UGANDA

[Guest]

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[Amy-in-PHX]

"Bizarre Foods, Uganda" - foods included are roasted goat (not bizarre, IMO), roasted grasshopper, and grilled squirrel.

[Amy-in-PHX]

Here's a blog post by Drew Kinder, KF3 (2008), "Post-Conflict Education in Uganda" - http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2008/02/20/post-conflict-education-in-uganda/

[Amy-in-PHX]

War/Dance is a 2007 American documentary film written and directed by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine. It was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

SYNOPSYS:

The film centers on three Ugandan children - Rose, a 13-year-old choir singer; Nancy, a 14-year-old dancer; and Dominic, a 14-year-old xylophone player. They are members of the Acholi ethnic group, living in the remote northern Uganda refugee camp of Patongo, which is under military protection from the Lord's Resistance Army, a terrorist group that has been rebelling against the government for the past two decades. In 2005, the camp's primary school won its regional music competition and headed to Kampala to participate in the annual National Music Competition. War/Dance focuses on three of the eight categories: Western choral performance, instrumental music, and traditional dance, where the students perform the Bwola, the dance of the Acholi. Over the course of three months, the film's creative team observes the three youngsters as they prepare for the event and gain their confidence enough to have them discuss the horrors they have experienced and express their individual fears, hopes, and dreams.

More, including summaries of critical reception, awards, and non-profit work of the film's production company, in the wikipedia article:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War/Dance

[FoxyOxy]

Brac Uganda are one of my very favorite MFIs (I love helping the teenage girls they lend money to).

I was just watching a UNICEF video about encouraging street children in the cities in Uganda back home to their communities.  They were mentioning the importance of creating opportunities in these communities.  In the video they mentioned Brac Uganda and how, together with UNICEF, they had installed the first ever solar-powered computer kiosk where young girls can learn to use computers, access educational and lifeskills material and use the Internet to help with their school work.   Superb stuff!  I love Brac Uganda 

http://youtu.be/46SJ5y3aZ2U

[FoxyOxy]

In fact, so enamoured am I of the young Ugandan borrowers BRAC presents to us each month, and also the little group of teenagers I recently helped support through Fundación Paraguaya, I have set up a new Kiva lending team:
http://www.kiva.org/team/supporting_younger_borrowers

At the very least, this will give me somewhere sensible to credit my Ugandan loans to each month.  Of course, it's always a bit lonely in a team of one... 

[Amy-in-PHX]

Brac Uganda are one of my very favorite MFIs (I love helping the teenage girls they lend money to).

I was just watching a UNICEF video about encouraging street children in the cities in Uganda back home to their communities.  They were mentioning the importance of creating opportunities in these communities.  In the video they mentioned Brac Uganda and how, together with UNICEF, they had installed the first ever solar-powered computer kiosk where young girls can learn to use computers, access educational and lifeskills material and use the Internet to help with their school work.   Superb stuff!  I love Brac Uganda 

http://youtu.be/46SJ5y3aZ2U

Very cool video.  I, too, was enjoying making loans to teen women in Uganda through BRAC Uganda.  But, having been inspired to check out this MFI's currently fundraising loans by this post today, I was greatly disappointed to see that BRAC Uganda has apparently made a decision recently, to begin posting every one of their loans "Location Undisclosed." 

Since you have to open up each loan page to see this info, I did not go back farther than the most recent 10 loans they have posted on Kiva - but every single one of them was "Location Undisclosed."  They were not doing this prior to Kiva's recent "improvements to borrower privacy."  Frankly, I think Kiva is wrong to assume that rollout had no effect on the MFIs' behavior with regard to "Location Undisclosed" postings.  In any event, BRAC Uganda is off my list of MFIs to whose clients I will lend, now.      I don't know whether something has happened in Ugandan politics, to make it more dangerous for people to do business with people in developed countries, or whether the MFI just thought Kiva wanted them to make this change and no events "on the ground" are behind it.  Makes no difference to my lending behavior.  If I can't use my few, and poor, risk management tools, because of an MFI decision to keep borrower location secret, I won't lend.

[FoxyOxy]

Very cool video.  I, too, was enjoying making loans to teen women in Uganda through BRAC Uganda.  But, having been inspired to check out this MFI's currently fundraising loans by this post today, I was greatly disappointed to see that BRAC Uganda has apparently made a decision recently, to begin posting every one of their loans "Location Undisclosed." 

Hmmmm... That's annoying.  I made 8 loans to BRAC Uganda teenagers last month and they ALL displayed location information.  I agree that it looks very much like the 'improvements to borrower privacy' rollout DID have an effect on some of the MFIs.  It just seems too unlikely that they all suddenly decided to start posting their loans as  'location undisclosed'.  I think Kiva got this one all wrong sadly.  It seems like their intentions were good but they perhaps didn't think through the potential consequences too well before they went ahead and introduced these changes