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Initially the group left Dar es Salaam travelling by road for 2 days visiting Iialasimba school and Iramba school in Mbeya.

Both schools, like so many, have very few of the necessities that European schools would take for granted, no electricity, no windows in classrooms, very few books and the most basic of accommodation. Yet the children are eager to learn and provided an enormously warm welcome to the group. The charity provides peer educators to teach the children the dangers of HIV/AIDS and health education working alongside the teachers for 9 months of the year.

In many cases they become an integral part of school. Brian as US Chairman of SPW met with the head teachers and the local Chiefs, thanking them for their support of the programme and receiving requests that the charity continues its work indefinitely.

Another day’s travel to Ibbaba where the charity had organised one of its regular festivals. The festivals allow SPW volunteers to talk to adults as well as children and educate them about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. In this way the charity reaches many more people than just in the schools. The festival was attended by many hundreds.

Songs and plays were performed by the children focussing on the dangers of HIV. At the end of an emotional and uplifting day a candlelit vigil was held for those who had died of AIDS and songs sung to make the living aware of how to stay safe.

Several days later the group visited one of the charities youth centres at Iringa. Entertainment and sports are a good way to encourage young people away from the dangers of the streets. The charity has taken over a disused building big enough for their basketball court and a stage where the young people perform songs and plays. On the sexual health front there is literature and free condoms as well as private counselling for those who want to discuss personal problems. The charity rented a television for the World Cup and had 3,000 young people and adults attend. The price of admission was that they listen to songs about HIV/AIDS during half time!

Several more schools and centres were visited before leaving for Uganda.

The group attended an SPW and TASO organised festival in the Kumali district. TASO is a partner organisation encouraging people to be tested for HIV. As in Tanzania the festival brings the local community together performing songs and educating as many people as possible. Brian was asked to lead the candlelit vigil at the festival, which was both moving and uplifting, given the number of people who were beginning to understand the dangers of HIV.

Visits were also paid to two Community Resource Programmes (CRP) in the very rural areas near Jinja and to an SPW Health Education Programme (HEP) where the foundation met with the teachers as well as SPW volunteers who teach the HIV/AIDS classes.

A few days later the group headed closer to Kampala to meet with people who discussed, very movingly, the rejection from society because of the disease. In any society it is hugely courageous to admit the disease and especially in African communities. Their stories are being told widely to help others seek medication before it’s too late.

Towards the end of the visit the group met with another charity partner YEAH, an NGO using the media to spread awareness of HIV.

During the trip their were many obvious urgent requirements for assistance. The charity provides 900 volunteers per year and teaches around 400,000 children, but more can always be done. Brian met with village Chiefs at Iialasimba who urgently require a paved road to the village, electricity, running water and a generator and this will be reviewed as part of a package of measures.

One of Brian’s last thoughts on leaving Uganda was “It’s hard to forget the children, always gazing at you with big eyes and smiling or 13 year old girls with babies in villages. They are selfless people and standing up there looking at the sea of interested faces you can’t help but be moved. I am always staggered when I come here how generous a people who have so little can be. It makes you think if everyone in the world could be so generous the world would be a different place. Coming here only makes me more determined to do everything I can to help as many as I can.”