Our volunteering at an orphanage in Bugembe In the period between June the 2nd and July the 7th of 2013, I was volunteering at the Child Hope Ministries orphanage in Bugembe. There were 26 children and 5 adults living at the orphanage. The adults were Christine – the social worker, Dan – in charge of all the work around the orphanage, Hariett – the cook, Sara – the nurse and last but not least, Sara’s husband Joram, the manager of the orphanage. Normally though everybody did everything that needed to be done; from cooking to laundry, repairs and raising the children.
The children’s daily schedule included going to a school which was outside of the orphanage, except for the preschool children whose education was organised within the orphanage. I would take part in working with preschool children after the break, from around 11 am to 12 pm when the school would end. I would help the teacher with teaching English and the children with carrying out their tasks.
I noticed some children’s motor skills had not been properly developed, which made it difficult for them to write, so I would exercise with them in their spare time. The results were visible after a month. With older children I would play different games which I had brought like dominos, cards, bingo… With another volunteer, Natalija, I began doing some work around the house, for example painting the facade, cleaning, washing up, disposing of the garbage in the yard and transforming this area into something useful – a vegetable garden.
We also made garbage bins and collected the laundry bins with dirty laundry from all the boys and the girls at the orphanage. During our stay there, we would also from time to time bring food, such as bread and butter, fruit, biscuits and vegetables for lunch or dinner.
The emphasis of our stay was on playing and spending time with the children, but also helping out with the hygiene within the house and outside of it, and discussing with the adults the educational methods concerning the children. Considering the fact our cultures somewhat differed in regard to how children should be brought up, we were exchanging different opinions and experiences and discussed the potential changes in our approach. We were teaching the children how to maintain personal hygiene and how to protect one’s health, and to take care of their surroundings in accordance with it. The differences in our cultures also involved the emotions that the children at the orphanage were not expressing. I worked on recognising and expressing the basic emotions in regard to both the children’s trauma and their repression of the negative experiences.
The children at the orphanage were grateful for any given lesson, activity and the time we spent with them. They gladly learned new things and accepted them. It was a wonderful experience.
Jadranka Luca-Mrđen
