January 2012
In the last newsletter I wrote about Ana Navarro, a volunteer from Spain who stayed in Gulu for almost three months. She has now returned to Spain, after having worked hard to help a tired and very heavily pregnant Betty to learn new skills and ideas and at times fighting the apathy in schools to help MPM keep time and boundaries of therapy. I don’t think she’d mind me saying that she found it exhausting to be constantly reminding both Betty and the schools that timing, consistency, privacy and good referrals and evaluations are important for therapy and that just because it rains doesn’t mean you don’t turn up for work/school! However, she was able to offer new ideas to a distracted Betty, which she can use once she comes back to work in the new year with a new baby. She also enjoyed working in the schools that are much more supportive of MPM such as Laroo Adra, the school with the deaf unit.
Betty and Ana went to Kitgum to check on the staff that Jantina Bijpost and Neysa Navarro-Fernandez trained in 2010. They were pleased to find that there was one man who had been championing the cause of Music Therapy in the special needs school by running regular music sessions for the children. Evidence of this could be seen when Ana and Betty ran a group there and the children clearly knew what to do and expect.
When MPM has volunteers it helps me not only to offer Betty a companion and colleague, but to also re-evaluate what MPM does and how it does it. Here are some thoughts that Ana, Betty and I have had throughout Ana’s recent time in Gulu:
Length of groups:
The groups had run for one term each since we started in 2008. Ana found that out of her potential 10 weeks of therapy, she saw some of the groups only twice! This was due to typical Ugandan things such as national holidays springing up without warning; heavy rains causing children and staff not to turn up to school; exams and revision leave; inability to pay school fees or wear correct uniform so being sent; the man with the key to the music room has gone; the room has not been cleaned amongst other things, some more believable than others! We agreed that, in order to benefit the children’s need for small-group time with a counselor and to give them the familiarity and space they need to get to the deeper problems facing them at this time in this place, they should meet for a whole school year. As I wrote in the last newsletter, we will also change the referral system so that the most needy children are being referred by the teachers or parents. (This is difficult because teachers with over 100 pupils in their class can’t know everyone individually so some children may fall through the net and others may have therapy when they don’t have much need for it.)
New MPM therapist
Our new art therapist is going to join MPM in February, which I’m very excited about. He is bringing to the table art therapy experience from having worked in Gulu, Karamojong (a very interesting and complex pastoral tribe in the north-east facing many types of problems) and other parts of the country. He is around the same age as Betty (30s) but has more energy (that also comes of not having three children!) and a much more modern outlook in terms of drawing information and ideas from online reports and websites and really understanding issues of the youth he will be working with.
New place of work
When Betty was at hospital for a scan of her baby, she met a contact who worked in what I believe to be a centre for children with social problems (I’m unclear as yet but more information will follow). In the new term Vince will go and get more information and details from this place and see if it is possible to work there. It is good timing that this opportunity has presented itself because one of the original schools that MPM works in (Laroo Boarding) has failed so many times to help and offer support to MPM staff and it has become impossible to work there. Corruption and discontent among the staff and a lack of care for the children’s well-being has been worrying (and in two cases fatal when two children died of malaria because of lack of staff attention). Betty has been trying so hard to keep the work going, and Ana also pulled her hair out trying to care for the children, but we have come to the conclusion that the problem is firstly too bit for MPM to work with and secondly is out of our hands and needs to be dealt with directly by the government (it is one of only a few government secondary schools in the country). We gave the teachers warnings about how they need to support MPM staff but nothing has changed so MPM will no longer work there. It is so sad to not be able to reach the children, but as a tiny CBO there is very little we can do.
Due to the additional member of staff, I need to find more funding and new supporters as the cost of another therapist is around £100 per month. If you are willing to contribute a one-off donation or become a monthly supporter, please get in touch with me to find out how (musicforpeacefulminds@yahoo.co.uk. Thank you to everyone who has contributed, and especially to the current monthly supporters for your support, and please continue to stand with me at this time of exciting change.
