Ben Daniels was the first Haileybury student to come to Uganda to volunteer with HYT. Here he recounts his return, now in an official capacity as a trustee, and highlights where HYT is now compared to 4 years ago.
Arriving in January 2007 the Haileybury Youth Trust was tentatively dipping its metaphorically timid, new and ambitious toe in the water of a new sustainable, environmentally conscientious construction technology. With projects mainly based at Lords Meade Vocational College, we were a small charity, with big ideas. We finished a double classroom block and 2 water tanks, and began to do small bits and pieces in and around the Jinja area.
As the 6 months progressed it became clear that the potential of ISSB (Interlocking Stabilised Soil Blocks) far outstretched what we could do with our minimal resources. Although by saying this I do not mean that what we were capable of doing, and indeed were doing was not impressive, extremely worthwhile and needed. It was the fact that our resources were being pushed to the max, and we thought our potential was not being realised – we needed to adapt and our experience of the first 2 years meant that we were perfectly capable of doing so.
Over the next two years, therefore, we began to change. Keeping our ethos of giving Ugandans a hand up not a hand out, creating a sense of worth and ownership in what we do, we decided to concentrate our work in one place, almost like we started at Lords Meade, but on a more detailed and wholesome account.
Helen Goddard joined the ranks of HYT as Country Manager in 2008, and began the process, in consultation with the re-imaged board of Trustees and under the direction of the Director Russell Matcham back in the UK, to reform HYT. In a few months One Village at a Time was our new focus and a new plan of action was formed. Thus began the fundraising, which continues with vigour today.
So how is One Village at a Time different?
By working with the chosen village, HYT are able to build and support the local community in a way that is inclusive and worthwhile. We help in a way that enables the beneficiaries to continue to support themselves and others for the future. Be it by reducing school running costs (by building efficient kitchens, for example) thereby reducing running costs and enabling a better education and attendance rate, or by reducing the amount of time the youth spend collecting water thereby enabling them to spend longer at school and improve their future potential.
We aim to create a sustainable difference, one that will survive and is applicable to the place we are in. For example, in 3Rs Secondary School in Kasokaso, we provided a counselling room. By creating a secure space, away from the masses, students and teachers are able to help support their peers and protégés through support, encouragement and confidential advice. The support is thriving: they have a very willing and extensive peer support network that has spread to a much wider level through a national peer support scheme. They have also reduced the amount they spend on firewood by over half after we introduced environmental stoves, which have had multiple benefits. 1) They have reduced their cooking costs, 2) Many more children can eat at school, therefore attendance has increased, 3) The environmental savings are huge, 4) The cooks are now much happier and healthier due to the reduction in smoke inhalation and cooking time.
There are hurdles, however, and we would be uneasy if there weren’t any! Translating our western concept of community and village inclusivity onto a Ugandan environment is a very abstract concept. We might sometimes assume that creating a public building or water tank would be hugely beneficial, but sometimes could be more divisive that inclusive. The rural nature of the places we work means that there is generally no central area of the village – the most central you might get is a market place, but these are very transient. They generally occupy the spaces outside people’s small shops or the side of the nearest main road. Unless it is in a larger village there is no ‘marketplace’. Building a water tank or store, for example, where the market may lie is much more beneficial if there were a set trading area. So we must adapt. In the future we are looking at creating a dedicated trading area that can aid everyone.
By introducing public benches, for example, made out of ISSB and leaving 2 sides un-plastered, the local community come to see the materials more and more. By educating the schools that we have stayed at, their students and most importantly training the local young builders to build with ISSB, we are able to begin to create an atmosphere that is very accepting to ISSB. When people begin to learn the benefits of ISSB – cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and more aesthetically pleasing (among others), interest spreads.
In a way that some people find strange, we don’t just build things for free. By just going to a village or school and providing a hand out charity creates dependence, and dependence is the most reductive and limiting thing we could create. If there is no ownership then the future will hold problems. Rather than a hand out, we aim to give a hand up. Whether it is a bag of cement, accommodation, food for workers, the taps for a tank, the school and village are encouraged to involve themselves. This ownership lays a foundation for the future – if a water tank needs cleaning, a tap replacing, a step replacing or a gutter fixing, the community comes together – it’s theirs, and benefits everyone long into the future.
In the same vain, educating the local students through setting up an ISSB club, and using local labour is key to what we do. In Kasokaso the trainees (who are all under 24), as you can read on our blog, are now beginning private work on the back of their training with HYT. They are believers in ISSB, and hopefully their work will now go from strength to strength. They will be able to earn a healthy living, provide for their children to get a good education and at the same time preserve Uganda’s beautiful and rich landscape.
The change is slow, but there is change. Every week people come to the HYT office to ask about HYT, ISSB and how they can be involved. It is true though, that being small still is sometimes a frustration, but from what I could see from my short return is that this is actually one of the strengths of HYT. We have a very personal and attentive approach – and staying in the villages for 6 months plus is a key part of this. With the excellent work of our full time staff– Sam, Philip and Fred our size is no hindrance to the work we take on. Of course, if we could do more that would be fantastic, but this is not a downside to HYT. What we do is considered, careful, worthwhile, sustainable and beneficial. Every brick means that another child can attend school, eat a hot meal for lunch or drink clean water. By including the community in any way we can, Ugandans can help themselves to help their environment, their youth and their future. HYT is a sustainable and changing charity, and is helping Uganda and Ugandans prepare for the years ahead in the best way possible.