Laura Leach ‘95 worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda for the past two years. She has been sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa — this is her last post. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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Welcome Home!

O-F-Z-Q-P – I flew through the eye chart with my left eye. I was in the middle of my close-of-service physical exam, and it seemed impossible that my two years were already up, but here I was just two days from flying home.

When I switched to my right eye, everything looked blurry – really blurry. Since I’m the last remaining member of my family who is not yet sporting a pair of glasses or contacts, this made me nervous, but Karen, the Peace Corps Medical Officer, assured me my vision was fine.

What I was soon to discover when reaching home is that I was now going to see things clearer than I ever had before. That’s what happens when you spend two years in a foreign country and come home. You see things differently and notice details that have gone unnoticed for years.

Now I was going to see things clearer than I ever had before. That’s what happens when you spend two years in a foreign country and come home.

I left Uganda on April 28. There were walk-to-work demonstrations going on in Kampala that day, and I was a little bit nervous about getting from Kampala to Entebbe to catch my flight, but the Peace Corps driver got me safely there in plenty of time. My flight was from Uganda to Amsterdam, where I quickly devoured a lot of cheese during my layover, and then flew to Detroit.

In Detroit, my sister Kelly surprised me at the airport. It was my first time back in the U.S. for more than two years, and the first time I had seen anyone from my family during that same period of time. I was stunned (in a good way) that she flew from New York to meet me.

The two of us flew the last leg of the journey together and were met at the airport by my Dad, Mom and sister Lisa. As soon as I saw my mom, I started to cry. It had been a difficult week saying goodbye to the friends I had made, the work that gave me such a sense of fulfillment and the country I had grown to love, but now I was home!

What I Learned
The number one thing I’ve been asked about my experience with the Peace Corps is if I am glad I did it. The answer is a resounding YES! I learned so much from this experience. I learned how much I take for granted every single day while people on the other side of the world are so grateful for the very little bit that they have.

I was greeted with enthusiasm, acceptance and joy almost every single day while I was in Uganda, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. Certainly things in Uganda were not perfect, but the things that bothered me while I was there seem so insignificant now that I am home, I can’t imagine why I let them bother me so much at the time.

I was greeted with enthusiasm, acceptance and joy almost every single day while I was in Uganda, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

I also learned a lot about the challenges that women face in other parts of the world – domestic violence, an inability to exercise their reproductive rights, unequal access to education and good jobs, and I could go on.

I learned about life for children in Uganda where many children are treated like property, or neglected, or sexually abused, or fail to receive an education, or are living in poverty, and yet they are so light hearted and full of joy. I became good friends with a little girl who was HIV+ and learned a little bit about the challenges people who are HIV+ face as well as their families and communities. I even learned a little bit about myself along the way, too.

What You Can Do
I have enjoyed sharing my story with the KWC community. The Peace Corps was a wonderful experience for me that I would recommend to any students finishing their academic career. You will learn about the world, about yourself, and develop important skills that will help you in your future careers no matter which path you chose. To learn more about serving in the Peace Corps, you can go to their website at www.peacecorps.gov or you can feel free to email me at lauraleach38@yahoo.com.

Thanks for reading!

Laura. Uganda. Kids. Perfect.

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Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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A new director has taken over the Haven, and in the past month, most of the children who had been at the Haven for a long time have been resettled. In some cases, I felt nothing but relief and joy that the children were getting to go home. Josephine was one of those cases. Josephine had been staying at the Haven for a year, and she was so homesick. She always greeted me with big smiles and hugs except on the days that another child got to go home. On those days I knew someone had gone before everyone had arrived to the classroom just by the expression on Josephine’s face. Josephine’s parents came in for some counseling, and then they were reunited with Josephine. I wasn’t there when they took her home, but I can imagine the joy and excitement surrounding that trip home.

Regina was another girl who stayed at the Haven for a long time. There is just something special about Regina. You can ask anyone who worked with her, and they will tell you the same. She has a big heart. She was the little helper at the Haven. I remember one day I arrived wet because it started raining while I was walking there, and Regina went and made hot tea to serve to me to help warm me up. No one told her to do it…that’s just the kind of girl she is. Regina loved story time, and heaven help any of the kids who acted up or talked during the story. Regina was quick to let them know they needed to be quiet and listen.

When Regina was going to be returned home, I asked if I could go along. It was an interesting day because it turned out that almost everything I thought I knew about Regina wasn’t true. Regina was a runaway, and I thought her mother wasn’t alive and her father didn’t have the means to care for her. I didn’t get that story from her, but one of the counselors had shared it with me. The truth was that Regina has both her parents. They had been separated, but had reconciled while Regina was away. I didn’t meet either of her parents, but I did meet her grandfather who is a fisherman in Mayuge district. We ended up leaving Regina in the care of her grandfather. That was a difficult day because Regina had gotten used to the Haven and the people there, and she was not happy to go home.

