August 20, 2008 - Bowen Islander helps establish child care centre in Uganda

Bowen Islander helps establish child care centre in Uganda

Bowen Island's Lynda Phillips admits she is having a hard time getting used to life back in Canada after spending five weeks in Uganda.

"Returning home was very hard. I have found it difficult to stop thinking about the people I met and the work that needs to be done," says Phillips.

An Early Childhood Education instructor at Douglas College, Phillips went to Masaka, Uganda to supervise practicum student Katie Kump. While there, she also explored the possibility of future partnerships for her department with Action For Children, a non-profit organization.

Phillips and Kump worked with Community Social Service student Tara Derby to help local teachers set up a child care centre at the Masaka Referral Hospital's Uganda CARES clinic. This clinic provides care for adults, infants and children living with HIV and AIDS.

"I was so very proud of Katie and all the work she did. It was amazing to see how she made sense of her experience and started to use what she had learned in the ECE Program in Uganda," says Phillips.

During the trip, Phillips says she got a hard and fast lesson in poverty and politics, namely how political structures can help build relationships within and outside of Uganda to create jobs and better opportunities for health and education.

The centre is now being operated by a local early childhood educator, who is also trained as a counselor to work with young children living with HIV/AIDS.

Phillips says it was particularly rewarding watching her student make sense of her experience in Uganda.

"It was interesting to see how easily Katie adjusted to life in Masaka. One of my favorite memories of her is seeing her arriving at the students' house on a boda-boda (a motorbike taxi) carrying a wok that she had bartered for in the market. She was so proud of herself!," recalls Phillips, who hopes that more ECE students will go to Uganda.

"Experiences like this really cement the students' learning and force them to really think about and utilize what they have learned in the classroom situation. It enables them to learnhow to use their new knowledge in diverse situations and critically appraise what they have learned."