Budondo Intercultural Center (Bi Center)

Bi Center

The first two weeks of June 2009 I participated in an Intercultural seminar at Ed and University West. The seminar was so successful that I was inspired to have a general design for Budondo center, as a starting point to have vision on how to put into practice the shared experiences. Below is the summary

Introduction:
Budondo Intercultural Center (Bi Center) is located on Budondo village 18 km from Iganga town in eastern Uganda which is 28km from Jinja on the Nile. The village has a population of about 10,000 people with 1 primary school, no secondary school, no healthy center. There is no electricity and people collect water from wells. The people use paraffin candles for lighting and cut down trees to get firewood for cooking. Many children used to drop out of school at the age of 13-15 years due to parents being ignorant about the value of education.

Girls suffered a lot due to teen age pregnancies and early forced marriages. Families are large and the population still increasing, yet the people do not trust the family Planning methods in place because those who tried them have fallen in big healthy problems. People used to get their income out of coffee and maize harvests but coffee wilts have destroyed many coffee trees. Because of the endless cultivation of the same plots of land, maize yields have fallen. People resorted to growing sugar canes, which require large portions of land and as a result food out put has fallen. Though the government has introduced the Universal Primary Education in schools, many boys are laborers, harvesting sugar cane instead of attending school. There are more girls attending school than boys.

3 things inspired me to try to do something for my village, and they have always been at the back of my mine:
a) My mother divorced my father when I was 3 years old and the subsequent years under step mums didn’t make me enjoy my childhood. I want to wage campaign against women and child abuse to preserve the family unit.
b) Between 1989-1995 I was on a study scholarship in the former USSR. By the time I was so poor that I couldn’t leave any money with my wife and children, yet my wife was not working. When I came back in 1995, I found my wife and children healthy. My village had assumed the responsibilities of a community and looked after my family, providing necessities where possible.
c) On coming back from the former USSR I was saddened to find that my children had not gone to school for 6 years since my wife didn’t have money to pay for school fees.

Entry point:
In 2000 a guardians committee was put in place to select, guide and nurture 68 children and youths on the village. These were school dropouts, some of them were married, some girls had produced babies while still living with their parents. Others were orphans and those from extremely poor families. With them I formed a theatre group through which they were educated and sensitized, along side the community, about HIV/AIDS, value of education, adolescent reproductive health, formation and management of small scale economic projects, leadership and democracy among others. They learnt acting skills, play making and production techniques and we used themes from the village. Our rehearsals and performances took place under trees, market places and school play grounds, where everyone was free to watch and appreciate.

Confidence building:
The 68 children and youths in the theatre group were born and grew up on the rural village. The majority had never been to town, never seen a TV or computer and lacked confidence in themselves. I planned various ways through which to build their confidence: the open-air rehearsals and performances in communities, performances in different theatre festivals in Uganda and also Kenya, Tanzania and Sweden.

I also lobbied for different professionals to visit the group. These came from Makerere University and theatre organizations in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania as well as from New Zealand, the UK, Sweden and the USA. They held seminars and workshops with the group and interacted with the community.

Formation of the intercultural study group:
Out of various experiences, the intercultural learning and entrepreneurship study group was formed. Meetings and workshops are held to discuss course study material, food security, climate change, alternative energy for lighting and cooking, government and NGO programs among others. We have started a community library and computer lab.

Projects started:
Dramatool, Charllotsville-Budondo village project, Viskjors-Budondo project, e-twinning project, Children and youth Theatre Studio.

Programs planned:
Social Center; (to house theatre, cinema and TV halls for shows, discussions and interaction, computer lab, library, secretarial services, clinic, restaurant)

Vocational school; (to teach project planning and management, agribusiness, intercultural learning and entrepreneurship, sustainable energy technology from renewablesources)

Guest House

Volunteers; (in various field)

International Experience

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