what is becoming a thriving business.

Meri began teaching Suubi ladies the art of hand knitting during July/August 2014.

This year a dedicated space within the training hall has been set up where the ladies work each day to produce a variety of beautiful baby garments.

Winding the wool from hanks is now far easier after Meri bought a special machine for the knitting group this year.

We are enormously proud of the Suubi ladies for their hard work and commitment to learn this new, and often challenging skill. But their hard work has paid off; it is very exciting that Meri will be taking a large number of garments back to Barcelona with her and they will soon be on sale via their website.

In addition to the ladies knitting it is also very exciting to see the Suubi Secondary College students learning the new skill of making beaded bracelets. With a market already established in Australia, for the Suubi ladies craft, we will soon be adding the students bracelets for sale. This will give them another realistic way to help pay for their own education.

It is wonderful to see the SSVC students learning skills beyond the academic classroom work; this gives them skills for self-reliance.

The volunteers from Setem, Spain were happy to be able to teach the students new bracelet designs during the current holiday vocational program.

Some of the beaded bracelet designs the students have made.

So be on the lookout for both of these fabulous hand made items for sale on both sides of the world. Whether you chose to buy a beautiful hand knitted baby garment or beaded bracelet from the SSVC students, is the perfect way for you to help Suubi community members to help themselves. Perfect!

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Suubi Centre Update Blog

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

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

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

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

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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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10-1-2016, Most Successful TeamMed Visit To Date

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6-11-2015, Vocational Workshop & Tools Unveiled At SSVC During Music, Dance & Drama Final

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24-10-2015, MDD Helps Draw People to Cancer Screening & Family Planning Outreach At Suubi Clinic

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20-8-2015, Great Progress With Knitting And Bracelets

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