hello,

well, we have less then a month in Uganda and time I going fast. I have learned a great deal of information from my practicums. My weeks are very full, I spend two days at Kitenguisa Senior Secondary ( wed & Fri) from 7:30 am-5:45pm and three days at TASO (Mon,Tues,Thur) from 8:30am-4pm. I will tell you a little about each practicum and what I do.

My first practicum is at the school working with high school kids. The school is very small and has little money for books and other things that a school needs. They don't have music our art class because the school has no money. Each class has about 30-60 children and some times there is not enough teacher for all the classes. I see children teaching each other in class because they don't have a teacher. some students have a hard time paying school fees so they are not able to go to school. Other students cant go to school because they have to stay at home and work or they have children. The children that are able to attend school are very grateful. Children study from morning till night. For the most part children know how important education is for their future.

I do many diffrent things at the school. One of the things I do with the students is teach computer.Douglas College has given the school and library a computer each. Most of the students have never used a computer before so this was a great learning opportunity for the students. I had to explain everything from how to turn on a computer. The students are happy to learn all about computers. I also help the English teachers with some classes. In the weeks to come I will be talking to the class about topics such as HIV/AIDS, sex, stigma and anything else I feel will be helpful. I also will be working with the three girls Douglas College has sponsored to come up with a peer support group that will be runned by the girls once well go back to Canada. The school is a great learning experience for me.

My second practicum is at TASO. TASO is an HIV/AIDS organization that has been open since 1987. It was started by individuals living with HIV. They felt there was not enough support for individuals in Uganda living with HIV/AIDS. It started of as just a support group. As it developed more they new it was important to help them treat the illness. TASO has two parts to the org the medical and the counselling.
The medical area has doctors, nurses, pharmacy, testing and much more. the counselling deportment has individual counselling, group counselling, children's counselling to name a few. TASO also has outreach put in place to reach the clients to sick to come to the center.

I have had the opportunity to work in all areas of the TASO org. I have been counselling clients and educating them. I go on outreach two times a week. A social worker and I go and visit clients at the house. we go and give meds, do testing of family members, educate community and do anything else we can. This has been a great learning experience to better understand the challenges one faces when living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. I have so much more to say but i will save it for another day.

Tsion