I talked to her grandfather about her education, and he took me to meet the headmistress at the local primary school. I went back to visit Regina a week later to take her some things and check in on how she was doing. It was a great visit, and I hope to go back one more time before I leave and keep in touch once I’ve returned to the U.S. (a challenge since her grandfather doesn’t have a phone or immediate access to a computer, and the closest post office is about an hour away).

The difficult aspect of working with the Reginas and Josephines is that although each girl is unique, there are so many girls in Uganda that have stories exactly like Regina and Josephine of abuse, neglect, being treated like property and like they don’t matter. It is a huge problem here and in other countries around the world, and it is a problem that we all need to work together to solve.

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Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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I started going to the Haven last June. The Haven is an emergency shelter for women and children who are experiencing domestic violence and need a safe place to stay while their case is being sorted out. While the idea was that it would mainly be used by women and their children, there ended up being a lot of children placed there on their own. These children have faced problems such as defilement, incest, physical abuse, and some are runaways.

Laura with The Haven girls during Christmas 2010.

Such cases are not easy to resolve in Uganda. According to a survey done by the Uganda Bureau of Statistic in 2005, the Ugandan police are considered the most corrupt service provider in Uganda. Part of the problem is lack of resources, and part of the problem is poor ethics and a culture where corruption is commonplace.

In some cases when a child is defiled and the case is taken to the police, the family of the perpetrator will offer a bribe to the police to make the case go away. If the child’s family can’t come up with their own money to pursue the case, then that child will never receive justice.

Another challenge is that girls are treated like a commodity here. Their value rests in how much their parents receive for bride price when they wed. If a child is defiled, her parents will often settle the situation by accepting some payment from the defiler, because the girl is now spoiled and won’t command a bride price if or when she weds.

Some of the cases prove challenging just because of geography. Right now we have a girl who is from Bwindi which is in Western Uganda, so the challenge is researching the situation and finding family who can take her in, and then getting her there. Due to these challenges and others, the children were staying at the Haven for extended periods of time, and there was no programming in place for them.

During my first visit with the children, they greeted me as a visitor and recited their alphabet chart and number chart. I quickly went from visitor to Teacher Laura, spending a couple hours with the children every morning. We read stories, color pictures, solve math problems, play games, sing songs, and generally have a good time together.

The most important thing I try to do with the kids is instill confidence in them and make them feel loved. But in truth, I feel like I receive far more from the children than I give. Every day when I arrive, they come running to greet me, grabbing my purse and bags to carry in for me. Every day when I leave, I am engulfed in hugs and well wishes. The truth is, they’ve increased MY confidence and made me feel loved by them. What a great gift.

Next time: two individual stories of girls at The Haven …

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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A Big Move
Although I was excited that the VSLA was doing well, I was still feeling very isolated from my organization and underutilized. In December of 2009, I went and spoke to the director of MIFUMI about how I was feeling. He agreed that the physical distance between me and the office was serving as an obstacle, and they would look for a place in Tororo town for me to stay.

I was pleased by how our talk went, but I refused to get my hopes up because at one point there had been discussions of moving me to Nagongera, and that had fallen through. Most things tend to take quite awhile to organize and execute here, so I was really surprised when I was moved into my new apartment in Tororo town before the end of the year. Everything was about to change.

Laura's home in Tororo: "The middle doorway with the gate is mine, and it is a small front room that I use for my kitchen. The back part of the room is where my bed is, and I have a bathroom with a Western style toilet, shower (cold water only) and sink."

VSLAs Expand
When I made the move to Tororo town, they switched my counterpart at MIFUMI as well. Now I was going to be working with Dinah Atim, who at the time was the head of organizational development, but soon was switched to the head of enterprise, and later was promoted to the programming officer for the organization. Dinah and I worked together to get VSLAs started within each women support group MIFUMI works with.

 When I came to MIFUMI there were only 10 advice centers, but during my first year here, they expanded their service so that there was an advice center in each sub-county. This meant there were 21 women’s groups that needed to start saving. I ended up doing most of the VSLA training because Dinah was busy working to transition the groups to community based organizations.

 Instead of my earlier fear coming true of not having enough members interested or able to save, the opposite actually occurred. By the time I got one group trained and underway, they would have the next 30 women lined up to start another group. This is a terrific problem to have because it meant the program was popular and spreading, but it also created a challenge for me because I couldn’t disengage from one center and move on to the next.

 So far I have made it to 14 sub-counties and am working with 37 VSLAs. One of the highlights of my service was when that first group in Nagongera completed their first savings cycle last September. I got a gomesi – the traditional dress worn by women of Uganda – made for the occasion. The women laughed and clapped when I arrived and stepped out of the vehicle in my gomesi. It was a fun day with a lot of laughter, hugs and a few tears of joy as well.

