We were delighted that some of you were able to join us online last month, when we caught up with our International team from Belarus, Uganda and Sierra Leone.
Though this has been a challenging time, navigating a world in the grip of a global pandemic, our ongoing projects have continued, and grown from strength to strength.
Watch the interviews:
Recorded over Zoom, you can listen to our partners, as they share about the work they’ve accomplished throughout the past couple of years with Teams4U:
Dave talks to Dima & Katya, Belarus
Ziz talks to Ben & Sam, Uganda
Ziz talks to Helga, Sierra Leone
In Belarus:
Our partners, Dima & Katya Nachyna, and their organisation Life for Kids, work with around 460 children across 4 orphanages. Their team visit the children every week, providing practical life-skills such as cooking and communication, alongside fun activities such as drama and art.
This support extends beyond the children’s time in the orphanage. Life for Kids also provide practical assistance when they leave as young adults, helping them set up their new homes and look for employment, whilst also supporting the needs of those with their own children.
Between 2020-2021, through the support of our donors, we were able to purchase four Polytunnels and equip these with tools and seeds.
Each orphanage was able to successfully grow peppers, onions, tomatoes and salad leaves this summer, not only providing the children with fresh vegetables but also giving them a valuable experience in growing their own.
And we’re very thankful, together with Teams4U, we were able to buy these greenhouses to help the kids grow their own vegetables, and to learn how to do it, and to get the experience. And the kids were able to harvest the vegetables, and they were very happy.
Katya Nachyna
In Uganda:
Ben Omoding, and his team, work in the Kumi District, in the Teso Region of Eastern Uganda. The team work closely with Local Government, helping children and communities have access to improved education and healthcare.
We support many ongoing projects in the region tackling water provision, sanitation, reproductive health education, and ending period poverty.
Between 2020-2021, we were able to tackle one of our most ambitious projects to date, funded with support from the Wales and Africa Grant Scheme, to refurbish the water supply, toilets and showers in Atutur General Hospital.
Corroded pipes and unconnected plumbing, meant this Hospital had not had access to running water for years. Through a £40K investment, each in-patient ward received a toilet block with 4 flushing toilets and 4 showers; 2 staff toilets; 1 accessibility toilet and wet room, and both private rooms in the wards received an en-suite bathroom.
We have been able to plumb water into Atutur Hospital, the only hospital in Kumi. All the five wards [now] have running water and flushing toilets, reservoir tanks. We’ve worked on the Lab and the Theatre. This has reduced on infection because the place was very filthy, very dirty, so the toilets are now clean. At least when someone comes in, is able to wash properly and go back when your body is clean, rather than going back with infection, because it was very dirty, before working on this hospital.
Ben Omoding
In Sierra Leone:
Helga Sellu is passionate about creating opportunities for women and girls. As a single mother who grew up in poverty, and had to fight hard for an opportunity to be educated, she wants to work with young women, in similar situations, and give them hope.
Teams4U fund two vocational training schools, offering 70% practical skills-training, particularly focused on women who dropped out of formal education. Additionally, Helga works with local schools in the province of Koindu, running our Develop with Dignity project, tackling period poverty and helping girls protect themselves from unwanted attention.
Between 2020-2021, 22 young people graduated from the Teams4U Vocational Training Institute in Waterloo, Freetown; a Carpentry course was established in Kumba R Sellu Vocational Institute in Koindu; and Helga ran a Dignity residential camp with 250 schoolgirls educating on reproductive choice and menstrual health.
Donor funding, alongside a grant secured from Wales and Africa, funded the start-up of a social enterprise in Koindu, manufacturing organic soap. We were able to distribute soap to schools, medical facilities and rural villages, in response to the pandemic, alongside masks sewn in our vocational schools.
The power beyond these vocational colleges, we deal with girls that are drop-out of school and, you know, it’s not easy, like to change these ladies, but we tell them the reality of life, that we don’t have to wait for people, or the government, to receive. We teach them the way of life, we teach them how to build themselves. How to believe in themselves.
And now I can boast of ten to fifteen girls who are making things for themselves, making the cakes, making the beadwork, selling them, you know, bringing money into the home. They are helping their families, they are helping their children, they are helping people.”
Helga Sellu