The last couple of days, we've been with our team in Oruchinga - a tiny team that submitted hundreds of ideas to ARC's staff idea contest, The Changemakers Award. This last two days they've made a couple of their ideas happen (see Young Scientists and Getting Off The Ground). Before we move along, the Oruchinga team had one more idea all about the youth. Oruchinga settlement is small - only 6,000 people - but there are so many young people who live there. They don't have a way to share their talents with the world, no venues or opportunities to show off what they can do. Our team thought they could do something about that, so they organized an Oruchinga Talent Show on Day 230 and invited everyone who lives and works in the settlement. The show began about 2:30pm with a prayer and the Ugandan national anthem. And then the fun began. The room was packed, hundreds of camp residents had turned out to see what this was all about. 5 groups performed. There were singers, … [Read more...] about Oruchinga’s Got Talent
Changemakers Award
Getting Off The Ground
Today, we're back in Oruchinga refugee settlement with a second idea submitted by the team there for the Changemakers Award (their first idea is here). Most people living in a refugee camp are in a somewhat vulnerable state - they've fled their homes and are often reliant on services provided like clean water or food. But there are those who are extremely vulnerable, who may have a hard time getting around, who don't have a support network or have difficulty communicating. On Day 229, we were focused on these extremely vulnerable people, specifically elderly residents living on their own in the settlement. Visiting their homes, our team discovered that most of them were sleeping on the ground, maybe with a piece of fabric or a sheet of plastic between them and the dirt. "It must be so uncomfortable, every night" said Mercy, an ARC team member. So the team decided to do something about it. There are 13 small villages that make up Oruchinga settlement. The team found 2 … [Read more...] about Getting Off The Ground
Young Scientists
The submission period for ARC's Annual Changemakers Award recently ended. It's the time every year when our teams from around the globe share their ideas about how they'd better help the people they serve to feel more joyful, valued and powerful. This year, 2,335 ideas were submitted and our judges have narrowed the field to ten (we'll tell you more about these ten later). But we wanted to take a moment to thank one of our teams who really dug in, thought hard about the challenge and submitted as many ideas as they could - the ARC team in Oruchinga Refugee Settlement in Uganda. And, although their ideas weren't selected to the Top Ten, we wanted them to have the chance to do the doable and make a few of their ideas happen...starting with Day 228. On a visit to Rwamurunga Secondary School - where refugee and Ugandan students attend together - our team noticed some critical items missing from the science classrooms. They checked in with Albert, the head of the school's science … [Read more...] about Young Scientists