Experiences: Kinship

Erica Giraudo was the first volunteer at Kinship House. She wrote this after her first 2 weeks experience. Erica was at Kinship for 6 months until April 2006.

My name is Erica, I come from Italy and I am a volunteer at the Kinship House. Uncle Ben asked me to share my experiences during my stay here in Uganda.

This place is wonderful. The kids are very nice, they always laugh and sing. The Uncles are very friendly. On Sunday I gave the kids some clothes that I brought from Italy.I also cooked italian food; they were very very happy. But usually they don't need special things for them to smile: if you sing, if you dance, if you play football, if you give a paper and some colours, they will always be happy.

I had planted some seeds and now we are waiting for them to grow. We also repaired the home kids bicycle so now they can use it to bring water from the well.

We are currently writing a project proposal for some funding to improve the building. I'm also looking for an organization that would sponsor a child.

This place is very near to Kampala, the capital city, so some times I go there for to visit and send e-mails. Today I have brought with me a film to print: I took 36 photos of the children and now I would like to give each of them their personal photo.

I'll start to teach P.E. in the school because they don't have this subject. I think that it is important for them to know some sports like basketball, volleyball and swimming. But the most important thing is to teach them that boys and girls can play together.

I've only been here 2 weeks but I think that this will be a wonderful experience.