Nurtured at KiBO

"Each class is always unique in one way or another" said Mr. Abraham Temu as he briskly took the 5th class through the KiBO program orientation. This sounded vague to us, actually I thought he was more of a very aggressive marketer. True to his words, each of the groups that have to date joined this program has always had a unique experience as well as opportunities. Currently the sixth class is fundraising for a project to facilitate Treasure Life Center youth group in Kamwokya. A comparison of this class and our class makes me envious; this guys are really having fun! That's life.

In my earlier post I mentioned how we managed to initiate the project to raise awareness about the deaf in the society. The main pipeline of our funds were; a charity car wash, a social connections event and donations from friends as well as corporates. Thanks to all who donated and participated, they must be reaping more than the habitual hundred folds. If you didn't please do so for the 6th class, contact me and I will hook you up with them, watch this space!

A target of ugx 972,000 (equivalent of Us$487) seemed to high for us. Within three weeks of hard work we had almost managed to raise all this! However the budget ended up in a slack. With this I imply that we had more than enough money to spend. The slack occurred due to our earlier plan to plaster and varnish the Deaflink Uganda building, but we had to relinquish this plan since all these were not too essential to the deaf youth.

In a short while we were off to spend what we had labored for, this was one of the captivating moments especially for those of us in the 5th class that were privileged to participate in the purchases of what was long awaited. Prior to this we were all accustomed to buying cheap and saving; this is common I know you also do it!! But guess what? We had to spend all the cash! Wow it was quite exciting approaching the cashier and realizing that the treasurer had more than enough money for us to spend, sounds like spend thrifts? This is charity, YOU SPEND ALL YOU RAISE YOU DON'T SAVE!

"Big things come in small packages" You could tell this during the project implementation day. The jolly faces of the deaf youth spoke volumes. The joy of a brand new white board, a T.V set (21 inches), a DVD player(an original sign language translated version of 'THE SECRET'), flip charts, markers and exercise books. All carefully selected to meet their most urgent needs. However, the climax of the day was the ugx 200(equivalent of US$0.1) that we handed over to the Ms. Nassozi( Deaf Link Uganda director) as the remainder of all the expenditure.

It is crucial however to note that all these did not happen in 'ideal situations'. I mean it is better said than done. When we set out to do things most often we expect perfect and favorable conditions, correct me if am wrong, only to find out that we have to overcome challenges, defeat name them! This is the true meaning of success, success is overcoming, beating the odds. Lucky enough as members of the 5th class, we did not at any time sit down and say," Oh God we can't just do this, its rainy!" we worked through the challenges and won in the spirit of yes we can..