Life in Lockdown at Embrace Kulture's Amaanyi Center in Uganda

This week, I'm taking you back to Uganda to learn more about Embrace Kulture's goal to develop a culture of acceptance in East Africa. Around the world, children with special needs and their families struggle for equality but in Uganda they struggle to survive. Today, almost one million children remain hidden, locked in homes, victims to inhumane healing practices, institutionalized, abused, and excluded. Embrace Kulture's goal is to embrace children with special needs for what makes them unique. The Amaanyi Center is a place where children come to learn - not just school-based learning - but how to become independent.

This organization is close to my heart. My husband lived in East Africa for five years when he was growing up, and I have visited twice. It's somewhere that we hope to take our children one day to fully experience the way of life, the landscape, and the wildlife that we've fallen in love with. We were both thrilled to join the Embrace Kulture volunteer board earlier this year and become involved in this vital work. At the start of this month, I shared the story of Josephine Katusiime, Lead Matron of the girls' wing at Embrace Kulture's Amaanyi Center. (You can find the story here: https://pentastics.com/f/an-independence-day-tale-with-a-difference). Today's blog focuses on what's been going on in the boys’ wing during lockdown.

Julius Opus heads up the boys’ unit. At the outbreak of the pandemic, he decided to move into the Center. Though this meant he wouldn’t see his family for an indefinite amount of time, he wanted to support his three male students who remained at the Amaanyi Center. These students are the most vulnerable; the ones who it was impractical or impossible to return to their own homes for various reasons, whether it be that the family couldn’t accommodate an additional child to look after, or because the family could not provide adequate care. These youth face diverse challenges. Julius, who has been with Embrace Kulture for a year, tells us that not all of his students are verbal. They rely on gestures and key words to express their needs and wants. Having additional time to spend with ‘his boys’ has given him the opportunity to focus specifically on some of the challenges facing non-verbal students. Julius explains, “The school closure has allowed me more time to study student behavior patterns and develop appropriate responses. One student, Perez, has learnt how to express hunger and can convey that he needs to use the bathroom without using words.” These two achievements have significantly improved his emotional wellbeing and that of those around him.

The lockdown has also brought unexpected advantages among the boys. The camaraderie can be seen as the students support each other throughout their daily routines. Another student, Musa, has become an excellent trainer. As well as taking care of his own daily personal hygiene, he has taken on the responsibility of assisting his peers with their needs. In addition to individual skills, all the boys have been learning farming. This is a key development that will reap rewards both at the Center and beyond. Julius says, “The team has been making its own organic compost. This is a skill that the students can take back to their own villages to benefit their families when they are ready to return. This knowledge is extremely valuable to communities who rely on the land for crops to feed their loved ones.”

Looking ahead to re-opening, Julius is developing a teaching module for students on how to sanitize regularly and respect social distancing. This will become a regular part of the school curriculum to ensure health and safety practices continue to be followed, even once the initial threat of the virus has passed.

Embrace Kulture continues to support youth on their journey to independence. You can find out more at www.embracekulture.org.