A Ugandan woman named Betty hugs Laura during the ceremony marking the successful conclusion of the first savings cycle of the Nagongera VSLA.

As I sat there and watched each woman receive her savings, I thought back to that first meeting I had in Nagongera and how overwhelmed I had felt that day by the weight of the women’s problems. I’m sure many of those problems still exist, but they weren’t there that day. I am so proud of the women of Nagongera mostly because their accomplishment was their own. They were not given the toolkit – they bought it. They were not given any money – all of the money saved and used for loans was their own. They just needed me to give them a little guidance, and I needed them to find my sense of purpose here in Uganda. In the end, we all walked away a little richer from the experience.
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Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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VSLA
During our pre-service training, two volunteers came to talk to us about a program called VSLA which stands for Village Savings and Loan Association. This program is designed to give people who live in a rural area and do not have easy access to formal financial institutions the opportunity to save money and borrow money.

Here’s how it works: around 30 people get together, buy a metal box with three places to lock it, and meet regularly to save money and give out loans to group members from their savings. There is a separate fund that members contribute to weekly that exists for emergencies that pop up such as sickness or death in the family. Loans taken from this emergency fund are not charged interest. Members choose a base amount for savings, which we call their share value. Then at each meeting, members are supposed to save from one to five shares per meeting.

The good things about the program are that it encourages savings in a culture that typically does not save, it gives members access to loans that they can put into business ventures, the interest paid on loans stays within the group rather than going to a bank and it is self-managed. I was pretty much sold on the concept by the time the volunteers left our training session, so I was excited when the women of Nagongera mentioned that they wanted to learn how to save.

The Toolkit
Despite the good sales pitch by Josh and Eric, I was still nervous starting the VSLA. The last thing you want to do is start a project that flops, especially when you are dealing with someone’s hard-earned money. The toolkit consists of the metal box, three locks, 30 passbooks, two bowls, ink pens, a record keeper journal, an ink stamp pad, a bottle of ink, a stamp and a ruler. It all costs 90,000 shillings (about $45), so I was worried about the women having the money to get started.

A standard VSLA box kit

I quickly discovered that my worries were unfounded. These women were serious about saving. They had their money collected for the box kit and all of the members recruited and in place at our first meeting. The first few meetings you have, nobody saves, because you are training and setting up the VSLA. At each of those first few trainings, the members were so eager to start saving. They elected officers, and soon saving was underway. I came to all of the meetings I could make during the first few months, but soon the women needed very little guidance from me.

Next time: A big move … and VSLAs expand!

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
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Another False Start
The second false start came when the women said they were interested in being trained in poultry keeping. There is an organization in Uganda called the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS); their sole purpose is to educate and support Ugandans regarding agricultural practices. I went to the Nagongera sub-county offices and met with the NAADS officers and asked them if they would conduct a training for the women in Nagongera on raising poultry as an income generating activity. The NAADS officers agreed and said they would make sure to spread the word that there would be a training.

I had notified my “counterpart” at MIFUMI to let her know when the training would take place, but somehow wires were crossed, and a domestic violence advisor training session was scheduled for the same time as the poultry training. This meant that the two women that I counted on to help me with translations would be gone, and Hellen, who was also very helpful, would have to be at the Advice Center and also could not attend the poultry training. I was disappointed by this but still felt optimistic about the training.

Food and Payment
The morning of the scheduled session, I went to the office. When the women began showing up for the training, they were asking where the food was. One of the local officials came and told me the women were hungry, and that I should provide some food. Well, there was a budget of zero for this event, but I hopped on my bike and rode down the street and bought a bag of chapattis for the women. They were quickly gone, and as more and more women arrived, the same official told me we needed more. I told her the food was only for people who showed up on time, and we needed to go ahead and start with the training.

It wasn’t that simple though. The two men from NAADS asked me for their money. Um, what money? It turned out they wanted me to pay a “facilitation fee.” This was news to me, since when I arranged for the training no one mentioned any sort of fee, and providing advice to their community members regarding agricultural practices was precisely what their job was suppose to be.

I was angry, frustrated, and near tears, but with over 100 women who had traveled quite far waiting for a training, I agreed to pay their fee. Being the nice guys that they were, they agreed to give me a “discount” since no one had mentioned the fee prior to the event.

What Did He Just Say?
I’d like to say the money was well spent, but the men seemed ill prepared. The training was in dhopadhola, so I didn’t know what was being said most of the time except for the brief summaries the men would say to me. I do know at one point the guys were talking about sex instead of poultry, so I think it is probably best that I couldn’t follow most of what was being said.

After they finished, the men asked me to pay them in the privacy of their office, which just made the whole encounter feel even creepier. They were all smiles and handshakes and told me to let them know if I needed them for any future training.

At this point, I was down, but not quite out. I had one more idea before I was going to throw in the towel … and this one was a winner!